Wednesday | 22 January 2025
The man in Corinth did find salvation, for the apostle directed the Corinthian church to receive him again into the fellowship of their agape meal. He said, ‘This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.’ 2Co 2:6‑8. This restoration is possible when a person has a testimony of deliverance to the pathway of regeneration and renewing, upon which they are obtaining repentance as they participate in the obedience that Christ accomplished for them.
Every Christian community must deal with the matters of corruption that undermine their sanctification, releasing one another to personally meet Christ and to find deliverance from their self‑definition, so that they can meet in sincerity and truth. Instead of embracing corruption and mixture in the name of love, or agape, they must dignify one another by commending each one to the process of refinement through which they can be delivered to salvation.
In this present season, our blindness is being confronted, and we are being forced to make a judgement as to which image we will choose. Do we endeavour to use our religion, and all of the resources of God, to establish our own image?
We do not know our own blindness and bankruptcy as Christians until we come to ‘the house of Caiaphas’, which is for us the Valley of Achor. In this place, the Lord first says to us, ‘You are not My people’, on account of the idolatry that belongs to living according to our self‑image. This self‑image is being destroyed in the fire of Christ’s offering and death. However, as we acknowledge that we are under the judgement of God, with Christ, He says to us, ‘You are sons of the living God!’ Hos 1:9‑10. This is ‘the door of hope’ that belongs to the judgements of God that are among us in this season.
Further Study:
2 CORINTHIANS 7
References:
2Co 2:6-8
This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.
Hos 1:9-10
Then God said: ‘Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not My people, and I will not be your God. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,” there it shall be said to them, “You are sons of the living God.” ’