The Doorpost: Joy enables firmness of faith

Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
2 Corinthians 1:24

The passage above shows that there is a connection between joy and standing firm in the faith. Whether we are correcting a fellow believer or disciplining our children, this is important to remember.

There is a fleshly tendency to think that the way to correct someone is to make them feel bad. The more serious we consider the offense, the worse we try to make the offender feel. We apparently hope tht this will make a stronger impression on them so they will be less likely to repeat the offense in the future.

If the offender repeats his offense, we may say, “I thought that’s what would happen.” If they don’t repeat the offense, we may keep bringing up what they did, just to “make sure” they don’t forget.

These kinds of tactics result in discouragement or fear, not in joy. And this passage indicates that joy is a key to standing firm.

Paul gives us a completely different example in 1 and 2 Corinthians. He had to rebuke the Corinthians sharply both in his letters and in person (2 Corinthians 2:1-4), but he always expressed confidence that they would be obedient (2 Corinthians 1:15, 2:3, 7:16). Even when he instructed them to expel an immoral brother from their fellowship, he did it with the expectation of a good result in the life of the one expelled (1 Corinthians 5:5).

Second Corinthians 7:10 tells us there is a difference between Godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

Correction is necessary. When someone is doing wrong, there must be repentance before he or she can experience the joy of walking in the forgiveness of and obedience to the Lord. But when we are correcting or disciplining, we need to remember to do it in a way that leads to Godly sorrow and then joy, not to worldly sorrow and death.