Building Up

 DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

BUILDING UP

2 Cor 13:5-10

5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you — unless, of course, you fail the test? 6 And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. 7 Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. Not that people will see that we have stood the test but that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. 8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 9 We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is for your perfection. 10 This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of authority — the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down.

NIV

One last thought about these last words of Paul in this letter. He was given the authority by the Lord for the purpose of building them up and not tearing them down. This is the task we have been given as well. The Lord would never give anyone authority to tear people down, to make them feel small and useless or without worth. We are always supposed to build each other up until we all reach unity in the faith. But the other truth which is of utmost importance is that we must have the authority of the Lord. Unless he has given us that authority, we have no business saying anything to anyone about their faith or rather they walk with the Lord. This may be a problem for some immature or false preachers who preach about the problems in the church. All that does is tear down, not build up. Paul says that he cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. That is the point, to tell the truth, nothing but the truth, and to live according to the truth. We can write about the truth and preach about the truth and live about the truth and that is all we can do and in doing that it should build others up. Now if the truth is told, then if someone is living outside that truth and simply hears the truth and the Spirit within nudges them to make some changes then they have been built up, increased in stature with men and with God. The truth is not intended to insight guilt or shame, but to simply illuminate the way of the Lord. Now, looking at this from the other hand, we too much always be open to the truth and do that self-examination thing, to see if we are matching up to the truth. It is possible the truth can be harsh at times, if we are having a little mini-war with God, being rebellious about some area of our lives. But, again, we need to be sensitive to the working of the Spirit within and allow him to continue this transforming of us into the image of Christ. The truth does that, it aids in our being transformed into the image of the Son, which is what is God’s intent, which is building us up.