Satan’s Strategy for Your Life #35: Unforgiving

“Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”—2 Corinthians 2:10-11

We all stand in need of forgiveness. Every single person who claims Adam and Eve as parents needs God’s forgiveness. God’s forgiveness is for everyone who receives by faith through Christ’s shed blood on the cross. And once a person is forgiven, they are set in God’s covenant community, the church. The church exists on two plains: universal and local. The universal church is made up of God’s covenant community throughout the world, while the local church is made up of a body of local believers who gather together for mutual edification, instruction, and discipline. And when one member of that body sins and is unrepentant, it is the local church’s responsibility to apply discipline to the offending member in order that God’s name might not be blasphemed and that the member might be restored to a right relationship with God. Sin damages our fellowship with Christ while our relationship remains permanent.

Church discipline is the process applied by a local church in order to bring about the repentance of the offending brother or sister. The steps are outlined in Matthew 18:15-20 and involve three steps: 1). Confront the sinning brother or sister. If they listen, then they have been restored to fellowship with God and men, but if they do not, then the process continues on to step two. 2). Take one or two other brother or sisters along so that the confrontation might be firmly established and the individual might see the reality of their sin. If they respond, then they have been restored to fellowship with God and men, but if they do not, then the process continues on to step three. 3). Bring the issue before the church. If the sinning brother or sister refuses to listen to the first individual, and the second and third individuals, then the church, as the body of Christ, is to act as a unified whole on behalf of Christ in such a manner that the sinning brother or sister sees the reality of their sin and is brought to repentance for God’s glory and their joy. To reject the discipline of the church body requires the person to be removed from the fellowship of the body of believers in order that they might sense in a greater and more tangible fashion the spiritual separation that is being enacted physically. The whole point of the process is for God’s glorification and for the restoration of the individual that they might walk in obedience to Christ’s commands in joyful freedom and peace.

Paul had written to the church at Corinth in a previous letter (1 Corinthians) about their need to apply church discipline to someone in habitual and unrepentant sin. We are not told as to the exact nature of the sin. It could have been sexual immorality, or one who called Paul’s qualifications as an apostle into question. Whatever the case may be, however, in our passage for today it appears that the process had been applied and had achieved the cherished result. Nevertheless, the forgiveness that was to be extended to the now repentant individual had not yet been extended, thus opening up the window for Satan to work, which is why Paul wrote,  

“Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”

Satan desires to keep us in a state of unforgiveness in order that the unity for which Christ prayed may not be actualized (John 17:20-23). He wants us to hold on to bitterness, and grudges so that we may not be restored to the true fellowship and unity that he despises so much. We must remember that forgiveness is the bridge upon which we all must travel and to deny one to cross the bridge is to deny ourselves the same passage. As Jesus taught us in what is commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer,” 

“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”—Matthew 6:11-12. 

He goes on to explain what He meant by asking forgiveness and then forgiving others,  

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses”—Matthew 6:14-15.

Refusing to forgive those who are seeking it may overwhelm them with sorrow causing them to turn away from the fellowship of God and His church. Satan wants to destroy the mutual forgiveness that is ours in Christ because he knows the glory it brings to God. May we continually refuse to let the weeds of Satanic bitterness take root in our lives by continually offering Christ’s forgiveness. We forgive because we have been forgiven. Amen.