2 Corinthians 2:8-9 So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. 9 For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.
The Corinthians now had a choice to make: would they accept the wayward person back and restore him to fellowship? The sequence is noteworthy. First, this person was confronted with his sin and experienced some type of shame before the community. Second, this shaming had the affect of helping him see his sin and seek forgiveness. Third, it was now up to the church to accept this repentance and love this person back into the fellowship of the church.
Paul is basically calling the Corinthians to follow through with what forgiveness and reconciliation really mean. This was a test and opportunity for them to act in a way consistent with the gospel. Verse 9 is the strongest evidence that this person may have been the one mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5, since Paul had written about this situation already. If this indeed referring to that situation, it shows that 1) the Corinthians were obedient in the difficult action of condemning the behavior of this man, and 2) the man had some level of faith and saw his wrong action and sought forgiveness.
There are two powerful messages in these two points. One, it is not easy but is necessary to confront sin in the church. Sometimes we are afraid to make a person feel bad or afraid to lose a person from membership. Sin is a disease that can infiltrate and destroy a church if it is allowed to grow. Two, we need to allow sinners the opportunity to repent. We have to let the Holy Spirit work in people’s lives to convict and restore. We have to trust that there is still some level of faith in someone caught in sinful action. It may be that such a person will walk away from the church and even God. That will be on that person and not the church.
In modern situations, this whole scenario is difficult to live out because people have many options for church or religious practices. In highly individualistic cultures, people may not even care about what others think of their behavior. This mindset makes this type of confrontation even more challenging.
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