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Examine Yourselves - 2Cor. 13
Examine Yourselves - 2Cor. 13
As Paul ends his letter to a troubled church at Corinth, he tells them to ‘test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; EXAMINE YOURSELVES!” (2Cor 13:5).
SELF. So many are busy examining everyone else that they fail to examine self.
There is an objective standard: ‘the faith’. It is THE faith once for all delivered (Jude 4). It is the ONE faith that is revealed for all people. It is the faith that was preached by Paul and the other apostles (Gal. 1:23). It is the faith that produces our faith (Rom. 1:16; 10:17). It is the revealed faith that we are to examine ourselves by.
The real danger is being self-deceived. We begin to excuse our actions because of ‘our intentions’. I worry that we are often deceived about our own intentions. Perhaps we intended to intend that. Since we ‘intended to do right’, we excuse the fact of our NOT doing so. Be not deceived, God is not mocked (cp. Gal. 6:7).
Being ‘in the faith’ is not being ‘perfect’, but it is striving to always do right. These things are written that you might NOT SIN (1John 2:1). That is the GOAL. However, John adds: “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” He THEN adds: “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (vs. 3).
There is a real danger of being selective in our test. The Pharisees failed such test because they left off the ‘big items’ and majored in the ‘minor’ items, the items that they were good at! (cp. Matt. 23, esp. verses 23). Jesus warns that they should have been doing such minor things, but should NOT have left off the major things! Today we often forget that Jesus said: “these things you ought to have done”. We make it an either/or situation: one can EITHER do the big things OR the little things. Jesus said we should be doing both.
Such examinations indeed will find our faults. We, however, do not despair but renew our conviction concerning Jesus: who he is and what He did and does for us. We find grace to help. We remember we have a high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses. We have a mediator in heaven who intercedes for us. We have a Father who loves us so much that he provided that we can be forgiven. Thus, Paul can end this letter to a troubled church: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (2Cor. 13:14).
Hugh DeLong
