Changing Our Lives Through an Awareness of Right and Wrong (Part 1 of 2)

The Priority of Dealing with Sin

Last week and the week before, we focused on the comfort that God gives—always and in exactly the right kind we need. He gives us comfort, and we have the privilege of using that comfort for others. We receive comfort and reciprocate it to other Christians. Keep that in mind as we look into this passage. The point is the meaningful way of going through difficult and painful times. The context is suffering, pain, and difficult circumstances, and going through them with an attitude and motivation toward understanding right and wrong.

We always risk seeing a situation incorrectly. Remember 1 Corinthians 5:1-2, where the Corinthian church tolerated someone committing incest with his own mother. They did not grieve over open, unrepentant sin. They were not upset or handling it. Paul implemented church discipline: remove him from your midst. This was severe, but they tolerated something even unbelievers would not. No one in the church drew the line.

Paul had to write, excommunicating him publicly because the sin was public. He skipped the private steps of Matthew 18. As we studied 1 Corinthians 5, I promised we'd see the outcome in 2 Corinthians—the restoration of that individual. Church discipline had a powerful effect.

In all this, Paul discusses discerning right from wrong, and how that radically changes your life. Simple Christian awareness of right and wrong radically changes your life. It changes how you see and experience things, revolutionizing difficult circumstances. The ability to discern right from wrong, not tolerating sin, and dealing with it will radically change your life—even seeing Paul's leadership in removing someone, taking priority over visiting the Corinthians.

To understand how awareness of right and wrong changes our lives, consider the priority of dealing with sin. We must deal with it quickly and effectively.

Paul dealt with another issue related to this discipline. He had planned to visit Corinth, but due to the sin, he delayed and wrote 1 Corinthians instead—for our benefit today. Some saw him as undependable, vacillating. But Paul says his word was not yes and no. He lives through the lens of his conscience—his awareness of right and wrong.

2 Corinthians 1:12 – For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God...

Paul makes decisions in harmony with his conscience. Choosing between visiting or writing an apostolic letter, he prioritized what was right. He also considers the second coming:

2 Corinthians 1:14 – ...just as you did partially understand us—that on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, you will boast of us as we will boast of you.

It's more important to deal with sin now, so we can boast at Christ's return that grace enabled us to deal with it effectively.

Paul changed plans not by vacillating, but because of the priority of dealing with sin. He strives for a simple, sincere, godly life—plans passing the test of godliness. Do we make plans with conscience, prioritizing sin? It's not back-and-forth; it's flexibility to deal with sin first.

Paul's goal is comfort, rejoicing, and joy (2 Corinthians 2:1-4). Tolerated sin removes these, hindering fellowship. If he visited amid sin, time would be spent dealing with it, missing joy.

When sin is tolerated too long, it removes comfort, rejoicing, and joy. If you don't feel God's comfort, it may be tolerated sin—not just sin's presence, but an intolerable attitude toward it. Fight, kick, and scream against sin, unlike the Corinthians.

We've all had to do what we don't want, wishing to escape. That's our attitude toward sin. God provides escape (1 Corinthians 10:13), but without hostility toward sin, it's pointless.

Principle: The more hostile you are toward sin, the more joyful and comforted you are by God and His people. Without hostility, God's comfort antagonizes. Paul does not make plans according to the flesh, but distinguishes right from wrong, prioritizing sin.

2 Corinthians 1:23–2:4 – But I call God as 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... 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.

It was a perspective issue. Sin clouds perspective, missing Paul's love in writing to deal with sin, enabling future joyful fellowship.

The Pain of Dealing with Sin

Recognizing the need to deal with sin doesn't reduce its intensity. It hurts everyone involved. Paul wrote painfully, exercising authority to remove the man—not out of anger, but like a loving father disciplining a child. "This hurts me more than it hurts you."

Love caused excommunication—the most loving act. Matthew 18 commands all Christians to confront sin lovingly. Reassure yourself it's right, but pain remains.

