2 Corinthians 1:12–2:17

0:00 So, raise your hand if you have ever had changes in your travel plans that have caused problems for you. That's pretty much everybody. Some of you in that pastoral prayer that I just prayed will have noted that when I started talking about and praying about those who are going over to Ras Al-Kaima, I, at this point, had to put that in the third person. I had to pray for them rather than for us. I'm supposed to be going to the UAE tomorrow afternoon, like getting on a plane tomorrow afternoon.

0:33 I'm supposed to do a whole bunch of speaking in Rosalcaima over the weekend starting on Thursday, and yet I do not have a passport right now. Many of you know the feeling that that causes in one's soul. I actually, we did, Mariah and I managed to get our passport applications for renewal and all the rest in on time, which for some of you will be a shock all in itself, but we did actually manage to do that. The problem, I am told, having been in touch with Senator McConnell's office to try to get some help for all of this, which is something any Kentucky citizen can do, they have an office for passport help. So having been in contact with his office, here's what happened. A few couple of months ago, the State Department rolled out a new online renewal application that they thought was going to streamline the entire passport renewal thing because otherwise you have to you know go to Walgreens and get your picture taken and they cut it just right and you stick it in the little folder and you mail it off and they make your passport and mail it right back to you which is a process that you know for like Mike and

1:36 Lindsay Carnicella took two weeks very easy by mail. Well Mariah and I decided to do the faster more efficient online system that state had just rolled out. The problem was that for one particular week, the week in which we happened to apply for our passport renewals, all of the applications that went into the system got shunted into a folder on state's computers to which literally no one knew the password. And so until just the last week or so, that's where my application has been sitting for week after week after week.

2:16 This has caused a potential change in travel plans that's going to cause trouble for a lot of people. So pray that that doesn't happen. There's a good chance that it'll come tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll see how it goes. Maybe it's sitting on my porch today. Pray that that passport comes. It would be a big blessing to lots of people, I think, for Josh Manley, for instance, not to have to change all the plans for this weekend. But here's my point. I think so far, anyway, this little instance may change this, but I think so far that in all the other times in my life when I've had changes in travel plans or things go wrong or things just, you know, get changed, I think I have never been called a shyster and a liar because of changed travel plans. I think that's true. And yet that's exactly what happened to Paul in our passage today.

3:05 Some travel plans caused trouble and got him called a shyster and a liar. And so that's what he writes about in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2. Let me invite you to take a Bible and turn over there to 2 Corinthians. We are studying this letter of Paul to the church in Corinth. So if you've got a red pew Bible like this one, you'll be able to find the passage for today starting on page 964. As we're going through the New Testament and talking about various pieces of the New Testament, we tend to refer to those as books, right?

3:39 So there's the book of Romans, the book of John, the book of 2 Corinthians. This book of 2 Corinthians is actually not a book at all. It's a personal letter written by the Apostle Paul to one of the churches that he had planted. He planted a whole bunch of churches around the Roman Empire. This was one of them. And this particular church was in the city of Corinth, which was an important port city in Greece located about 50 miles from Athens. Second Corinthians is a letter, but it's a very different kind of letter than, say, the letter from Paul to the Romans.

4:11 So it differs from a book like Romans in that it's not a theological treatise in which Paul lays out step by step what his gospel is or who Jesus is or what the role of the Holy Spirit is. He just doesn't do that kind of thing. Now, of course, it's got plenty of theology in it, and we're going to see some of that theology even today in our text. But in 2 Corinthians, it is always theology that's in the service of working through some real life mess and drama. See, 2 Corinthians, this book that we're studying, this letter, is one piece in a long drama that's been unfolding between Paul and the Corinthian church for over a year now.

4:51 By the time 2 Corinthians is written. This whole series of letters, which culminates in 2 Corinthians, was written between, say, 54 and 56 A.D. And so we're talking 1950 years ago or something like that. And essentially what's been happening over those two years or so is that Paul and the Corinthian church have been in a big fight with each other. They've been mad at each other. And although things have settled down some, by the time Paul writes 2 Corinthians, the fight is definitely not over by that time.

5:25 Even in 2 Corinthians, you can find places where it's clear that there's obviously still a sizable portion of that congregation that has come to trust him again, and yet it's a tenuous trust, and Paul is working to strengthen that and to shore it up. There's also, obviously, a sizable portion of the congregation that is still angry and resentful and distrustful of Paul. And Paul is trying to make his case to those people also to sort of try to lower the temperature. Now, before we dive into the text, I want to make something really clear. For every single book of the Bible, no matter whether it's Old Testament, New Testament, Gospel, Epistle, Apocalypse, whatever it is you're reading, for every single book of the Bible, you will always, always be helped in understanding the message of that book by knowing some of that book's background so who it was written by and where it was written and when it was written and especially why the book was written what it's trying to do that will always help you understand the message of the book better in every book of

6:29 the bible but I think there is no book of the bible for which that's more true than second corinthians I mean you may have read it in advance without knowing not knowing much about its background. But if you have done that, then you'll know that this book is just bewildering if you're not up to speed on the fight that's been happening between Paul and this church and the reasons for it. In fact, our text today, if you read that in advance, is a good example of this. Our text today, I think, makes just absolutely no sense whatsoever unless you know a little bit about what's going on in the background. Now, you know, in verses 18 to 22 or so, there's some good theological nuggets in it, right? Stuff that's going to be true no matter what the background is, and we're going to look at those. But even of those theological nuggets, you're going to miss the point of them, how they're actually functioning, why they're important, if you don't know why Paul's using them like he's using them at this particular time. And you're not going to know that unless you know what's behind it all. So let me take just a few minutes and try to get you up to speed a

7:32 little bit on this this fight Paul versus the Corinthian church before we dive into the text sometime in AD 54 Paul had sent a letter to the church in Corinth he had planted it some years earlier but he sent a letter to the church in Corinth which caused a bit of a stir when it arrived we don't know exactly what the stir was we don't know exactly what they were upset about you can get some you know glimpses of it from first Corinthians but at any rate he sends this letter it doesn't exist uh it's it's lost to history we don't know what it was it's not first corinthians it's another letter prior to first corinthians it causes a stir they write a letter back to him and then he writes first corinthians in an attempt to try to lower the temperature with them if you've studied first corinthians you know what it is it's a series of you know answering questions and trying to smooth over factions and he's really trying to put put some you know put some some put to rest some problems that are going on in the church in corinth well his associate Timothy you know him from books like first and second Timothy and he's mentioned in Acts several times anyway Paul's associate Timothy carries first Corinthians to the church in Corinth and

8:38 when he comes back the news is not good because apparently first Corinthians had not helped the situation in Corinth at all and in fact now having received first Corinthians the people in Corinth are ticked off they are angry now paul had told the corinthians in first corinthians that he intended he was intending his next sort of thing was to go up into macedonia and do some some mission work up in this province of the roman empire and then he was going to come to visit them in corinth and then he was going to let them send him on his way over here to to jerusalem so so basically back home he's been in ephesus this whole time so you can see those travel plans right He's in Ephesus.

9:26 He says, at the end of, you can see it in 1 Corinthians 16, something or other, I'm going to go to Macedonia. I'm going to visit the churches in Thessalonica, Philippi, some of these other churches that I've planted. Then I'm going to come visit you, and then you're going to send me on my way to Jerusalem. But the situation in Corinth after 1 Corinthians was so bad and so dire that he changed those plans, boarded a ship in Ephesus, and immediately went across the ocean to Corinth in a kind of emergency visit to try to sort things out.

9:57 Well, that emergency visit, which was not really on the itinerary, Paul had not intended to do it, that emergency visit turned out to be a total disaster. It just made things worse. And Paul says here in our text in 2 Corinthians today that it caused him and them enormous emotional pain. And so he left, really kind of tail between his legs, and returned to Ephesus. Okay, now here's the rub for our passage today. Here's what Paul and the Corinthians are fighting about now.

10:28 It's not even the sort of underlying thing. The fight has sort of ramified into other things, and they're at a different layer of fighting with each other about another thing now. Here's the rub for our passage today. At some point during that emergency visit that did not go well, Paul told the Corinthians, look, what I told you in 1 Corinthians 16 about my travel plans, that I'm going to go from Ephesus to Macedonia to you and then to Jerusalem. I'm changing those plans. I'm not going to do that anymore. When I start my travels, here's what I'm going to do instead.

11:01 I'm going to start in Ephesus, but instead of going to Macedonia first, I'm going to come to you first. Then I'm going to go to Macedonia to do mission work. Then I'm going to come back to you a second time, and then you're going to send me to Jerusalem. So he's changing his plans sort of in their favor. He's going to visit them twice now, once at the beginning of the trip, once at the end of the trip, instead of just once at the end. But once that emergency visit went south, once it went so bad and Paul got back to Ephesus, he decided to change his mind again.

