I want to look at 2 Corinthians 2 because there we learn how this particular situation concluded. By the time Paul writes 2 Corinthians, a period of time has gone by. The purpose for which Paul had the church deliver this offender to Satan has been accomplished. The man has realized the loss and pain of being separated from the body of Christ. He has demonstrated sorrow and has repented of his sin. Now, when we come to 2 Corinthians, Paul tells the church that he wants them to forgive him and restore him to their fellowship once again. As we read that second passage, we recognize the joy and compassion of the apostle Paul in this situation for the man, just as much as we recognize Paul’s anguish in the first passage that reveals the sin and the church’s failure to maintain its purity. This, of course, is the goal of church discipline. The chief object in discipline is the restoration of the offender. That is the direction in which all such discipline should lead. And I think it generally does work when it is properly practiced.
Sometimes when ministers are together we talk about problems of this nature because it is something that all ministers face. One of my friends on the West Coast tells of a story in which a man who had been a leader in the church fell into immorality and, when he was confronted with it, refused to repent. He said to leaders, “Well, it’s none of your business. What I do is my business. At any rate, it’s between me and the Lord. You shouldn’t have anything to do with it.” Soon after that, he went from one sin to another, and from one horrible situation to the next. He made a mess of his life. He became an alcoholic. He got on drugs. Naturally, the family was destroyed. The relationship for which he left his wife broke up.
Fifteen years or so went by, and this man appeared at his old church. This time he was a changed man. He told the leaders what had happened. He explained how, as he had sunk further and further into sin and, therefore, farther and farther from the Lord, he had come to the utter end of himself. By the grace of God, he turned from that and repented of his sin. He was on his way back and he had returned to the church for restoration. The church worked with him. They wanted to be sure that the change was sincere. So they gave him counseling, and they worked to help him to get a new job and get established on his feet again. The man was most cooperative in all of this.
The time came when he was to be received back into the membership of the church again. The elders said to him, “Well, there’s one more thing you have to do. The session is meeting at 6:00 on this particular evening. You have to appear before the session once more.” He asked, “Do I really have to do it once more? I thought I’ve done everything I have to do.” “No,” they said, “you have to do it once more.” He answered, “Alright, I’ll be there.”
Well, the evening came, and the session was meeting at the home of the pastor. The man arrived and did not know what to expect. When he came to the house and knocked on the door, they greeted him. They took him out into the back yard, and what he discovered is that they were having a party. It was a barbecue. They had a coat for him, and they put it on him. And they had a gold ring for his finger. And by now you might be guessing what they had for the barbecue—it was a fatted calf. They were reenacting the story of the prodigal who had returned home. Oh, there is joy in heaven over a sinner who returns. And that should be our desire, too.
