"Paul appeals to them. "Look," he says, "I have been open and frank with you; I've bared my soul. It isn't anything in us that has created a frozen, sterile relationship between us. We have poured out our hearts. If there is hesitancy, it is on your part; you are the ones who have stifled your emotions. You have held back-come on, like good children, open your hearts to us again!" (vv. 11-13). There is a time to appeal to the emotions. Not apart from facts, but in the midst of them. We are not all logic, nor are we all feelings. The proper mix of the two, reaching the whole person, is properly called for in counseling as in all ministry. There are times to plead as Paul did here. There are times to spill your gut as he is doing throughout this very personal letter. But you must be careful not to do so in wrong ways and at wrong times. Use wisdom and good judgment always. But as a part of a long argument in defense of his character and ministry it was inevitable that at various points the emotional element would predominate. Few counseling sessions of any length and consequence will be free of emotional moments. Nor should they be. Don't become a white-coated, unemotional automaton; in counseling bring all you are and feel into the sessions (always keeping your emotions under control).
In verses 14-18, Paul strongly appeals to the Corinthians to depart from those who are unsettling their faith. Perhaps it was their old comrades whom they had abandoned when they became Christians, perhaps it was unsaved persons in the Church; we don't really know. But it is clear that it was unbelievers who had challenged the legitimacy of Paul's ministry. It would seem, from the passage he quotes in calling for separation from them, that the former rather than the latter was true. Either way, Paul makes every effort to break up the associations that were causing unrest. He warns about the unequal yoke of believers with unbelievers. He compares and contrasts them as opposites (vv. 14-16). Then, in the words of the Old Testament, he calls them to come out from among such persons and be separate. When they do, they are really leaving nothing behind; God Himself will welcome them (vv. 17, 18). What have you left when, by doing so, you enter into the family of the heavenly Father and become his child?
In the first letter, Paul warned that evil companions corrupt
good habits (I Corinthians 15:33). Evidently that warning had not been
heeded, at least by some. Here a more direct appeal is made in very strong
terms. There are times when the influence of other persons, usually not
believers, is so strong that the only way to begin to make headway with
a counselee is to call on him to abandon those who are pulling him in the
wrong direction. In data-gathering, therefore, it is important to
check out who are the influential persons in the counselee's life and to
discover what advice they are feeding him. Also a sketch of their life-styles,
what the counselee does in conjunction with them, and an analysis of their
opinion of Christ and Christian counseling might be informative. The counselor
who is alert to such matters, always filling in the context of a counselee's
life so as to understand the factors that impinge on his behavior, will
seldom go wrong in making such an appeal."