Ronald Nolette
Well-Known Member
Paul makes it clear that his purpose is to get the believers in Corinth to repent of sins that they have committed in 2 Corinthians 12:20-21...
2Co 12:20, For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:
2Co 12:21, And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
Clearly, his goal is for the Corinthian believers to repent of "uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness" and he hopes that they will do that before he arrives among them in his third visit to them.
It should be clear that "uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness" are sins...
I find it interesting that Paul mentions that those who had not repented of these sins would engage with Paul in debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, swellings, whisperings, and tumults.
This is what I see among those who have not repented of their sins and who want to engage in debates about how repentance isn't really necessary....while in those debates they most often resort to ad hominem attacks on the person who is bringing to them the truth of holy scripture....saying that we are preaching a FALSE and PERVERTED gospel when in all reality our gospel is true and wholesome, while their gospel of "grace as a license for immorality" is truly a gospel that is FALSE and PERVERTED.
HI just by faith.
You have put the cart before the horse in explaining these verses.
Paul did not say that those who have not repented of those sins would automatically get involved in debates, envyings..... The "and" is added in the English (why is unknown) but does not appear in the Greek. if it did, it would tie 21 to 20 but because there is no "kai" conjunction in the original, verse 21 starts a new thought in all probability.
Repentance is required! But what one means by repentance is in question.
Repentance in the Greek is meta-noia which means a change of mind. To repent means to change ones mind and agree with god that XXXX is sin as God says. Then 1 JOhn 1:9 comes into play.
And yes a change of mind also means a change of action, but the change of action is not biblical repentance but the consequence of biblical repentance, f one is serious.