Repent Boldly. It's a Super Power.

After a public rebuke of someone by the majority, Paul said, "comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him."

That is, encourage this person. Or else Paul warns, we will be "outwitted by Satan."

Satan loves discouragement, loves sorrow in us. He wants us to see rebuke and repentance as "putting someone in their place."

But if both rebuke and repentance are putting someone in their place, then the devil has won. Rebuke should be done because we will the good of another. And if someone repents, that's courage, boldness, strength, power, overcoming.

As John Chrysostom puts it:

"Repentance, which is terrible and formidable to the sinner, is a medicine to trespasses, a destruction to lawlessness, an end to tears, courage before God, a weapon against the devil, a knife that decapitates his head, the hope of salvation, the abolishment of despair."

So, a little later, he says, "Do not be ashamed when you repent."

Why? Because repentance is a power, a strength.

The devil tricks us by thinking it's shame. Chrysostom says, "Satan upsets the order; he gives the courage to sin and the shame to repentance."

And if any one of us create a culture in which repentance is shameful, makes us feel like nothing, makes us feel like outsiders in the penalty box, etc., then the devil has won.

Repent boldly. It's a super power.