“hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.”
If we are willing to take the time to place ourselves in the position of the father in the story of the prodigal, we must ask ourselves - would we give our child the means and freedom to waste their life and our hard-earned wealth on wild living? Most of us would cut them off from our wealth. The father had a choice and he chose not only to let his son go, but to give him the means for his wild living. This 3rd story in a parable Jesus told to teach us how God values repentance overs elf-righteousness, directly relates the freedom and means that the father gave his son to the destruction of the son’s flesh. Not that he physically died, but that his desire for living away from his father changed into a desire to dwell under his father’s protection. This is repentance and this is the goal of Paul’s command to the church at Corinth to hand this man over to the life he desires - to Satan who is the master of all wild living – believing that this man would come to his senses and desire the fellowship of being at home among his father’s servants. It is faith – it is a belief that this man is a real child of God, and that his Lord Jesus would seek him out and turn his heart.
Repentance is what God desires, not hypocrisy and not self righteousness.
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