6/16 - 2 Corinthians 13

2 Cor 13

The conclusion of this chapter comes with a promise from Paul that he's coming, and doing so with authority. He's been pretty serious thus far about his credentials as an apostle and in this next visit it appears he wants to solidify that, first by his own actions, then by holding them accountable for theirs. He charges them with this:

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?" (v. 5)

I think this is a good exercise for any believer: test yourself. I don't necessarily mean that you should test yourself to see whether or not you're saved - outside of a careful examination of your heart and of scripture, that could lead to dangerous thinking but I'll get back to this later. What I mean is that we should test ourselves to see how faithful and how much trust we have in God. Do we trust more in Him or in our bank accounts? (Matt 6:33) Do we use our resources to help others or hold on to them as if they're actually ours? (Luke 12:33, Psalm 24:1) Do we love or loathe reading His word? (Psalm 1:2) Do we love our spouses as we should? (Ephesians 5:22, 25). There's a long list of questions from the Bible that we could ask ourselves, and individually, we all know what those specific questions must be (those questions were mostly for me by the way) but it all boils down to this: Do I really love God?

Read Luke 8:4-15.....seriously, do it. In the Crazy Love book I keep referencing, the warning was given: Don't assume you're good soil. Test yourself. Considering our human nature, the answers to these questions may not be as positive as we'd like to think they are but the point isn't to ask ourselves if we're perfect. It's rather to ask, "How can I love God more?"

Now if in testing you find you don't have the desire to do any of these things, that test for your salvation may not be a bad idea. Romans 10:9-10 would be a good place to start and ask yourself if you're truly willing to lose everything and follow Christ. To truly let Him be the Lord of your life. I'd be more than happy to chat more about this if this is where you find yourself: rpscott02@yahoo.com.