11:38 That emergency visit had gone so badly that Paul actually decided it would be counterproductive for him to go back to Corinth so soon. And so instead, he sent them another letter, which has come to be called the severe letter. It's another letter that we don't have. It's lost to history. It's not there. It's not 2 Corinthians. It's a different letter in between 1 and 2 Corinthians. That's what Paul sent them. And in that severe letter, apparently, he just completely dressed the Corinthians down for the way they were acting.

12:10 Another associate of Paul, not Timothy, but Titus, carried that letter to the Corinthians. And when he got back with word, the news was mixed. It was mixed. Most of the church, it seems, the majority of the church, had received the letter well. They had repented. They had reconciled with Paul. They had understood what Paul was doing and why, and they were fine. But there were still a whole bunch of people in the church that had not reconciled with Paul, who were still angry with him, even after the severe letter.

12:42 And one of their sticking points was that Paul had changed his plans and not made that visit that he promised. He had just sent a letter instead. Paul, you changed your plans. You said you were going to come here, then Macedonia, then here, then Jerusalem. But you changed your plans and you just sent us this letter instead. So the charge that they were making against Paul is that he was fickle, that he was vacillating, that he was a shyster, that he was maybe even lying about his plans when he told them he was going to come in the first place. So here in 2 Corinthians, he writes them back and begins to address that in our text today.

13:17 Look down at it. 2 Corinthians 1, we're going to be looking at everything from chapter 1, verse 12, all the way through chapter 2, verse 11. So pretty good chunk of text, but it's not that hard, I think, to understand. Last week, we looked at the first 11 verses of chapter 1, those first three or four paragraphs there, depending on how you count. Paul starts off there by exhorting the Corinthians just to remember that their affliction, Any suffering that they're facing is meant to lead them not to sort of collapse in on themselves, but to give comfort and truth to others, remember from last week.

13:49 Well, today we're not looking at those 11 verses. We're going to look at the last part of chapter 1, starting in verse 12 and on a few verses into chapter 2, where Paul first, starting in 1.12, addresses this change of plans problem. But then, starting in verse 5 of chapter 2, he asks then the Corinthians to make a change of their own, but this time in attitude. So let's look at what he says. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, starting in verse 12.

14:23 Paul writes there, to you. For we're not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand. And I hope you will fully understand, just as you did partially understand us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us as we will boast of you. Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and then have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes yes and no no at the same time surely as God is faithful our word to you has not been yes and no for the son of God Jesus Christ whom we proclaimed among you Silvanus and Timothy and I was not yes and no but in him it is always yes for all the promises of God find their yes in him and that is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory and it is God who

15:28 establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee but i called god to witness against me it was to spare you that i refrained from coming again to corinth not that we lord it over your faith but we work with you for your joy for you stand firm in your faith for i made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you for if i cause you pain who is there to make me glad but the one whom i have pained and i wrote as i did in the severe letter so that when i came i might not suffer pain from those who would have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. 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.

16:22 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 all right again there's nothing too difficult here There's no serious exegetical or theological problems.

16:56 I mean, there's no doubt. If you don't know what's going on in the background, it's a mind-spinning text. It's just like, what is all of this about? When did this writing happen and this travel stuff and all the rest? But once you understand the background, I don't really think it's all that complicated. Paul changed his plans. They're calling him fickle and a liar and a shyster because of it. He says, no, I'm not fickle and a shyster. And he gives reasons why. That's what's going on in the text. Structurally, he's super straightforward from 1.12 to 2.4. He's dealing with the travel plans thing.

17:27 And then in 2.5 to 11, he turns and asks the Corinthians to change their own mind on a matter. We'll talk about that more in more detail later. But the main idea is this right here. You ready? Main idea of this text. Sometimes faithfulness does not demand rigid consistency. Sometimes the gospel calls us to love other people by changing our minds. I'll say it again.

17:57 Sometimes faithfulness does not demand rigid consistency. Sometimes the gospel calls us to love other people by changing our minds. Now, I can already tell that's surprising to you a little bit because I see several of you with your heads cocked and your brows furrowed. And the reason that it's kind of surprising is because usually faithfulness is talked, faithfulness to Jesus, to the gospel, is talked about in terms of standing your ground, sticking to your guns no matter what, never giving an inch.

18:29 What I have written, I have written, as Pontius Pilate, of all people said. But here, Paul says, hold up, hold up. Maybe there's more to faithfulness than just a rigid sticking to your guns. And then he goes on and explains that it wasn't weakness or fickleness, much less lying or dishonesty, that compelled him to change his travel plans, but rather what compelled him to change his plans was love for the Corinthians. That's what he does in the first part. And then in the second, he calls them to change their minds as well.

