Reading this passage feels the same as hearing just the end of an argument. We don't know what all was done or what was said, but we know it was painful and hurtful. Paul felt that whatever was happening at the church in Corinth was so bad that he had to challenge their leaders, confront the wrong, and disrupt the normal operation of that congregation. Many of that congregation vigorously opposed Paul, and the result was a very ugly situation.

We have brief accounts in Acts about the work in Corinth, but those accounts do not reveal the nature of the split in the Christian fellowship. We think we have portions of four letters that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, but we do not have any of the responses from the Corinthians, nor do we have all the messages that Paul sent by messengers as he both encouraged and criticized them to save them from abandoning what God had called them to do.

No matter what the details of the argument, Paul's response to it was remarkable. Paul was almost certainly in the right in whatever the dispute, but he was eager to apologize for the hurt that he caused, and willing to stay away if it would bring less pain, even though the longed to come and make things right.

There apparently was one particular man whom the Corinthians had ostracized as being a major source of the wrong in that congregation. Paul was eager to see this troublemaker accepted back into the fellowship, even though he had caused such grief to Paul and to the people there. We have no indication that this person had apologized sufficiently, and Paul didn't care, so long as the people made certain to show him how much they still loved him.

Paul's action reminds me of the tactics used against brush fires. The heat of an active wildfire rises so vigorously that fresh air rushes into the flames, and this incoming air causes the fire to burn even hotter. Left alone, wildfires will continue to build and spread, so fire fighters cut a firebreak to stop the spread of the wildfire.

Paul's reaction was the equivalent of a firebreak to the heartache and pain caused by the arguments that had happened in that church. So long as people dwelt on what had gone on in the past, the "fuel" was still present to sustain the argument and the hurt. Paul's radical action removed the fuel. It didn't matter if he was right or wrong—he apologized. No matter how wrong this other man was, he should be forgiven and embraced. Stop the pain. Heal each others' hurts. Come together to carry on the work of God.

It is not enough to do right and to confront wrong. The frightening reality Paul observed was that Satan uses our morality to disrupt and destroy our ministry. After all, if morality was all we needed, the Pharisees would have "saved" humanity and Jesus would not have come to earth. More to the point, our righteousness cannot bridge broken relationships, and it cannot protect us from falling under evil's control.

Only Love can dig a firebreak to stop a vicious cycle of hurting and being hurt. Only Love can build bridges. Only when we cling to God's Love will we stand firm against Satan's deceptions. When we listen more closely to God's Love than we listen to ourselves, we will hear God's Love pleading with every person, no matter how wrong we think they are, to come back, to receive Love, and to be a part of God's family—and we will willingly carry that plea.