Paul distinguishes pain from sin itself and pain from discipline:

2 Corinthians 2:4 – 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.

2 Corinthians 2:5 – 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.

Pain grows the longer sin is tolerated—both from sin and discipline. Prioritize dealing with sin to minimize pain. Untolerated sin is confined; tolerated sin spreads like cancer, making removal more painful.

Sin is attractive, offering pleasure and gratification. That's why it's hard to repent. When pulling out deep-rooted sin, pain spreads in the body of Christ. Removal from fellowship stings intensely.

2 Corinthians 2:7 – ...so that on the contrary you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

Church discipline hurts because fellowship matters. Paul delivered him to Satan, outside the church's protection, to provoke repentance. Though one of the worst experiences, it's highly effective against horrific sin.

The Power of Dealing with Sin

Why kick somebody out of the church? Because it works. It works not just to cause tolerated sins to stop but also to cause really good things to start happening again within the church—joy, comfort, and rejoicing. This is the attitude we need as Christians: being more focused on long-term joy and long-term comfort from God and His people in fellowship than on temporary enjoyment from sin.

What reason would we have to defend experiencing tolerated sin on a regular basis? What reason to give up joy, comfort, rejoicing, and fellowship? When we go through the circumstances of life and feel the pain of suffering and the sting of sin—which definitely hurts even if we don't always notice it—when we feel sad, discouraged, or upset, we don't want to feel that way anymore.

There's no case for why tolerated sin should remain when it has such a negative impact, even amid difficult circumstances. Many of you are right in the middle of something that hurts, yet dealing with sin results in Christians experiencing Christian love, joy, and comfort—being more focused on long-term joy and comfort.

Jesus Christ said in John 15 that He gives us His joy and that it makes our joy complete. We get a robust, thoroughgoing, satisfying, and even transcendent kind of joy because it's not just our joy—it's Jesus' joy. "If you remain in me and obey my commands," which means we don't tolerate sin.

There's power in dealing with sin: the power to experience life's circumstances with advantages like joy and comfort. The Apostle Paul says, "Forgive him, receive him back in." It worked. His soul is saved in the day of the Lord. Bring him back and forgive him.

Notice what Paul said in verse 11: forgiveness in the face of repentance prevents us from being outsmarted by Satan. Satan has designs, devices, ways of attacking and outsmarting us. When we forgive in the face of repentance—receiving them back into fellowship after they've repented—it protects the church from Satan's designs.

Satan's designs focus on a lack of forgiveness, lack of discipline, and tolerance of sin. When we deal effectively with sin and live in forgiveness, we have defenses against Satan's assaults. But tolerance of sin means no discipline, no forgiveness for the repentant, and we're laid open to Satan's attacks.

Simple Awareness of Right and Wrong Radically Changes Your Life

This is how simple Christian awareness of right and wrong radically changes your life. Prioritize pushing through the pain of sin and seeing the power of dealing with it, and there's huge, radical change.

Be aware of right and wrong through simple godly living—not tolerating sin. Deal with sin when it arises, and after it's dealt with, live in the forgiveness of that sin. Don't live in forgiveness if there's no dealing with sin.

Christians who profess faith but don't live in the discipline and eradication of sin have no real hope of forgiveness, because forgiveness without dealing with sin isn't honest about the gospel. It deceives yourself and makes grace a license to sin—saying, "I sin, but it doesn't matter because I'm forgiven." Don't rest assured of salvation or forgiveness without dealing with sin.

They dealt with the sin here, the genuineness of his salvation was revealed, he repented, and he received forgiveness. God forgives us in the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. But if we've truly received that forgiveness, seen the heinousness of sin, and trust God not just for forgiveness but for power to deal with sin, we experience assurance of salvation and safety from Satan's designs.

Don't live in forgiveness without dealing with sin—you're deceiving yourself. Real Christian love and real forgiveness are found with those who don't tolerate sin. That's how you receive comfort from God and others.