INTERSECT: When Repentance Is Not Enough

By Barry Raper

One Sunday morning, a cowboy entered a church just before the service began. The church was a beautiful, upscale church, with people dressed “to the nines.” The cowboy wore his best pair of jeans, and his shirt was clean. He had an old cowboy hat and worn Bible in hand. When he took a seat, it quickly became obvious he was not welcome. People moved, appalled by his appearance.

After church, the preacher approached him and said, “Before you visit again, ask God what He thinks would be appropriate attire for worship at our church.” The cowboy humbly told the preacher he “shore would do that.”

The next Sunday, he was back…wearing the same clean but battered clothes. Once again, people shunned him. After the service, the preacher approached the cowboy and said, “I thought I asked you to speak to God before returning to our church.”

The cowboy replied, “I did.”

The preacher asked, “Well if you spoke to God, what did He tell you to wear to worship here?”

“Well, sir,” said the cowboy, “He told me He didn’t have a clue what to wear here, that He had never been in this church.”

This tongue-in-cheek story shared with me by my mother reminds us that one of the most dangerous situations that can develop in any church are regulations and expectations God Himself doesn’t require. This was true in Corinth. The church at Corinth acted as if genuine repentance wasn’t enough. In their eyes, there had to be more requirements—at least for one particular person.
As we consider their situation, we discover three important principles regarding repentance:

We must proclaim the necessity of repentance. The Bible makes clear that people must repent in order to follow Christ. Repentance is a changed mind that leads to a change of behavior. Another way to describe repentance is turning away from something—in this case sin and self—and turning to God in faith. Repentance and faith are inseparable; two sides of the same coin, and you must repent and exercise faith to become a Christian. However, we do not leave repentance behind altogether when we become a believer.

We do not know for sure whom Paul described in the text, because the man or woman remains nameless. Perhaps it was the man in 1 Corinthians 5, who was living in unrepentant sexual immorality. Maybe it was one of Paul’s opponents—one he had forgiven—that the church was finding it difficult to forgive. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who the person was because the church enacted discipline, and according to verse 6, it was sufficient. No further punishment was needed. The discipline worked, and the individual repented.

We must recognize the need for restoration. Although the individual genuinely repented, the Corinthian congregation was keeping this man at arm’s length. Rather than welcoming him back into fellowship, they were giving him the “cold shoulder.” Maybe they were holding his sin over his head. Maybe they approached him with cynicism, suspicion, and a legalistic spirit.

In verses 7-8, Paul urged the church to stop this behavior and forgive him, comfort him, and confirm their love toward him. Verse 10 reminds us that forgiveness takes place on two levels: vertically, between an individual and the Lord, and horizontally, between individuals. The basis of our forgiveness and the motivation to forgive is found in the person of Jesus. Ephesians 4:32 urges, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

In a similar tone, Galatians 6:1 commands, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

The original word translated restore was sometimes used to describe the act of setting a broken bone or mending a net. It captures a picture of not only fixing what is broken but restoring it to its original purpose. People who repent need restoration so they can start living for God again. Even after genuine repentance, it is hard enough to get past the guilt from previous transgressions.

Paul commanded the Corinthians to restore this repentant brother for two reasons: 1) that he would not be overwhelmed with excessive sorrow, and 2) because lack of forgiveness would give Satan a foothold within the church. If the Corinthians failed to forgive their brother, they would fall prey to one of the worst schemes of Satan: holding up past sins as the “accuser of the brethren.”

How Will We Respond?

How did the church at Corinth respond? We don’t know. We don’t have a third letter to the Corinthian church. We can only hope they took Paul’s charge to heart and welcomed the brother back with open arms.

If they did what was right, they forgave, comforted, and confirmed their love toward this individual. Regardless of the sin, true repentance must lead to genuine forgiveness. This should be our goal today. Consider three simple applications from this passage:

• For the sinner: Genuine repentance is necessary—not surface level change for a time, not turning over a new leaf, not simply an emotional feeling. No, true repentance that cuts down to the core of your being and effects your everyday living.
  

• For the church: Author and pastor Mark Dever says, “We offer no good news for unrepentant sinners.” But for repentant sinners we have the greatest news. We welcome people from every background, race, or socio-economic level. In short, sinners are welcome—not to be comfortable in sin—but to come and repent. When one genuinely repents, let us rejoice. And when a fallen brother or sister is down and needs help, it is our duty to restore them.
  

• For the individual: Do you find it hard to forgive? Maybe it even seems impossible. Maybe you see it as your job to remind others of mistakes through your attitude and spirit.
  

Remember the Parable of the Prodigal Son in the Gospels? The wayward son (sinner) reaches the bottom and, in desperation, returns to his father (God) who runs to him, embraces him, and throws a party to celebrate his return. But the older son (Pharisees) would have none of it. In the story, Jesus condemned the Pharisees, the “church people” who refused to rejoice when prostitutes, publicans, and other outcasts repented.

Sometimes, the cruelest people in the world are the most religious. Do you know someone who has been forgiven by God, but you haven’t forgiven them? I want to be clear: Jesus is not a friend of sin. But He is a Friend of Sinners. How can we be anything less?

Intersect: where the Bible meets life is a regular column of ONE Magazine.

About the Writer: Dr. Barry Raper pastors Bethel Free Will Baptist Church in Ashland City, Tennessee, and directs the Pastoral Program at Welch College. Learn more about Welch College: www.welch.edu.