19:03 Again, as we'll see, for the sake of love. So I think there are some important things to learn here in this text. And they are kind of surprising things. But they're exceptionally good precisely because that main idea strikes us as so unexpected. So I want to unfold this text in two points, which you might call two good reasons for changing your mind. Two good reasons for changing your mind. Number one, to care well for others. And number two, to forgive your brother or sister.

19:35 Two good reasons to change your mind. Number one, to care well for others. Number two, to forgive your brother or sister. So point number one, one good reason to change your mind is to care well for others. That's the first thing Paul addresses when he really gets to the heart of this letter. Because that change of travel plans, he's not coming to Corinth first before Macedonia. He just sends them a letter. That change of travel plans really does seem to be a major thing between him and the Corinthians. If you look at it, look at verse 12, the letter really begins in earnest here in verse 12.

20:08 1 through 11 has been introduction. But here in 12, he gets right at the heart of the matter. He says this. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity, straightforwardness, and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you, Corinthians. You see his point there? You see what he says? He's coming right at it. They are accusing him of not being simple. And it doesn't mean like, you know, dumb or uneducated. It means simple. It means straightforward.

20:40 It means doing the thing that you say you're going to do. It means, you know, walking in a straight line and not shifting back and forth off and on to the line. They're accusing him of not doing that and of not operating in godly sincerity. So he says that in the face of that charge, he's going to stand on the testimony of his conscience that he was, in fact, operating with him in simplicity and godly sincerity. In fact, if you look at verse 13, he says that he's so simple and straightforward with him that he's really not doing anything other than what he's already written to them what they themselves have read and understood about him and that what they don't fully understand now they will fully understand at the last day in other words he's saying look i'm not being wishy-washy with you i am moving in a straight line down this path with you okay but but stop for a second What does Paul mean in verse 1 when he says that his boast is the testimony of his conscience?

21:39 What does that mean? My boast is this, the testimony of my conscience that I have done right. What does he mean by that? Well, at first, I think when you read that, it can just sound unforgivably arrogant, can't it? It can just sound unforgivably arrogant because it can sound like Paul is saying, my boast, my boast, my conceit is that I agree with myself. And I will not subject that to anybody else's questioning or judgment.

22:14 It's like the guy you see on the internet. Sometimes he gets a tattoo across his collarbone that says, no regerts. But it's not that. Not really. I mean, for one thing, our understanding of the word boast is not exactly the same thing as first century Greek and Jewish understanding of the word boast. Boast isn't just a chest-beating arrogance. That's not what it means. It just means my confidence, the thing that I stand on, the thing that I, you know, that I plant my flag on. This is my boast. This is my confidence. And then when Paul talks about his conscience, what he means by that is not a sort of self-contained, self-referential thing.

22:52 It's not Paul turning in on himself, closing the castle gates and saying, nobody can touch me, nobody can judge me. No, as you read the rest of the letter and you see how Paul talks about his conscience and how it operates, you realize that Paul's conscience is actually shaped by and accountable to two different external forces. There's a sort of weaker secondary external force that his conscience is shaped by, and then there's a stronger primary external force. That his conscience is shaped by.

23:23 One of those, the weaker one, the sort of secondary force that he allows to shape his conscience. Is the Corinthians' own consciences about what is right and wrong. So chapter 4, verse 2. He says, we, I, have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. Which means that he's willing to listen to their consciences.

23:55 That's the sort of secondary, weaker thing. And he'll be willing to argue about that with them if their consciences land in a different place than his. He'll be willing to listen and yet reason against that. That's secondary. It's weaker. But another more important thing to which Paul's conscience is accountable is the judgment of God at the last day. And you can look at verse 23 and see that. Paul says there, I call God to witness against me. And then he says his reason for changing his plans in the first place.

24:26 I mean, your Bibles, if it's an ESV, you don't actually get the whole thing. Because what he says is, I call God to witness against my life. In other words, he's saying, I submit myself to the judgment of God. And then in chapter 5, he says this, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. So that each one of us may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. And therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others, but what we are is known to God, and I hope it's also known to your conscience. You see what he's saying there, right?

24:57 When Paul appeals to his own conscience here, when he says, my boast is the testimony of my conscience, it's not just a self-defensive posture that he's taking that doesn't listen to anyone around him. No, he's saying, look, before God and before you, I have thought about this, I have prayed about it, I have considered it, and I believe I have done what is right. But that's subject to two things. Secondarily to your own consciences, you have every right to make your own judgment about it, and then both our consciences are primarily accountable to God.

