WWUTT 1686 I Do Not Speak to Condemn You (2 Corinthians 7:1-7)

Just because somebody had to correct you in your sin, does not mean that you've been condemned. Nor does it even mean that person's been judgmental. They care about you, that you would walk in righteousness when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .utt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Reading 2 Corinthians 7 and the Call to Holiness

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 2 Corinthians. This week we're up to chapter 7. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, I'm going to start reading here in verse 1. And we'll go through verse 12 for today's reading.

This is the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Make room for us in your hearts. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one. I do not speak to condemn you. For I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together.

Great is my boldness toward you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. I have been filled with comfort. I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. For even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest.

But we were afflicted on every side. Conflicts without, fears within. But God, who comforts the humbled, comforted us by the coming of Titus. And not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you.

As he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more. For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that the letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while.

I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful for repentance. For you were made to have godly sorrow, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For godly sorrow produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation.

But the sorrow of the world brings about death. For behold, what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow has brought about in you. What vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong.

In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent of the matter. So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender, nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness on our behalf might be manifested to you in the sight of God.

So I'm looking to hopefully get through this entire chapter this week, God willing, we'll see how that goes. Let's focus on about the first seven verses today. So we start here at the beginning of chapter seven with therefore.

So this is picking up with the previous thought, and you can see how verse one goes right with how we finished chapter six. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

So consider the Old Testament references that Paul made right at the close of chapter six. I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean.

And I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord almighty. So these things were Old Testament statements made to the nation of Israel. But Paul is showing how they're fulfilled, even in the church.

Everyone who is in Christ Jesus is a son or a daughter of God. And you are to touch nothing unclean. In other words, be called out from the world. Do not dwell in the ways of the world anymore. Do not pursue the passions of your flesh or those sinful desires.

Instead, be separate, be a called out people, just as the Israelites were. So the church must be. We are not of the world. We are in the world, but not of the world. So we cannot be after those things of the world.

So in light of this, in light of God calling us to himself, adopting us as sons and as daughters. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit.

Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And that's really what sanctification is. Sanctification is growing in holiness. It is perfecting holiness. And as we continue in this Christian walk until the day we die or the Lord returns, whichever comes first.

We are to pursue holiness. As Peter said in 1 Peter 1, repeating the words that God had spoken to Israel. Be holy for God is holy. To be holy means to be set apart. But there's also a calling for purity there.

And you can see that in what Paul says at the start of chapter 7. Having these promises. We have these promises in Christ. So, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit.

All defilement. Anything that would defile our flesh. Sinful things we would do in the body. Anything that would defile our spirit. Things that we would even think with our minds and with our hearts. We're perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

We know that he is the great judge. We know that Christ has given us so great a sacrifice. That we would be reconciled to God. And so it is in the fear of God and in this relationship that we have with Christ.

That we put off those things that are worldly. Those defilements of the flesh. The things that we had pursued in this world. Our sinful passions and desires. We put those things off. We desire the things of God.

So no longer walk in sin. But walk in the spirit. No longer walk in the flesh but walk in the spirit. As Paul says in Galatians chapter 5. The things of the flesh are contrary to the spirit. The things of the spirit are contrary to the flesh.

So you're pursuing one or the other. Let us be after those things that delight God. According to his word. And so, that's kind of a verse that comes off of what we had read in chapter 6. But it also leads into these things that Paul talks about in chapter 7.

With regards to a certain conviction. That the Corinthians had experienced. Convicted of wrong. And therefore, turning from that sin and desiring to do what is right. It was a conviction. It was a sorrow that they had.

That led to repentance. Therefore, Paul knows it was not a fleshly sorrow. It was a spiritual grief that they had. This was not something that was, you know, they just felt bad about being caught. But they truly desired to walk in holiness.

To flee from the wrong that they had done. And pursue those things that were godly. And so, it was a godly sorrow that led to repentance. And we'll get to that part tomorrow. That's kind of verses 8 on.

But let's look at verses 2 through 7 here. Make room for us in your hearts, Paul says. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one. And so, Paul is talking about, though he had to write a harsh letter.

Remember, that was the previous letter. That he wrote to the Corinthians. The one that's in between 1st and 2nd Corinthians. He wrote a harsh letter that had filled them with sorrow. It grieved them. For Paul to have to rebuke them in some of the things that they were doing.

But Paul says that our intentions in doing that were good. They were for your good. It was not to make something better of ourselves. Certainly not to lord ourselves over you. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one.

We took advantage of no one. And sometimes, whenever we set out on apologies. There's like this mutual apology thing that happens. You know what I'm talking about? Like you express to somebody that you were hurt.

You were wronged by them. And they say to you, hey, I'm sorry. I apologize for doing that thing that wronged you. If, indeed, you're able to solicit an apology and a request for forgiveness. From that particular person.

But anyway, let's say they do. Okay, they're convicted. They say, yeah, I did you wrong. I'm sorry that I did that. Will you please forgive me? Sometimes, the response to that becomes, you know what, I'm sorry too.

I'm sorry that I did this wrong to you. Now, if you both wronged one another, then mutual apologies are a good idea. But if you try to soften that person's conviction by apologizing yourself. When you didn't do the wrong, the other person did.

