“Testing 1,2,3”
II Corinthians 13:5
November 11, 2001
The Rev’d Quintin Morrow
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Fort Worth, Texas
qgmorrow@st-andrew.com
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test (II Cor. 13:5 English Standard Version).
When Harry Truman was thrust into the presidency, by the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Sam Rayburn took him aside and said,
“From here on out, you’re going to have lots of people around you. They’ll try to put up a wall around you and cut you off from any ideas but theirs. They’ll tell you what a great man you are, Harry. But you and I both know you ain’t.
In response to a letter from a reader, newspaper advice columnist Ann Landers wrote this response:
Know yourself. Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.
The admonition of St. Paul the Apostle from II Corinthians 13:5 is of even greater gravity and import than that of Sam Rayburn or Ann Landers. His exhortation is not merely to know ourselves, but to examine and test ourselves to see whether or not we have been genuinely converted.
The context for our text is important, and it is this. Paul came to Corinth and, as was his custom, preached the Gospel, stayed long enough in the city to organize the fledging church, disciple and raise up leadership for the new congregation there, and then he moved on to repeat that pattern elsewhere. After his departure from Corinth Paul got word that there were troubles in the church. There was disorder in public worship, division, doctrinal confusion, immoral and unloving behavior by some in the church, and a group of Corinthians who were usurping leadership in the congregation and calling Paul’s apostolic authority into question. But these ecclesiastical upstarts got more than they bargained for with the apostle. Paul turns the tables of inquiry onto his accusers. Instead of providing proof of his authority from Christ to be an apostle, he counsels the Corinthians to examine test and examine themselves to see if their faith and their conversion were genuine. The Greek grammar in the verse places great emphasis on the personal pro-nouns “yourself” and “you.” Paul was demonstrating the inconsistency of the Corinthians’ false assumption. They assumed that their faith was genuine and his apostleship false. Paul had preached the Gospel message to these Corinthians as a true and genuine apostle. Consequently, if his apostleship was counterfeit, then so were their faith and their conversion. But, since St. Paul’s apostle-ship was genuine, so was the conversion of the Corinthians. He says, “Do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?” The genuineness of their salvation was proof of the genuineness of Paul’s authority as an apostle.
The apostle’s counsel is wise, necessary and must be heeded. There are lots of tests and examinations we take and have taken in our life. There are driving tests, medical tests, the Bar Exam, SATs, residency exams and college finals. Some tests are more important than others. But the one St. Paul exhorts us to—the self-examination to see if we are genuinely converted, saved and have Christ indwelling our hearts by faith—is the most important exam of all. Eternity is hanging on the answer to this exam. For, as the Lord Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). And I John 5:12 reminds us of this unambiguous truth: “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
Too much is riding on the results of this test for us to balk at, postpone or ignore examining our souls. Our eternal destiny is at stake.
Notice, first of all, Paul’s exhortation: “Examine yourselves,” the apostle counsels, “test yourselves.”
The truth is, far too many churchgoers assume far too much about themselves. The truth is, it is possible to profess Christ and not possess Christ. The Lord Jesus reminds us in Matthew 7:1:
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven.
Most in our culture today believe that men are justified not by faith, and not even by good works, but by death. Watch television. Read the newspapers. Listen to the radio. Peruse the obituary page. The common “faith” held by most these days is that all one has to do to be welcomed into the everlasting arms is die. But they are mistaken. Don’t you be mistaken. Jesus said that the gate to eternal life is narrow and the road that leads to eternal life is hard, “and few there be that find it.”
We must, as St. Paul admonishes us, and as those in Twelve-Step programs know to be essential, take an honest, soul-searching moral and spiritual inventory of ourselves. This thorough self-examination will reveal whether or not we really possess Christ, whether or not we have genuinely been born again, or whether we are living under a false assumption.
This self-examination should be done when you are alone. It should be conducted soberly and honestly, and when you have ample time for thoroughness. Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher of the nineteenth century, preached a sermon on our text at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens, on October 10th, 1858. In his sermon on II Corinthians 13:5 Spurgeon admonishes his congregation to examine themselves as a professor examines a student and puts him through his paces to see if he really knows what he ought to know. He counsels them to examine themselves as a regimental commander examines his troops on inspection day, closely and scrupulously. He exhorts them to test their souls as a lawyer cross-examines a lying witness in the witness box. “You have seen,” Spurgeon said,
the witness in the box, when the lawyer has been examining him…. Now, mark: never was there a rogue less trustworthy or more deceitful than your own heart, and as when you are cross-examining a dishonest person…you set traps for him to try and find him out in a lie, so do with your own heart. Question it backward and forward, this way and that way; for if there be a loophole for escape, if there be any pretense for self-deception, rest assured your treacherous heart will be ready enough to avail itself of it.
He tells his hearers to examine their souls as a traveler who travels a country wishing to write a book about, from top to bottom, from border to border.
We must examine our souls, dear friends, by the rule and standard of God’s holy Word. We mustn’t compare ourselves to other men, for they are fallible and sinful like ourselves, and we are apt to find someone more sinful than ourselves for comparison and thus arrive at a false answer.
We must examine our public conduct. Does what we say and what we do reveal that Christ dwells within us? Do those who know you best know you to be a follower of Christ? Does your conduct betray your faith? If it were illegal to be a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Do your actions and public manner of life demonstrate that you have been washed in the blood of Christ, cleansed and born again? Does it reveal, as Peter says I Peter 2:9 that you have been called out of darkness into his marvelous light? We have been called, but does your public conduct show you, as Paul says, as one who lives a life worthy of that calling?