25:35 Everything will be sorted out between us in the last day. Now, friends, as you understand how conscience works in Paul's thought, that it's not just this unassailable fortress from which nobody can ever say anything to you, but rather it's a conviction based on thought, based on prayer, based on conversation with other people, and with an understanding that finally Jesus will set it all right at the last day, I hope you can see what an incredibly useful tool that understanding of the conscience is when Christians find themselves in disagreement with each other.

26:10 Because it allows brothers and sisters in Christ to disagree without the need to bring every matter immediately to a thunderous verdict. You see that? But then again, I want to be careful. What Paul is saying here is not just that we have to agree to disagree. That's not what he's saying. The world has to do that. When two people who are in the world disagree with one another, they have to just agree to disagree.

26:43 They have to just agree to leave it unresolved forever because they don't have the promise of the last day like we do. We don't have to agree to disagree. That's not what we do as Christians. When we come to log our heads with one another, we do not agree to disagree. What we do as Christians is agree to wait for the king to set it all right in the end. So, friend, have you ever had a time when your conscience about what was right and what was wrong was clashing with another Christian's conscience about what's right and wrong?

27:18 You don't necessarily need to force that to a conclusion. You can look at each other and you can say, not let's agree to disagree, but you know what, we disagree on this. But the beautiful thing that we have is the promise that we have an all-wise king who will, in fact, sort this out at the end. And one of us is right and one of us is wrong. Or maybe both of us are wrong. Or maybe both of us are somewhat right. Or maybe it's just some mixture. But the fact is that Jesus has promised that he'll sort it out at the last day. And then you and I will go enjoy heaven together.

27:51 That's how Paul understands his conscience. And it's a good lesson for us as well. Well, in 15 to 16, if you just kind of keep going, Paul says that because he was sure that he and the Corinthians were united and boasting of one another at the last day. So even in the midst of disagreement, we're together at the last day, right? You can see that in verse 14. Because I was sure of that, he at first wanted to come visit them again pretty quickly before he went to do this missionary work in Macedonia. That phrase, second experience of grace, if you look at that there, it's just a bit of jargon.

28:22 It means a second good time together. That's what it means. It's nothing more mystical or spiritual than that. I wanted to come so that we could have a second experience of grace together, so we could enjoy each other's company a second time. Well, verse 17 is where he addresses this objection that they're making against him, that he's fickle and maybe even dishonest in his plan making. But it's interesting how he does it. Now, just remember the situation, right? He told them that he wanted to come see them before Macedonia.

28:54 Then he decided not to do that, and they got mad. You changed your plans, Paul. You're fickle. You changed what you told us you were going to do. But look what's happening in verses 16 and 17. He's saying, look, look, when I told you I was going to come visit you before Macedonia, you realize, don't you, that that was a change of plans in itself? Because in 1 Corinthians 16, I told you my first set of plans, which was to go to Macedonia, then come see you at the end of that, then go to Jerusalem. I changed it so that I was going to come see you first, then go to Macedonia, then come back, and then go to Jerusalem.

29:29 That in itself was a change of plans. Was I being fickle and vacillating when I did it the first time? You see what he's saying there, and it's a masterstroke of an argument. He says, you're accusing me of being fickle when I decided not to come see you. When I changed plans and you got cut out of my plans, now you're accusing me of being fickle.

30:00 But when I changed my plans originally from what I told you in 1 Corinthians 16 and added a trip to my plans to come see you, you didn't accuse me of being fickle then. You loved every minute of that. You're only accusing me of being fickle. You're only accusing me of being a shyster when you don't like the change. But when you do like it, when it's in your favor, you're 100% fine with it. Well, from there, Paul goes on through verse 22.

30:32 So he's kind of made that sort of thunderous point against them. And there's not much way they're getting out of that. But starting in verse 18 and on through 22, he turns to explain why he's just not the kind of guy. In fact, he's explaining why he can't be the kind of guy to play fast and loose with the truth like they're accusing him of doing. In other words, he can't be saying, yes, yes, I'll come visit you, while at the same time in the back of his mind, he's thinking, no, no, I'm really not going to come see them.

31:03 I'll just tell them I'm going to come see them, and then when I'm safely away, I'll change those plans and, you know, do what I really want to do. He's saying, I'm not that kind of guy. In fact, I can't be that kind of guy who plays fast and loose with the truth. Well, why can't he be that kind of guy? Well, 18 to 22 tells us it's because his entire ministry is based on proclaiming the unchanging truth of Jesus Christ. And if he plays fast and loose with the truth in any area of his life, it's going to undermine the message he's given his whole life to proclaim.