But you apologize for it anyway. Almost like you're trying to share a mutualness here. I want this person to see that I'm humble too, so I'm also going to apologize. But then you take from them the genuineness of their apology.

They've genuinely done something wrong. And been convicted about it. And now, genuinely apologizing and asking for forgiveness. So, if your response to that is, well, I need to show mutual submission here.

So, I'm just going to say, well, I'm sorry too. I could have done better in this situation, this, that, or the other. Again, if you both need to apologize for something, then yeah, apologize. But don't take away from that person that they're genuinely sorry about this.

Are you not receiving their apology? Are you trying to soften the conviction that they feel if you express, oh, yeah, well, I'm sorry too. It takes something away from the apology. Don't apologize for something where you're not wrong.

And so, Paul has written this letter to the Corinthians and they're convicted over it. But notice that he says, we didn't wrong anybody. So, even though they're convicted, they experience sorrow over the letter that Paul wrote.

He doesn't respond with going, hey, maybe I was a little harsh. I'm sorry. So, now he's backing off. See, don't do that either. You've said something to somebody that they're now convicted about and you're going to try to pull it back a little bit so that they don't really feel conviction.

Now, with my children, when I've disciplined my kids, there's sometimes I've been a little harsh in my discipline. So, I've apologized for that, but I've made sure they understand that you're still wrong.

What you did was wrong and you still need to face the consequences for that. But the way Daddy reacted to that situation wasn't good. I didn't need to yell, you know, or however I overblew the situation.

So, the punishment needs to fit the crime. But if I go too far with it, then it's going to fill my kids with excessive sorrow. They're going to think they did worse than they really did. And so, in those situations, well, I'm going to apologize.

But here in this particular case, as Paul has said something to the Corinthians and they've been convicted over it, he's not going to soften the blow. He's not going to back off by saying, hey, you know, maybe I came across a little harsh.

They experienced the conviction they needed to experience. And Paul highlights that it was a genuine conviction that they experienced, genuine sorrow, which led to repentance. Now, as he also says here, we wronged no one.

We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one. And remember, again, that this is in contrast to the false teachers. Because the false teachers have wronged the Corinthians. They have corrupted the Corinthians.

They have taken advantage of this church. Paul wants the Corinthians to see our intentions here are genuine and pure and are in Christ. They are not to harm you, but for your good. That you may, as it says in verse one, cleanse yourself from all defilement of the flesh and perfect holiness in the fear of God.

That's what we want you to do. Is that what these false teachers are after in you? Are they trying to get your money, your attention? They're trying to make themselves bigger or more famous using you to do that.

And they're teaching falsely to you in the meantime. So these false teachers have been corrupting. They've taken advantage. They've wronged the Corinthians. Paul says in verse three, I do not speak to condemn you.

For I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. I did not speak to condemn you. Now, whenever we have to correct somebody for wrong, is that condemnation? No, of course not.

No, actually, the more appropriate word for that. If you're correcting someone's wrong and you have good intentions with that, that they would turn from the wrong and do right. What's the word for that?

What do we call that? The biblical word for it is to admonish. To admonish means to correct with goodwill. I correct all the time. And I'm not saying that as like I'm everybody's police officer. I go around and make sure everybody's doing the right thing.

It's not it. Whether it is advice, counsel that I'm giving to somebody personally, one-on-one, or it's stuff that I'm doing online. Somebody sends me an email, and somebody in that email tries to tell me that I'm saying something wrong.

And I respond to them, and I say, no, you're wrong in this matter, and you need to repent. You need to correct your direction or your behavior. There are people that will contact me on social media, try to tell me that I'm wrong.

I look at what it is they're posting on their social media and say, what you're doing is sin. I'm not wrong in what I've said, but you are continuing to do things that are worldly and in the passions of your flesh.

And I'm telling you to repent and turn back to Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. About 99 of the time, somebody will say to me that I'm being judgy, or I'm being judgmental, or they will say that I'm being condemning.

That's not condemning. When you tell a person that they're sinning, and they need to repent and do the right thing according to what God says is right, that's not condemnation. There's love that is done in that.

If we desire for a person to pursue holiness instead of continuing in sin, that might lead to judgment. This is admonishing. It is correcting with goodwill. Just because you tell somebody that they're in their sin and they need to repent doesn't mean you've been judgmental or that you've been condemning.

This is admonishing one another. And so this is exactly what Paul is laying out here. I did not condemn you. What he said in his letter was to admonish. He goes on to say, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together.

We have affection for you. I affectionately call you to correction if I tell you there's a sin that you need to course correct. So verse 4, he says, great is my boldness toward you. Great is my boasting on your behalf.

I have been filled with comfort. I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. Remember that back at the start of the letter, Paul talked about the afflictions that they were going through as they were out there preaching the gospel.

And yet Paul says, don't be in despair over these afflictions that we have been facing. He's filled with joy in the midst of those afflictions, even in the affliction that he experiences in his heart about the Corinthians being convicted over the thing that Paul had to confront them about.

