The Most Important Exam
5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless you fail the test.
2 Corinthians 13:5
You will recall from our intro to Second Corinthians that one of the major struggles of the Corinthian church was unity. They were divided on doctrine, leadership, and the ministry of Paul. These “super-apostles had sowed the seeds for this division and, to Paul’s disappointment, many of the Corinthians had accepted their critiques and were too challenging Paul. Some may have boldly demanded Paul to provide proof that Christ indeed was speaking through him.
You can imagine emotions of betrayal and annoyance that he must feel needing to come for a third time to demonstrate the validity of his apostleship and ministry. This third visit, however, he warns will not be one marked with gentleness but of power (13:2-3). It could be that his leniency and mercy in dealing with wrongdoers were misinterpreted as weakness, and he warns them that he will not spare them. This word (pheidomai) is the same word used to describe the future ravaging of false teachers upon the flock in Ephesus (Acts 20:29) and the same verb form used of God not sparing His own Son, but offering Him up for us all (Romans 8:32). The idea being conveyed is that not one of these wrongdoers will escape his judgment. He will come in the power of Christ to deal with these wicked doers and opponents to him.
Paul then turns the tables on them by pointing them to the more important question that they should have been asking. He had demonstrated to them the fact that Christ is in Him, thus the question was not whether or not Christ is in him, but if Christ is living in them. Just as Paul had wrote to the Galatians to test their own work (Gal 6:4), he calls for the Corinthians to not compare themselves to him, but to examine themselves. And this examination has a specific purpose. It is not to measure the degree of faithfulness, fruitfulness, and fidelity in their own lives to God. Surely a self-examination of one’s live would then validate the ministry of Paul because it was through him that they received the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:2). So, for the Corinthians to approve of themselves, would also to approve of Paul.
But there is one final purpose of this testing that is to be done. It is to test to see whether or not they are in the faith. They had become preoccupied with scrutinizing the life of Paul, and perhaps others, that they had neglected to dissect their own and this bears eternal consequences. In rejecting Paul, they are rejecting Christ, opposing the work that He is doing in Paul, discarding the commands Paul had given to them. In fact, a dual purpose for this letter was to “test [them] and know whether [they] are obedient in everything.” (2:9). As theologian Richard Hanson commented, “A Christian’s conduct, then, is a very good ready reckoner for determining his relationship to Christ, and a much better one than his religious experience.” The question we would do well to ask ourselves then is this, is Christ surely living in me?
Grace and Peace,
Alex Galvez
Please subscribe and share this blog with all of your friends To subscribe, click on the "Subscribe" button at the top of the blog page (https://aogalvez.blogspot.com/)
****************************************************
These articles follow the current Bible Reading plan for Overflow Ministries. If you would like to join the reading plan, simply download the plan here: Overflow Reading Plan
You may follow Overflow Church @ https://faithlife.com/overflowtx/activity
or on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/OverflowChurchTX/
You can imagine emotions of betrayal and annoyance that he must feel needing to come for a third time to demonstrate the validity of his apostleship and ministry. This third visit, however, he warns will not be one marked with gentleness but of power (13:2-3). It could be that his leniency and mercy in dealing with wrongdoers were misinterpreted as weakness, and he warns them that he will not spare them. This word (pheidomai) is the same word used to describe the future ravaging of false teachers upon the flock in Ephesus (Acts 20:29) and the same verb form used of God not sparing His own Son, but offering Him up for us all (Romans 8:32). The idea being conveyed is that not one of these wrongdoers will escape his judgment. He will come in the power of Christ to deal with these wicked doers and opponents to him.
Paul then turns the tables on them by pointing them to the more important question that they should have been asking. He had demonstrated to them the fact that Christ is in Him, thus the question was not whether or not Christ is in him, but if Christ is living in them. Just as Paul had wrote to the Galatians to test their own work (Gal 6:4), he calls for the Corinthians to not compare themselves to him, but to examine themselves. And this examination has a specific purpose. It is not to measure the degree of faithfulness, fruitfulness, and fidelity in their own lives to God. Surely a self-examination of one’s live would then validate the ministry of Paul because it was through him that they received the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:2). So, for the Corinthians to approve of themselves, would also to approve of Paul.
But there is one final purpose of this testing that is to be done. It is to test to see whether or not they are in the faith. They had become preoccupied with scrutinizing the life of Paul, and perhaps others, that they had neglected to dissect their own and this bears eternal consequences. In rejecting Paul, they are rejecting Christ, opposing the work that He is doing in Paul, discarding the commands Paul had given to them. In fact, a dual purpose for this letter was to “test [them] and know whether [they] are obedient in everything.” (2:9). As theologian Richard Hanson commented, “A Christian’s conduct, then, is a very good ready reckoner for determining his relationship to Christ, and a much better one than his religious experience.” The question we would do well to ask ourselves then is this, is Christ surely living in me?
Grace and Peace,
Alex Galvez
Please subscribe and share this blog with all of your friends To subscribe, click on the "Subscribe" button at the top of the blog page (https://aogalvez.blogspot.com/)
****************************************************
These articles follow the current Bible Reading plan for Overflow Ministries. If you would like to join the reading plan, simply download the plan here: Overflow Reading Plan
You may follow Overflow Church @ https://faithlife.com/overflowtx/activity
or on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/OverflowChurchTX/
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