In I Cor. 5:, another aspect of this same principle is revealed. Owing to the fact that

the Corinthian believers had been brought up amidst the most awful immorality, they had

continued in the practice of such deeds that were `not so much as named among the

Gentiles'. The Apostle, with the day of Christ in view says:

Here is chastening indeed, involving even the destruction of the flesh now so that the

spirit may be saved `so as by fire'. Such a chastening demands the personal presence of

an Apostle and does not apply to the present dispensation. Paul himself knew something

of this drastic chastening, for he wrote to the same church:

Externally there is a vast difference between the gross immorality of the Corinthians,

and the possibility of spiritual pride in the heart of Paul, and in the one case deliverance

to Satan results in the destruction of the flesh, whereas an angel of Satan produces a stake

in the flesh and `buffets' the Apostle. Yet in the solemn light of the Bema, and the

presence of that word `if' in connection with the judgment of Tyre, Sidon and Sodom,

who is to decide whether spiritual pride in a deeper and fuller knowledge of

dispensational truth, may not be a grosser evil than an immoral act practiced by those

who like the Corinthians had been brought up in an atmosphere of defilement? Writing

to the Corinthians in connection with the crown and prize, he said "I keep under by body

. . . . . lest . . . . . I should be a castaway" (adokimos disqualified from entering into the

race or from receiving an award ­ I Cor. 9: 27). Here, in II Cor. 12:, the angel of Satan

buffets him with a like end in view.

While these experiences belong more particularly to the Church of the Acts period,

and find no parallel in the epistles of the Mystery, we must beware of setting them aside

entirely, for the Prison epistles speak of a judgment comparable with the Bema and

consequently many of these principles will apply now as then. We have seen that from

one point of view `we judge nothing before the time' yet from another, and easily

understandable point of view, we should judge ourselves now. There is another principle

enunciated in the Scriptures that should be added to our list, and that is the standard of

judgment whereby we ourselves shall be judged, is the standard whereby we ourselves

already judge others. This was enunciated at the first in the Sermon on the Mount:

"Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee" was the statement of the Lord to the

servant who complained that his master was `an austere man'. Writing to the Romans,

and particularly to the Jew, Paul said: