Of all of the differences we have
from everyone else, there is one thing we have in common. We are all sinners.
And if by the grace of God, we heard the gospel, and trusted Christ as Saviour;
we are now sinners, saved by grace. But we
are still sinners. The dear Lord hates
all sin; my sin, your sin. We have His
will for us in regard to sin written to us in I John 2: 1 “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous:”
I know I’ve sinned and made mistakes,
all of which I wish had never happened, or that I could take back or do over
again. We do not have any of his words
of repentance, or remorse, or any words at all; but there was a man dealt with
in I Corinthians 5 for a very serious sin.
He received church discipline by the word of God through the apostle
Paul. This man, it seems, is the man
spoken of in II Corinthians 2 who had obviously gotten right with God, and had
sought restitution with the church at Corinth.
Verses 5-8 “But if
any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not
overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a
man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to
forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up
with overmuch sorrow.
Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.”
His sin is declared plainly in I
Corinthians 5, as is the seriousness of it.
His sin though serious, and should have been dealt with, was not one of
the sins Proverbs 6 teaches us that God hates.
The Lord has Paul now write to the church
at Corinth in the behalf of this man to be forgiven by them and received back
into fellowship.
I would that we would each remember a
statement I’ve tried to make my way of thinking, when it comes to those who’ve
fallen, or stumbled, or gone into sin. And that is : “but by the grace of God,
there goeth I.”
The word of God teaches us in Micah7:
18 “He retaineth not his anger for ever,
because he delighteth in mercy. “ I
get convicted by this passage; that as the One Who hates sin the most, loves
mercy the most, does this not make me more responsible to love mercy, which is:
. That benevolence, mildness or tenderness of heart which disposes a
person to overlook injuries, or to treat an offender better than he deserves; should not I love and exercise mercy
also? The word of God teaches us that
the answer is yes.
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