NOW I PRAY TO GOD THAT YE DO NO EVIL

A characteristic of teenage children is that invariably they feel they know far more than their parents - in fact they know it all! Often, they even consider parents as inferiors who have never stood where they stand. Spiritually, this is how the Corinthians were now viewing Paul. They were even casting doubt on the authority of his apostleship, and on his right to come among them in a disciplinary, corrective manner. They were almost challenging him as to the derivation and proof of his authority.

He gives them a threefold test in verse 5 - ‘examine yourselves’; ‘prove your own selves’; ‘know ye not your own selves?’. In the medical world self-examination is encouraged for certain problems before a visit to the doctor. Often in the spiritual realm there is need for this before we can apply for the remedy of the divine Physician. Often our problems are connected with ourselves, and we have the capacity to remedy them before appealing to the Lord. How often is my attitude towards other believers a wrong one? How often do I feel superior to others - even those who may have been on the road long before me, yet, for some reason I find myself despising them? Such feelings can be real, and they need immediate treatment.

I examine myself. Am I in Christ? Have I been saved? Has the Lord kept me? Have I enjoyed His company, and that of fellow believers over the years? If the answer to the foregoing is in the affirmative, then there can be no doubt I am the Lord’s. But if l am the Lord’s, then my attitude towards other believers should not be scornful and condescending, but full of grace and love.

Prayerful exercise before God is the answer here. We should pray for one another, but particularly for ourselves that we might think, say or do nothing towards others of which we shall be ashamed, whether now or in a coming day. ‘Deliver us from evil’ still applies and we need to pray it regularly, for we never can tell the full potential of what lies within, Matt. 6. 13. Significantly, we need to be sure that we all ‘do good especially unto them who are of the household of faith’, Gal. 6. 10. So, as we pray, let’s have in mind to do good and ‘do no evil’, v. 7.