Punishment & forgiveness

Few things are as fundamental to our Christian lives than a correct understanding practice of punishment and forgiveness, and there is nothing that Satan loves more than injustice and enmity.
The Christian life can only start when we realise our guilt before God (see John 16:7-11 where Jesus explains that this self awareness is the work of the Holy Spirit). That is hard enough for people to accept, but the next steps are unnacceptable to many 'Christians' today; for if we are guilty and God is truly just, then there must be punishment (that's the point Paul labours in Romans 1-3, climaxing in Romans 3:19-20), and for us to be forgiven, someone has to bear that punishment or God ceases to be just. Once we see this, then we can understand what happened at the cross - how Jesus Christ took our guilt and was punished for it on our behalf so that we could be forgiven and God remain just (Isaiah 53; Romans 3:21-26).
But punishment and forgiveness sometimes also has to occur in human relationships. When someone has wronged someone else, then there may have to be just and fair punishment. Clearly this had happened in Corinth when someone had persisted in sexual immorality and would not repent (1 Corinthians 5:1). And in 2 Corinthians 2:5-11, the issue of punishment and forgiveness crops up again. It's hard to know exactly what had happened, but someone had done something that had so upset some of the Corinthians that they had punished him. Perhaps the punishment was just, perhaps not (v10). But Paul's point is that there comes a time when forgiveness has to be offered and reconciliation made, "in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes." (v11).
There's nothing Satan likes more than enmity. Enmity between God and man or enmity between Christians. And Satan hates the cross because there he was defeated, for there reconciliation and peace between God and man were made possible. Not only that, but when sinners are reconciled to God, they learn to be reconciled to each other.
At St Peter's, as we begin to experience growth and now have two paid ministers, we enter into areas where Satan sees opportunities for division and strife. We need to be on our guard and remain united. It will, from time-to-time, mean forgiving one another. But we're people of the cross, united to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we must not - we will not - be divided!!