We must examine, likewise, our private conduct. For the human heart is given to public displays of piety, and we are prone to hypocrisy. Are we someone else in private than we are in public? Young people, do we lead a double-life? Republican congressman J.C. Watts once defined character as who you are when no one else is around. The truth of the matter is, who we really are when no one else is around is who we really are.
Examine yourselves. Test yourselves. That’s the exhortation.
Next comes the examination: “To see whether you are in the faith.”
This is a purpose statement. It is the end, or the point, of the self-examination: to see whether or not we really are Christians, to see whether or not we have been genuinely and truly converted.
But how can we know for sure? We can know whether or not we are born again by there being a difference in our lives. We will never be perfect in this life. That glorification will occur for us either when we die and go to be with the Lord, or when the Lord returns with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet-call of God to receive His own. Until then, we will struggle with sin and temptation. We will struggle, but we shouldn’t conquered by them.
When we are truly converted, God brings life to our spirits, our souls, which previously were dead in trespasses and sin. He pours the Holy Spirit into our hearts to begin an internal spiritual renovation that manifests itself in a change in our nature, character, values, outlook, morals and priorities. When we are justified by faith alone God credits our faith as righteousness and our standing with God changes. But at the same, we are born again when we repent of our sins and receive Christ, and the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us to sanctify us. This work is lifelong; it doesn’t happen overnight. But the Holy Spirit works incrementally in us to make us internally what we are relationally; namely, fit to stand before God. Paul makes clear in Romans chapter 6 that if we have been united to Christ by faith, our old sinful natures have been crucified with Christ. And that just as the Father raised up Christ from death, He also has raised us up to walk in newness of life. He says in verses 12 and 13 of Romans 6:
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
What all this means is that if your conversion was genuine, you should see some transformation in your life. You should see a growth in love and holiness. In other words, genuine conversion results in discernible and visible fruit. We should, in the sober and thorough examination of our hearts, be able to look back and see a change in our lives—both our public and our private lives. For some the change will be dramatic. For others, the change will be slower and more incremental. But a change there must be.
Specifically, as we survey the Scriptures, we find three areas of our lives which should be transformed.
The first thing we should be able to discern if our conversion is genuine is our love transformed. St. Augustine rightly said that as a result of the Fall our human natures have become incurvatis in se, “twisted in on themselves.” We have a proclivity toward self-love and self-deification. But when God regenerates our sinful hearts and the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us, our love gets transformed. First of all, we begin to love God, and the things of God, whereas before we were either ambivalent or openly hostile to Him and His law. Secondly, we begin to love God’s people. John tells us in his first epistle that a love for the brethren is one of the ways we know we have eternal life, and the way we know we genuinely love God. “Beloved,” John writes, “let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (I Jn. 4:7). And thirdly, we begin to love God’s Word. Dear friends, people look at you funny—even some Christians—if you exhibit too much affection for the Bible. But let me tell you, loving Holy Scripture is no vice; indeed, it is one of the ways we know we’ve been converted. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible. And that entire chapter—all 176 verses—is a song of love and praise by David for God’s Word. He cries out in verses 47 and 48:
I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love….
If we’ve been converted our love will be transformed.
Not only that, but secondly our labor will be transformed. There is no other way to put this: You were saved to serve the Lord. Before our conversion we served the Devil and our selves. But if we are “in the faith” as Paul says, we should see ourselves getting busy in matters of God’s kingdom. “Work while it is day,” Jesus says, “because the night is coming when no one can work.” Will the Master find His stewards busy about His business when He returns? Will He find you busy, Christian? Genuine salvation results in the transformation of our labor: We desire to work for God.
And thirdly, our self-examination, if our conversion was genuine, should demonstrate lives that are transformed. Paul says this to the Romans and to us:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…(Rom. 12:1-2).
Put simply, the manner of your life, post-conversion, ought to be different than the manner of your life “B.C.,” before conversion. The goal of the Christian life is Christlikeness, and having Christ will make a noticeable difference in your life.
Now, if you are feeling just a bit unsettled at the moment, let me give you the good news. It comes in St. Paul’s third and concluding point of this verse. The evidence: “Do you not realize this about yourselves,” the apostle asks, “that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”
What isn’t as apparent in English as it is in Greek is that Paul asks the Corinthians to examine themselves to see if their conversion was genuine—if Christ really lived within them—and his question expects an affirmative answer: Yes!
The fact is, you and I need to test our conversion to make sure it is genuine. If we have doubts that it is, we need to repent of our sins, receive Jesus Christ into our hearts and lives, submit to His lordship and trust in His finished work on the Cross for us. That will end all doubt. If we examine ourselves and find the fruit of Christ’s redeeming work in our lives, and the Holy Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are genuinely saved, then we can thank God Almighty and get on with the business the Master has given us to do. We needn’t spend our entire Christian lives navel-gazing and wondering and hoping if we are Christ’s own. We can know. Once we are Christ’s we are Christ’s forever. Jesus assured us that no one would be able to pluck His own from His hand. And St. John writes his first epistle for this purpose, I John 5:13:
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life….
Since we didn’t contribute to our salvation—it was a work of God’s grace from first to last—we can’t do anything to lose our salvation. God keeps His children eternally secure.
But we need to make sure. Too much is at stake not to. Eternity hangs in the balance. Examine your heart to make sure that you are in the faith. Make sure that your life and love and labor have been transformed, and so know that you have everlasting life.
Morris Adler posed it this way:
We visit others as a matter of social obligation. How long has it been since we visited with ourselves?
Amen.
