Bible
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15. I would like to ask you a question which I asked myself last night
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When Paul stated that he had delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander unto
Satan, who had rejected faith and good conscience and so had shipwrecked
their faith, as well as that believer of the Church at Corinth who had his
father’s wife, he meant that he in the name of the Lord Jesus with the power
of our Lord Jesus, delivered those men unto the power of Satan that Satan
might destroy them through a serious disease, that is, that he might destroy
their flesh. |
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We know that Satan can do nothing but destroy a believer when God
allows him to destroy him. We have a clear proof of this in Job, who was struck
by Satan, (however in the case of Job, God delivered Job unto the hands of Satan
not because Job had forsaken righteousness or because he was guilty of some
particular sin, but only to test him) by God’s permission, with sore boils
from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head (Job 2:7), and Job was
reduced to a skeleton. His body was so much deformed and destroyed that at a
certain moment he thought that for him there was no more hope of being healed
and so the sepulchre was awaiting him. |
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But let us see the reason why Paul delivered those believers unto
Satan. I have said that Paul delivered them unto Satan so that Satan might
destroy them physically, thus that he might humiliate them deeply. However,
this was done for their good, that is to say, in the hope that they might
repent, for in the former case Paul said that he had handed Hymenaeus and
Alexander over to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme (I understand
the it seems strange and unbelievable that some believers had began to
blaspheme the name of God, however that’s what happened in that case. But
Paul with the divine authority humiliated them by delivering them unto Satan in
the hope that that serious physical distress would induce them to come to
their senses and repent of their sin and thus they would stop blaspheming God).
In the latter case the reason was that the spirit of that man might be saved
on the day of the Lord Jesus. Now, in the latter case it seems that that
believer would certainly be saved after Paul handed him over to Satan; however
it is evident that salvation would be possible only if that believer came to
his senses and repented of his sin of fornication. Why? Because fornicators
will not inherit the |
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From these two
examples of believers delivered unto Satan, we deduce that the servants of
God by the authority of God can ‘use’ Satan in order to induce some believers
to repent of some particular sins they have committed. Obviously the devil is
happy to be able to strike a believer with a disease and to destroy him physically,
but what the devil does to harm a believer, God is able to turn into good,
for He uses his wickedness in order to put the corrupted believer on the
right road. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom of God! |
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In the light of the above
mentioned cases, God uses the devil in order to put an end to some kinds of
sins, by giving repentance to those who have committed these sins. But there
are some cases in which God uses the devil to prevent His children from
falling in certain sins. We have an example in Paul, for God, in order to
prevent Paul from becoming conceited because of the surpassingly great
revelations he had received from the Lord, gave him an angel of Satan to torment
him (2 Corinthians 12:1-10). So, Paul, humiliated physically by God, would be
prevented from becoming conceited. Therefore, sometimes God uses the devil
and his wicked angels both to punish His children for their sins and to
prevent them from becoming conceited. |
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Are there nowadays examples of servants of God who have delivered some
believers unto Satan that their flesh might be destroyed for their
repentance? I am acquainted with a case, for I read it in a book of a
missionary who was in a Eastern Country and who said
that he had handed a believer, who had committed fornication, over to Satan. |