31:34 That's why he can't be that kind of guy, and he knows it. So look at 118. He says, As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in Christ it's always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in him. And that's why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

32:06 Now that's a tightly packed little theological nugget there. But I think with all this background, the point is really crystal clear. And the point that Paul is making to the Corinthians is, listen, God does not play fast and loose with the truth, and neither do I. God makes promises, and he keeps every single one of those promises. In fact, every one of those promises finds its yes, its fulfillment, its end, its lock in this Jesus Christ whom I proclaim.

32:41 It's Jesus who signs, seals, and delivers every single one of them. Not one of them fails. So if I, Paul, am going to proclaim that kind of promise-keeping God, if I'm going to follow that kind of promise-keeping God, I can't be the kind of person who takes the truth lightly, who says one thing but means another, who uses clever words to hide the truth, who says just enough to be technically within the truth but he's really hiding an iceberg of stuff underneath the waterline.

33:12 Because if I am that kind of person, I'm going to completely undermine my witness to the God who never plays fast and loose with the truth. You see the argument that he's making there? I can't be that kind of guy because it would undermine my entire witness to Jesus. Now friends, that's worth pausing and considering for just a second. Are there any areas of your life where you tend to do that? To play fast and loose with the truth in various ways. I mean, how about at work?

33:44 In your office or in your workplace, are you known as a person who tells the truth, who reveals the truth, even when that truth might be dangerous for you personally? Are you a person who's ready to point out mistakes that you've made? Or are you a person who tries to hide those mistakes? Are you a person who readily admits when you've been wrong? Or are you the kind of person who tries to come up with a thousand rationalizations for why other people should think you're right even when you know you're wrong?

34:17 Are you the kind of person that's straightforward with the truth, straightforward with your language about what happened? Here is what happened. Or are you the kind of person who looks for clever words that will conceal the truth instead? Friend, if you are known in your workplace, in your family, in your church, among your friends, as a person who treats truth like so much Plato, how is anybody going to take you seriously when you turn and say, now let me tell you the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ? That's Paul's point.

34:54 But he still, even having made that point, got a little bit of a problem. I mean, true, he had not been lying to them when he said he was going to visit them, but then he didn't. He hadn't been lying, but the fact remains that he did change his plans. So in the rest of the section from 123 down through 24, he explains why he changed his plans, and the reason he gives is a good one. The reason he gives for the change doesn't speak to fickleness. It doesn't speak to, you know, vacillation. It doesn't speak to anything like that. The reason he gives is, I changed my plans out of love for you.

35:29 out of concern for your good and your joy. Look what he says in 23. He says, I call God to witness. He gets right to the point here. I call God to witness against my life. It was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Chapter 2, verse 1. I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. For if I come to Corinth and cause you pain, if I break our relationship by coming to you right now, Well, then who is there going to be to make me glad except you whom I've caused pain to?

36:02 So, therefore, I wrote to you. And he says at the end of verse 4, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. You see what he said? You see what he's saying there? The emergency trip that he made turned out to be incredibly painful. And Paul realized that rigidly sticking to his plan to come visit them again very soon would be completely counterproductive. For him to show up in Corinth again so soon would just be grinding both their faces in a situation that seemed to be getting worse every time they talked, not better.

36:42 So Paul decided that it would cause less pain, it would cause less grinding, It would allow space for love and ultimately joy to grow to just back off for a while and not go meet with them again face to face. Now that may seem weird to you, but I think there's a wonderfully counterintuitive pastoral heart that's at work in Paul there. What he realized is that sometimes the solution to a heated situation is not to force confrontation.

37:14 Sometimes it's to give space. Sometimes as here, between Paul and the Corinthians, it's to write a letter. I mean, sometimes it seems like Christians have decided that literally the only godly way to handle a heated or difficult situation is a face-to-face meeting right now while we're all still hot. It's the only way we'll be honest with each other. It's the only way we'll be transparent. Face-to-face meeting right now in the middle of it. I mean, sometimes that's the right move.

37:44 Sometimes that can be good. but Paul obviously didn't think that was the only way to handle a difficult situation I mean think about it Paul here canceled a face-to-face meeting because he thought that giving some space and sending a letter would be the more loving approach and the approach most likely to tend toward reconciliation and it turns out he was right is that always the right way to do stuff no not not always. But the point is, friends, don't lock into one and only one approach to handling a difficult situation. And certainly don't insist that people do that one thing that you've decided is the one right thing, or else they're weak or vacillating or wrong or lying. Paul had a ton of strategies in his pastoral book for handling conflict, and he used each one to try to love his brothers and sisters best, given the circumstances. And that's the point. That's the point. Paul changed his mind

38:46 about his travel plans for a very good reason. It was because of love for his brothers and sisters in Corinth. To go to them again so soon, so quickly, would have been unloving. It would have made the situation worse, and so he changed his mind. So here's my question to you. Are you willing to change plans for the sake of loving your brothers and sisters in Christ? You should be, just like Paul. You should be willing to change your plans.

