Trying Not To Be Harsh

 

Apostle Paul - Rembrandt

We've been studying II Corinthians in our Sunday School this year and reached chapter 13 this past Sunday. I was struck by Paul's closing to the church in this chapter. A question was asked in class about verse 7:

Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. (2 Corinthians 13:7 KJV)

This has to be studied in context, as with all verses - even those we use as stand-alone. Paul writes of reprobates in the two previous verses:

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? (2 Corinthians 13:5 KJV)

We are to do as Paul did - examine our own lives to know if we do have Jesus in ourselves. Paul had written this second letter to a church who had reprobates. He felt he had to explain that sinfulness was being lived by members and accepted by a congregation. The application applies to us, too, so we need to know what being a reprobate means - according to Strong's:

ἀδόκιμος

adokimos

ad-ok'-ee-mos

From G1 (as a negative particle) and G1384; unapproved, that is, rejected; by implication worthless (literally or morally): - castaway, rejected, reprobate.

When we believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and trust that what He promised in John 3:16, God provides a Comforter for us that is ours forever:

If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (John 14:15-17 KJV)

Comforter is mentioned in Ecclesiastes 4:1 and Lamentations 1:9, 16. The references concern a lack of a comforter, but John provides the explanation of who the Comforter is as well as what the Comforter does for us:

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14:26 KJV)

When we examine ourselves, we need to know what Jesus taught so that is part of our "remembrance." Remembering that the first and most important commandment is to love God and our neighbors (Matthew 22:35-40)

When we are living as though those two commandments do not exist, when people cannot see Jesus in our lives, they wonder if we ever did understand what He taught. We would be seen as reprobates, as castaways, unapproved, worthless - and strongest of all - rejected. Obviously, Paul was not a reprobate:

But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. (2 Corinthians 13:6 KJV)

That background brings me to verse 7 again. Paul was asking the congregation at Corinth to do no evil, not to show that Paul was not a reprobate, but that they should do what is honest whether Paul was or not. The Corinthian had the good news that Christ came from God to share God's good news, die on the cross, defeat death by His resurrection, and tell us that it was for all to hear and accept. 

Paul preached that same gospel everywhere he went. We read it over and over again in the New Testament. Paul told Agrippa what Jesus sent him to teach - and you should be hearing this same message from pulpits today:

To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (Acts 26:18 KJV)

It shouldn't matter if the person sitting next to you in church is a reprobate, seems to be a reprobate, or has been deemed by others to be a reprobate. Jesus' message was personal, individual, open to each one of us. Paul told the church at Corinth, and your own pastor should be speaking the same message that includes the first two works of verse 5:  Examine yourselves. Not someone else, but each of us examine ourselves and pray for the Comforter to bring to our remembrance what we need to do.