It’s truth, just truth. 2 Corinthians 13.7, 8
2 Corinthians 13 (4)
Pray Psalm 19.12-14.
Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse me from secret faults.
Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless,
And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.
Sing Psalm 19.12-14.
(St. Christopher: Beneath the Cross of Jesus)
Who, LORD, can know his errors? O keep sin far from me!
Let evil rule not in my soul that I may blameless be.
O let my thoughts, let all my words, before Your glorious sight
be pleasing to You, gracious LORD, acceptable and right.
Read 2 Corinthians 13.1-8; meditate on verses 7, 8.
Preparation
1. What did Paul want the Corinthians to do?
2. What was to be their standard?
Meditation
The opposite of the truth is the lie. The lie, as Paul explains in Romans 1.18-32, is anything people do without giving thanks to God and submitting to His Word. If there is any area of our lives where we are not consciously seeking the strength of God to overcome our weakness and show His grace and glory to our world, then we have let the lie into our tent. And soon, if we don’t deal with it, everything in our tent will begin to smell like the lie.
Paul said the standard to look to for distinguishing evil from honorable is truth. God’s Word is truth (Jn. 17.17). God’s Word has sanctifying power in our lives. God’s Word illumines the Jesus path, makes us wise unto salvation, equips us for every good work, and profits our souls unto righteousness. Jesus is God’s Word and the Scriptures are God’s Word. Daily we must strive to make every thought, all our affections, every choice, decision, action, and word—every aspect of our lives—to make them obedient to the Word of God. As we do, the people among whom we work, with whom we consort, and who observe us doing this and that will see a light and experience a leavening power which can make all things new in their lives. Some will see this honorable way of life as hope, and they may ask us to explain it to them.
We must be ready to tell the Good News of Jesus and call our neighbors to join us on the Jesus Path of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. That’s all Paul ever wanted for the Corinthians, and it’s what Jesus wants for us and all the people we know.
Let the standard for our lives be the truth of God, and the Light of Jesus will shine through us to our world.
Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
“Now I pray to God that you do no evil…” (2 Cor. 13.7).
This was Paul’s heart toward his Corinthian children in the faith.
This was also Moses’ heart towards the children of Israel.
Thus, this is how he prayed for them when they had done evil, and God was ready to dispense with them:
“LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?’ Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ So the LORDrelented from the harm which He said He would do to His people” (Ex. 32.11-14).
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (Jms. 5.16).
This was also Jesus’ heart when He set out to teach His disciples to properly pray. He told them to pray this: “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matt. 6.13).
Through the example of Paul, Moses, and Jesus we see that we must pray this way for ourselves and for others, that our standard of conduct must be exemplary and honorable, and that we do nothing against the truth (2 Cor. 13.8), because the faith and our Father are besmirched by our unseemly behaviors.
A lot is riding on how we comport ourselves, throughout our life, within our Personal Mission Field. As Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5.16). It does not take a genius-in-residence to figure out what the opposite of that is. And that is what we are to avoid for the glory of God and the good of others.
If “the standard for our lives be the truth of God,” then most assuredly “the light of Jesus will shine through us to our world.”
But our motivation must be the kind of love for others that Paul, Moses, and Jesus spoke of, prayed through, and lived out to the fullest in their Personal Mission Fields. They did no evil, thereby exemplifying the truth of God’s Word.
For reflection
1. How would you describe your prayers for the people in your Personal Mission Field?
2. Have you “examined yourself” lately? In which areas of your life do you need to see more of the Word of God at work?
3. How do you expect to see the Light of Jesus shine through you today?
Paul is saying this because there is no power against the truth. They cannot reprove someone who is living a good life, but only someone who is an enemy of the law. This power will come to nothing if people have done what is good. Ambrosiaster (fl. ca. 366-384), Commentary on Paul’s Epistles
Pray Psalm 19.7-11.
Praise and thank the Lord for His Word, for His Word is truth (Jn. 17.17). Call on Him to shine the light of truth before you today, and to strengthen you to walk the Jesus Path.
Sing Psalm 19.7-11.
(St. Christopher: Beneath the Cross of Jesus)
The Law of God is perfect, His testimony sure;
the simple man God’s wisdom learns, the soul receives its cure.
God’s Word is right, and His command is pure, and truth imparts;
He makes our eyes to understand; with joy He fills our hearts.
The fear of God is cleansing, forever shall it last.
His judgments all are true and just, by righteousness held fast.
O seek them more than gold most fine, than honey find them sweet;
be warned by every word and line; be blessed with joy complete.
T. M. and Susie Moore
Growing in prayer
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter, available by clicking here.
