<\/p>\n
Examine yourselves\u00a0as to<\/em>\u00a0whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?\u2014unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.<\/strong>\u00a0(2 Corinthians 13:5-6)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Paul wanted the believers in Corinth to ask themselves a sobering question: \u201cIs Jesus Christ really in me?\u201d It\u2019s a question that believers today should also ask.<\/p>\n
We are rightly concerned that every believer has the assurance of salvation and knows how to endure the attacks that come in this area from Satan. At the same time, we also understand that there are some who assume\u00a0or\u00a0presume<\/em>\u00a0they are Christians when they are not. It is a challenge to every believer:\u00a0Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?<\/strong><\/p>\n
We are often very ready to examine and test others, but first \u2013 and always first \u2013 we must examine and test ourselves. The Corinthians were quick to examine and criticize Paul, but they were slow to examine themselves.<\/p>\n
Paul thought there might be some among the Corinthian believers who were\u00a0disqualified<\/strong>\u00a0for eternal life and salvation. Their thinking was worldly because they were more of the world than of the Lord. This is a hard truth to confront, but it is better to know\u00a0now<\/em>\u00a0than when it is too late. If we don\u2019t\u00a0examine<\/strong>\u00a0ourselves and test ourselves<\/b>\u00a0now, we may find that we ultimately don\u2019t pass the\u00a0test<\/strong>\u00a0and are\u00a0disqualified<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
What should we look for when we\u00a0examine<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0test<\/strong>\u00a0ourselves? We should see if\u00a0Jesus Christ is in you<\/strong>. We are not to look for perfection in ourselves or in others, but we should see real evidence that Jesus Christ is in us. The main point isn\u2019t to look for sin, but to look for Jesus Christ, and to ask Him if there is anything in my life that grieves the Holy Spirit, then to ask for the grace that it may be accounted as cleansed by the sacrifice of Jesus and put away from the habits of my life.<\/p>\n
In verse 6, Paul anticipated a counter-question. \u201cPaul, you ask us to examine ourselves. Well, why don\u2019t you examine yourself? Maybe you aren\u2019t a Christian after all.\u201d Paul dismissed this question out of hand. It was so apparent that\u00a0we are not disqualified<\/strong>\u00a0that he simply trusts that they recognize the truth of it.<\/p>\n
There are some believers who torture themselves with excessive self-examination. They often doubt the many assurances God gives them regarding their salvation. Those believers exist, but they are far outnumbered by those who give little or no attention to self-examination. There are many more who assume they are right with God and destined for heaven, when they should examine themselves for real evidence of God\u2019s work in their life.<\/p>\n
Ask yourself: What evidence is there that Jesus Christ is in you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Examine yourselves\u00a0as to\u00a0whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?\u2014unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.\u00a0(2 Corinthians 13:5-6) Paul wanted the believers in Corinth to ask themselves a sobering question: \u201cIs Jesus Christ … Continue reading “Enduring Word – Devotional”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176627"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176833,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176627\/revisions\/176833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}