By Robin Sam
MOST days I share a devotional video or a Scriptural thought to scores of persons through WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. Today, as usual I sent a short devotion to several of my friends. A few of them responded. Among them was a sister in Christ who lives in Mumbai. She is a Christian who is fiery, evangelical and talented. She thanked me for the devotion, inquired about the well-being of me and my family and threw a question at me. “…if we find believers knowingly involved in these sins and refusing to accept corrections, should we pray for them?”
I sensed some despair in her question. Perhaps, it was someone she had brought to Christ. Someone she had birthed in Christ, mentored and prayed for. In such cases, despair is only natural. I took some time to answer her. Here’s what I wrote back to her.
“Apostle Paul makes an interesting point in 1 Corinthians 5:4-5. He says: “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
“He says the church ought to deliver a particular man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. We can safely presume that this man was a believer in the church at Corinth and perhaps he was the one who was sexually immoral, living with his father’s wife.
“Why did Paul advise the church to take such a drastic step? Perhaps, all teachings and admonitions to him failed, the church had fasted and prayed for him, met him in secret to condemn his sin and taken two or three witnesses along with them in their meetings.
“When all avenues failed, perhaps 1 Corinthians 5:4-5 was the only way open before them. To make him an outcast in the church, to expel him was the last resort. But, does it mean the church stopped praying for him?
“No. Delivering someone to Satan so he suffers ill health but his soul is saved in the last day is also a sort of prayer. To wake him to his senses by a rude shaking up so to say.
“I’m also reminded of Proverbs 19:18. It says: ‘Discipline your son while there is hope, and do not desire his death.’ We know a man has hope as long as he is alive. So, pray for as long as he or she is alive.
“And, we have a every reason to believe the prayer of the Corinthian church was answered by the Lord. In 2 Corinthians 2:5-11, Apostle Paul brings up the topic of the man banished from the church and seeks their forgiveness for him.
“Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. 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.”
“The punishment by the majority that Paul talks about alludes to the man’s expulsion from the church. Paul was the one who asked the church to expel him. Time had passed, the man had repented of his sins, turned a new leaf and was now seeking the company of the church. Knowing this, Paul recommends that he be admitted back into the church. If the church does not forgive and comfort him and take him back, the devil will have his way “for we are not ignorant of his designs”.”
