3d The Christian Life Means Loving Until It Hurts
Stand Firm: Living in a Post-Christian Culture • Sermon • Submitted
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We’ve seen that loving until it hurts means loving enough to sacrifice and loving enough to sanctify. Finally, it also means loving enough to suffer. We already touched on the physical suffering that marked Paul’s ministry. But the fiercest suffering he endured didn’t come from a whip or a stone— it came from the people he served. Paul’s physical pain didn’t come close to the concerns he bore for those churches. And no church was a greater concern than the church at Corinth.
Suffering Love
Suffering Love
1 For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. 2 For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? 3 And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. 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. 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. 6 For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, 7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 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. 10 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, 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
What is the theme of this passage that Paul has written?
Pain and Forgiveness
The Corinthians were a source of endless suffering for Paul. They followed false teachers. They mutinied and rebelled against him. And they believed terrible lies about him. When he visited the church, a man in the congregation stood up and accused him to his face, and nobody came to his defense. He left town broken and shattered, his love for them unrequited. He was so distressed by the Corinthians that he said he was depressed (7: 6). He was emotionally battered and bruised by these people.
What can Paul's relationship with Corinth teach us about Love?
Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians is a good reminder that the more you love somebody, the more you put yourself at risk to be hurt. He made that very point in 2 Corinthians 12: 15 when he wrote:
15 I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
Sadly, that’s a common pattern, and it could happen to any of us. The more we love someone, the less they may love us in return.
In Paul’s case, the more he loved them, the more he spoke straight to them and their sin. We only have the two inspired letters of Paul to the Corinthians. He had written them a letter before 1 Corinthians that is not in the canon of Scripture, and then he wrote 1 Corinthians, which was a very confrontational letter. After that, he wrote another letter before 2 Corinthians that is not in the canon either. This is often referred to as the “severe letter” (see 2 Cor. 2: 4; 7: 8– 9), and it was a confrontation about their defection to the false teachers. Then he was prompted by the Holy Spirit to write 2 Corinthians, again to deal with their spiritual defection and to reassert the genuineness of his Apostolic office. Over and over in the two inspired epistles that we have, we see how these people had cut him to the heart and left deep wounds.
In fact, many believe that’s what Paul was referring to when he described the thorn in his flesh. He wrote,
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
There are an endless number of speculative theories about what the thorn in the flesh actually was. People wonder, Was it eye disease? Was it malaria? Was it his mother-in-law? I don’t think it was meant to be that complex or confusing. Paul himself said the thorn in the flesh was “a messenger of Satan.” The Greek word translated as “messenger” is angelos, which the New Testament commonly uses to refer to angels. And an angel of Satan is a demon. Therefore, Paul was saying that a demon had come into the false teachers, brought them into the Corinthian church, and shredded that congregation. It turned the people against Paul and true doctrine. Though their rejection and rebellion were crushing to him, the Lord allowed this deep suffering because it humbled the Apostle. It is amazing the degree to which the Lord will go to humble His servant.
We talk about it as Paul’s “thorn in the flesh,” but the Greek word (skolops) could be more accurately translated as “stake.” Paul was not talking about some minor external irritation. The demonic influence on the Corinthians had driven a stake through his heart. He was impaled in agony over what was happening in that church. He had loved them, and what he received in return was hostility and anger because they did not want to face their sins.
In all honestly we have more than a few people that in the church that have experienced this kind of suffering. They have loved someone only to see that love turned to betrayal and pain or were met with hostility and anger. This is a sad reality of our fallen world. Unfortunately, that is what it means to love until it hurts. It means we are willing to serve sacrificially, to sanctify, and even to suffer. We can expect pain in this degree of love for others. But it is a glorious pain, because God uses it to refine us into His image and sharpen us for the work of His kingdom.