‘Now we pray to God that you do no evil, not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honourable, and that we be as reprobate.'
So on the assumption of their new recognition of his acceptability with God, as one who is not disapproved, he points out that he is praying for them from now on to ‘do no evil'. He desires that they will assert their acceptance of his authority and will refrain from all the things of which he has accused them in 2 Corinthians 12:20-21. That they will from now on live righteous lives. He wants them to be approved. And he stresses that this is not in order that he might be approved by God, or by men who see how effective his rebukes have been, but in order that they might do what is honourable, even though, because they do it in response to his letter, it might indicate that he himself has failed the test, because it is not seen as his doing. His thoughts are not for himself but for their final good. He wants no credit for himself, only that they might begin to live new lives because they recognise that his authority is from God.