39:16 In fact, you ought to be willing to change your plans, your opinions, courses of action that you're sticking to, commitments that you made in the past to never talk to this person again, or to talk to this person at a certain time, or you know, whatever it might be. You should be willing to change your plan when you realize that there is actually a better, more loving course of action that's available to you. See, the message of this text is this. If that's the case, if you're rigidly stuck to some opinion or plan or course of action, change the approach.

39:48 Just like Paul did, change the approach. Loving your brothers and sisters for their good is more important than you sticking to your plan. That's what Paul realized. And then there's another question from the other direction. Are you willing, as a Christian, to let other people love you in ways that you don't necessarily think are the best ways? Are you willing to let other people love you in ways that you don't necessarily think are the best ways?

40:19 I mean, you realize that's exactly what was happening here, right? By not coming to Corinth so quickly, Paul was loving them in the best way. But they didn't think so, and they got mad at him because of it. Friends, it's worth thinking about. Sometimes we can get into a mindset that says that love can only come to us in the ways we demand. But the Corinthians learned otherwise, and we need to learn that lesson too. One good reason to change your mind is to care well for others.

40:52 Another good reason to change your mind is to forgive your brother. Another good reason to change your mind is to forgive your brother or sister. Okay, so far, Paul's just been explaining to the Corinthians why it was actually not fickle and dishonest for him to change his plans to come see them. But actually, it was loving of him to do that. But in chapter 2, verse 5, starting in verse 5, running down through 11, he turns to something else. Sort of on the strength of that. I changed my plans out of love for you, he says, and now I want you to change your stance on something also out of love.

41:25 He asks the Corinthians in 5 through 11 to change their minds. and to do so because of love. Look at verse 5. 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, in the severe letter, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive.

41:58 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. Now, the point of this, I think, is super clear, even though Paul doesn't give us very many details, right? I mean, essentially what's happened here is that there's a situation where some particular person in Corinth has sinned and caused pain in the church, probably particularly caused pain to Paul himself. And now, in the wake of the severe letter, the majority of the church has acted in some way to punish him.

42:33 Probably church discipline. And now, Paul has heard about this punishment. He's heard about the man's forgiveness. And he's saying, he's asking them to forgive the man in his repentance and return him to fellowship with the church. That's what's going on. So who is the guy and what did he do to deserve the punishment from the majority? Well, some people have thought that it's the same guy from 1 Corinthians 5 who was sleeping with his stepmother. But I don't think so. I mean, the reason for that, there are several reasons. But for one thing, look at verse 10.

43:04 Do you see in verse 10 there how Paul offers personal forgiveness there? I forgive him. Well, it would be weirdly inappropriate for him to do that to the guy in 1 Corinthians 5. That wasn't a personal, what that guy did in 1 Corinthians 5 was not a personal affront to Paul. So it would be weirdly inappropriate for him to offer personal forgiveness to him. Also, Paul's going to mention this whole thing again in chapter 7. And the guy's offense there seems to have been a more, you know, personal offense to Paul himself.

43:35 So our best guess is that, at least in part, this guy and what he did was why the emergency visit went so badly. It sounds like he publicly dressed Paul down in front of the church and convinced a bunch of the church members to agree with him about his charges against Paul. And Paul was deeply hurt by that. But now, in the wake of his severe letter, most of the church repented and voted to put this guy out of their fellowship. And now he himself has repented. And Paul is saying, okay, it's enough. Forgive him. Bring him back in. And I personally forgive him too.

44:08 So a couple of things to notice here before we finish. First, I want you to just notice that for the second time in like a chapter and a half, Paul is changing his mind again. And again, he's changing his mind for the sake of love. Do you see the change of mind? First, it was the severe letter. You need to put this guy out of your fellowship because of the sin that he committed. And now it's, he repented, forgive him, bring him back in. You know, my mind has changed based on the repentance that I see in him. I mean, it seems clear in verse 9 that that's what happened, right?

44:41 In his severe letter, he told them to put the guy out, and they did. But now Paul's changing course in forgiving him. And that's an incredible picture, if you think about it, of the white hot center of the gospel. For Paul to change his mind about this guy is a beautiful picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because you realize, don't you, that the good news of Jesus Christ is just all about a gigantic world shattering divine change of mind about you.

45:13 The gospel is just saying, God knew that you were a sinner. He knew that you deserved to go to hell, but he's changed his mind because of Jesus. It's a beautiful picture of the white hot sinner of the gospel. But I want you to notice something else here. He's not just saying that he's changed his mind. He's also calling on the Corinthians to change their mind about the guy. He wants them to forgive him as well now that he's repented. And that, given that the gospel itself is just God changing his mind about us, Declaring us to be righteous because of what Jesus has done in dying on the cross and rising again.

45:52 That in light of all of that, this is just the pattern and shape of the Christian life. We are a people, as those who are believers in Christ and have been saved from our sins, we are a people who have been forgiven much. And so forgiveness, even in the midst of the worst kind of difficulty, The worst kind of even public effrontery, forgiveness ought to be what marks our lives again and again and again. We ought to be a people as Christians. We ought to be a people as a church who change our minds about each other regularly.

46:27 Because God in Christ changed his mind first about us. In this is love, not that we love God. But that God loved us and sent his son Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins. And therefore we ought to love one another. One last thing. Paul knows the stakes of this whole thing. He knows how important it is that the Corinthians forgive this man.

47:03 It's in verse 11. Do this, he says, so that we will not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs. That's an incredibly sobering thought, isn't it? That Satan has designs, plans, schemes. He had plans for the Corinthian church and he has plans for this church too.

47:37 He's constantly, constantly underground in our hearts, in our emotions, in our opinions. Laying the wires and connecting the bombs. So that when the moment comes, it'll all go up at once. Some of you will remember this image, but you remember the movie The Hurt Locker where the guy's job is to disconnect bombs out in the desert. And a lot of times the wires of the bombs are underneath the sand so that when he pulls on it you can see the wire snake and you see where the bomb is.

48:15 And his job then is to put on a bomb suit and go out and dismantle the bomb, disarm it. And there's this one scene where the guy is standing in the middle of the desert and he sees one wire and he pulls on it and it snakes out to a bomb out there. And then he pulls on it a little more, and all of a sudden you see about eight different wires all around him go whoosh. And he's surrounded by bombs that have been laid. It's an incredibly tense moment because he knows that if one of those bombs, those landmines, goes up, they're all going to go up. And it's over for him.

48:50 You know, I've used that illustration, if you've been here for very long, you know that I've used that several different times through our time together, right? Since I've been preaching here regularly. But most of the time when I've used that illustration, I've used it as a kind of warning. Satan is laying those wires. Satan is planting those bombs. He's connecting it. So that when everything goes up, this place will go up in a fireball of, well, he said this, and he said that, and she said that, and I thought he said that. No, I said this, and he said that, and he said that.

49:23 I've given that to you over the years as a warning. Well, friends, the fact is, we've come to that moment. Satan laid the schemes, and he set off some bombs. And the question now is, how good a job have we done, and how good a job will we do at cutting the wires? so that the rest of the bombs don't go up. And if you look at the text, do you see the thing that cuts the wires?

49:57 Do you see what Paul says cuts the wires to all those bombs? Do you see what he says will frustrate the plans of Satan to blow it all sky high? Do you see what it is? It is repentance and forgiveness. That's what cuts the wires. Okay, so what now? If we've come to that moment, if over the last few months we pulled on the wires and we saw it all, what happens now? Do we, do you as a member of the church, do you blow up the bomb that's nearest to you?

50:33 Do you connect more wires to other bombs or do you start cutting wires? Do you start letting forgiveness and repentance do its work to frustrate the plans of Satan? Friends, I think it's actually a beautiful thing. That the thing that frustrates the plans of Satan is forgiveness. The thing that sits right at the white hot center of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is one thing that more effectively than anything else destroys the plans of Satan.

51:07 There is one thing he can't do that he can't defend against. And it's the very thing that stands at the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's forgiveness. Let's make sure, brothers and sisters, let's make sure in the moment that our church is well defended by a whole lot of that. Let's pray. Our Lord Jesus, we thank you and we praise you for the truths of the gospel.

51:43 We thank you for the fact that even though we are sinners and rebels against you, that because of your grace and love for us, we can be forgiven because you lived the life that we ought to have lived. You died the death that we deserve, and you rose again. And united to you by faith, we also will rise to newness of life and the hope of the resurrection on the last day. Lord, thank you for these promises. Help us, oh God, to live in the light and truth of them every day of our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.