2 Corinthians 2:11

2 Corinthians 2:11. that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his devices. The personality and agency of Satan (as Alford well remarks) could hardly be expressed more strongly. To overreach the victorious servants of Christ in “destroying the works of the devil,” he is incessantly devising; and the argument is: ‘If he cannot prevent the expulsion from all Christian society of one by whose continuance in its fellowship he had hoped to succeed in corrupting it, he will try to persuade you that the case is too bad for pardon and restoration, and thus, driving the man to desperation or recklessness, accomplish his purpose in another way; for his subtleties and wiles we know right well from our own experience' (see 1 Thessalonians 2:18; 2 Corinthians 12:7; and, on the whole subject, Ephesians 6:12, and 1 Peter 5:8).

Note. That Satan is at the bottom of any policy fitted to defeat the soldiers of Christ in the struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, is the principle involved in this very definite statement; and the nature of his agency here referred to deserves the special attention of those who are called to exercise the discipline of the Church. Preservation of the openly corrupt in the fellowship of the Church, if this can be effected, serves his purpose by contaminating the rest and lowering the standard of church purity; but when this fails, through the stern fidelity of the guardians of its sanctity, the hopelessness of all restoration to the fellowship of the Church and to Christian society even of the manifestly penitent will equally serve his purpose, as it will either harden the offender or drive him to despair, and thus indirectly weaken the Church's influence, a lesson this to churches, congregations, and the friends of Christ in general, to beware, both of laxity towards those who bear His name but openly disgrace it, and of relentless severity towards those who, however deep their fall, give good evidence of genuine repentance.