DCLM Daily Manna 4 August 2026: Grace For The Fallen Ones
KEY VERSE
“Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11).
Bible Reading: 2 Corinthians 2:6-11 (KJV)
6 Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.
7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
9 For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;
11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
READ OTHER DCLM DAILY DEVOTIONAL HERE
In his book, Uncommon Friends, James D. Newton (1905-1999) related the story of Thomas A. Edison, who was working on a light bulb, which took a team of men 24 hours to complete. When he finished, he gave it to a young boy to carry upstairs. The boy held it nervously and mistakenly dropped it at the top of the stairs. The entire team took 24 more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was prepared to have his bulb carried up the stairs. He handed it to the same young boy who had dropped the first one. That was a demonstration of true forgiveness.
Apostle Paul, in today’s text, showed similar forgiveness to an errant member of the Corinthian church. The young man was involved in the egregious sin of sleeping with his father’s wife. News of this incest and the associated scandal so grieved the apostle that he cancelled his planned trip to them and wrote a stern rebuke, instructing them to excommunicate the offender. With time, when the discipline had had the expected effect of godly sorrow and repentance on both the incestuous fellow and the church, the apostle recommended that the man be restored fully to fellowship. The penitent offender needed the forgiveness and acceptance of the church to assuage his agony and recover his spiritual confidence.
This narrative highlights a balanced blend of chastisement and charity. Apostle Paul reasoned that abandoning the excommunicated offender, even after his repentance, would cause him further torture and give Satan a chance to hijack the affair; “… for we are not ignorant of his devices”, he said. Many believers seem to be ignorant of Satan’s devices in this regard. Very often, a fallen Christian is left to rot on the island of banishment. Many such forgotten ones would have traced their way back home to calvary and church, but for the hostile attitude of the believers around them.
If God, Apostle Paul, and the Corinthian church could forgive the repentant incestuous backslider, who are we to keep such fallen brethren away from the means of grace? Let us give Satan no advantage over the church.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
If you can’t keep a brother from falling, don’t keep him from rising up
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR
John 8-9
DCLM Daily Manna 4 August 2026