There is there's a certain affliction in Paul's heart because he knows that they're sorrowful over their sin. He had talked about that earlier before. Where was that? Chapter four. So the so yeah, he's he experiences a sorrow in his heart because the Corinthians are experiencing a sorrow.

But it's in this affliction that he experiences joy because he knows that the Corinthian sorrow is not of the flesh, but it is of God. It is a godly, a godly conviction, a godly sorrow that leads to repentance.

So I am filled with comfort about you, Paul says, where he says, great is my boldness toward you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. In other words, he is going to say to other churches, the Corinthians did this wrong.

They were confronted about it. They were filled with sorrow and they repented. And so he's going to say to those other churches, so you must do the same. Follow the Corinthians example. That is a way that Paul would be boasting about the Corinthians and the way that he would have boldness toward them as well, because he knows their hearts are genuine.

They're genuine for the gospel. You know, we need to be very careful about the way that we respond to somebody who falls into sin. We'll see somebody out there that's doing something sinful. What's your response to that going to be?

Is it going to be? Oh, well, that person's a pagan because that's what you look at the way they're behaving. That's the way pagans behave. So, yeah, well, we can write them off. They're not really believers.

Is that the right response to have when you see somebody who's a confessing brother or sister in the Lord? They profess to be a Christian. You see them in sin. Do we just write them off as pagans? Is that what Paul did with the Corinthians?

Because when we go back to first Corinthians, you know, all the different sins that the Corinthians were guilty of sexual immorality going on in the church, letting sexual immorality go on and not confronting it.

Not practicing church discipline. You got factions that were going on misuse of the Lord's table. There were even some that were denying that Jesus had risen from the dead. Yet did Paul look at that church and say, that's a pagan church, shut their doors, close this thing down.

They've already failed at the gospel. We need to be passing it on to somebody. I'll let somebody else have the building because these guys are done. Is that the way Paul reacted to that? No, he wrote them a letter and told them where they were wrong, that they would be convicted over these things and repent and turn to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

And they did. So you can see the genuineness of the spirit that is working through that church. And by the way, that transformation that happened in that church, it wasn't overnight. You know, there's time that happens between these letters.

So it's not like, well, I've said something to you and you didn't repent. And so the only thing that I can conclude here is that you're lost. All right. And all of that transpires in a matter of a few minutes.

That can't be the attitude that we have toward other people. We cannot be condemning. We must be patient. We must let the Holy Spirit do the work in the hearts of these people who hopefully will be convicted over their sin and turn from their sinful ways and repent and turn to the Lord Christ.

And so Paul is overflowing with joy for the Corinthians because he sees that after being confronted with their sin, they were genuinely convicted and they repented. Verse five. For even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side.

Comforts without fear. Sorry. Comforts without. Conflicts without fears within. But God, who comforts the humbled, comforted us by the coming of Titus and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you as he reported to us, your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me so that I rejoice even more.

So Paul was really vexed in his spirit because of this harsh letter that he had to write to the Corinthians and he was concerned. Maybe it would lead them to fall away. Maybe it would lead them to go after the false teachers because they're a lot more gentle with us than Paul is.

Paul is kind of harsh. We like these false teachers better. So maybe Paul's rebuke of the Corinthians would drive them into the arms of the false teachers even more. Of course, that would expose that the Corinthians were not genuinely true believers, that they were actually after things of the flesh and not after the things of the spirit.

Right. That's that's what that would demonstrate in them. But that isn't what happened with the Corinthians. Paul's rebuke of them led to a godly sorrow that led to repentance. And so when Titus comes back to Paul and gives the report about what's going on with the Corinthians, then he's comforted and he rejoices over hearing that the Corinthians are genuine in their faith.

These aren't pagans. These are children of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, convicting their hearts that they would turn from the world to Christ. Now, unfortunately, there still are some people in that church there in Corinth who are listening to false teachers.

And so Paul is going to have to make a pretty impassioned appeal for them, which is coming up a little bit later on. As we get to the end of chapter seven, that will actually be the end of the first section of Second Corinthians.

I don't know if you remember back to our outline, but it's divided into three parts. You have chapters one through seven. Then we're going to have chapters eight and nine. And then we have Paul's defense of his ministry that's going to go from chapters ten to twelve.

And it's in that section where he's really going to go after the false teachers. And hoping that those who are still following after these super apostles would repent from the false teaching that they're listening to and come back to the sound words of the Lord Christ as declared by his apostles.

As we finish up our lesson today, let us come to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you what it is that we've read here. And I pray that we, too, would be convicted in heart where we need to be convicted, turning from sin to the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

That is by faith and that we would walk by faith according to what Christ has said. What is pleasing in the eyes of God for the children of God to be doing while we are here in this earth. May we also have boldness and be stout-hearted to correct those who need correction.

And we know how to do this in a right and a biblical way. Doing this with gentleness. Doing so that we might see the person turn from sin to righteousness. And we don't quickly write off a person with our own judgments.

With our own fleshly tendencies to say, ah, well, that person's a pagan. But with humility we're patient with one another. For you have been patient with us. Grow us in holiness all the more. Let us be cleansed from all defilement of flesh and spirit.

Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And it's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

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