Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you fail the test? 2 Corinthians 13:5 BSB.
KJV puts this way, Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
Are you in the faith?
Growing up in a Christian home often deceives us into thinking we are automatically “in the faith.” I am grateful to have been raised not only by believing parents, but by parents who served the Lord in a way that modeled for us what true faith looks like.
Contrary to what prosperity gospel preachers might suggest, the Christian life is difficult. It is narrow, it is a daily battlefield, and it is a lonely journey in the sense that it is often you against the world. Christianity means giving up everything you have ever known and everything you have clung to up until the point of salvation.
True Christianity is not what people like Tucker Carlson—whose theology is arguably as misplaced as Deepak Chopra’s—would have you believe. The first thing we should ask new converts or those to whom we are witnessing is: Are you willing to lay down your life, forget everything you have ever known, and follow Christ? We are called to follow Christ—not a pastor, a church building, the friends you used to party with who have somehow become Christians, or even your parents. We follow the Christ whom 1 Peter 1:8 describes:
“Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”
Growing up, I didn’t recognize the difference between us and the world, or between our faith and others. I thought we were all worshipping the same God. It wasn’t until I was miraculously born again in my thirties that my eyes were opened and I was granted true understanding. Even though I had attended church for years, I was not a Christian. Back then, having a new outfit for service excited me more than the prospect of being filled with the knowledge of God or fellowship with my brothers and sisters. For me, Sunday was a fashion runway; people dressed for each other, not for God.
Sadly, while that is my past, it is the present reality for many churchgoers today. They may not be using the aisle as a runway, but many who claim to be “in the faith” attach themselves to a building or a denomination for all the wrong reasons. It is, therefore, appropriate to periodically examine ourselves to see whether we are truly in the faith—to test ourselves and ask: Is Christ in me?
This self-examination isn’t just for unbelievers; quite frankly, it is for believers too. We often behave as if Christ is not in us, forgetting Whose we are. We look, talk, and live like the world—it is no wonder no one looks to us for hope.
When Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians, the believers were all recent converts. They didn’t have generations of Christian culture behind them, and none had grown up in Christian homes. It isn’t surprising, then, that the early Corinthian church struggled with the worldly values of their culture regarding sex and other social issues. After Paul heard troubling reports and received a letter from them, he responded with 1 Corinthians. His fundamental purpose was to exhort the church to live out their true identity as “saints,” or God’s holy people (1 Cor. 1:2).
In light of that, I want us to watch a video by Pastor John MacArthur titled Saved or Self-Deceived. His purpose is to challenge us to examine ourselves in this generation.
You can also find part 2 here