THE UNSCRIPTURAL; UNGODLY ATTITUDE OF PUNISHMENT

There is a unscriptural practice in todays church that is widely held as being correct. I am talking about the inflicting of punishment upon a Christian that has failed God. [ which one of us hasn't failed the Lord at one time or another?]   The inflicting of punishment is wrong and must be stopped.   Listen up, once a person has repented of wrong doing and sin,the consequences of their actions must be left in the hands of God.

” Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him.” 2 Corinthians 2:6-8

Sometimes people enjoy inflicting punishment but it has never been a part of God’s restoration process. Restoration involves the need for repentance on the part of the offender. It also helps a person to discover the reason for their failure.  If we don’t use this understanding, the person is doomed to fail again, irrespective of the consequences they have suffered.  Restoration must also help to bring the person back to their original purpose in God.

Punishment will never produce a change of heart. The Bible says that it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. You can try to hurt and degrade someone for the rest of their lives, but that is wrong and will not help.  

The word punishment in 2 Corinthians 2:6 indicates that the person had suffered a penalty. The purpose of the penalty had been redemptive in nature. Remember this, God always deals with us in a redemptive manner and we had better do the same with each other.  The penalty also helped bring the person to repentance.  Many Bible scholars feel that the man being discussed in this passage is the same man in that is in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5.  This person was a leader in the Church at Corinth. He had taken his father’s wife [ his step-mother] as his own. The Church was glorying in this, saying that the Grace of God covered this abomination. The Apostle Paul told them they were wrong to glory in this sin. They were told to inflict punishment by refusing to fellowship with this man as long as he was continuing to live in a state of unrepentant sin.

However, the moment this man repented and forsook his wrongdoing, which he had done by the time of 2 Corinthians 2:6, then the church was instructed to do the following: 1- They were to approach this person with the understanding that God had forgiven him. 2- They were told to comfort him. And 3- they were to confirm their love for him…

Nowhere did Paul say that this leader must be relegated to a lesser position, that would keep him away from his ministry for a certain period of time. This man was not to be treated like a second class Christian, as if there even were such a thing. Nowhere was the church told to inflict further punishment upon this person. 

Those who practice the continuing inflicting of punishment are telling God that Jesus did not pay a high enough price for the sin that was committed.  The punishment that was handed down had served its redemptive purpose. It had caused the brother who had sinned to see that what he was doing was wrong. The moment that he repented of and turned from his sin, God forgave him, comforted him, and confirmed His love towards him. God also demanded that the church treat this person in the same manner.  How dare we not do what God has said for us to do?

Len Paxton