Examine Yourselves
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? (2 Corinthians 13:5).
Paul is not saying that we should check our works to see if we are saved. Surely the carnal Corinthians would have failed any such test! Rather the context tells us that when Paul told the Corinthians to "examine" themselves, he was responding to those who would "examine" him (1 Cor. 9:1-3). He did not doubt their salvation; they doubted his apostleship (2 Cor. 13:3). Paul argues that if they were in the faith, it proved that he was an apostle indeed, for he had led them to Christ (1 Cor. 4:15). In his first epistle to the Corinthians, Paul put it this way.
If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord (1 Cor. 9:2).
The fact that the Corinthians were in the Lord and in the faith, was proof of his apostleship (2 Cor. 13:3), and should have removed all doubt.
May I say; to remove all doubt about our salvation, we must never look to ourselves, we must always look to God's Word, which assures us that while we are unacceptable to God in ourselves, we who are saved are ever and always accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6). You think about that.
THE BEREAN NOTEPAD
Touching lives with the truth of God's Word.
Paul is not saying that we should check our works to see if we are saved. Surely the carnal Corinthians would have failed any such test! Rather the context tells us that when Paul told the Corinthians to "examine" themselves, he was responding to those who would "examine" him (1 Cor. 9:1-3). He did not doubt their salvation; they doubted his apostleship (2 Cor. 13:3). Paul argues that if they were in the faith, it proved that he was an apostle indeed, for he had led them to Christ (1 Cor. 4:15). In his first epistle to the Corinthians, Paul put it this way.
If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord (1 Cor. 9:2).
The fact that the Corinthians were in the Lord and in the faith, was proof of his apostleship (2 Cor. 13:3), and should have removed all doubt.
May I say; to remove all doubt about our salvation, we must never look to ourselves, we must always look to God's Word, which assures us that while we are unacceptable to God in ourselves, we who are saved are ever and always accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6). You think about that.
THE BEREAN NOTEPAD
Touching lives with the truth of God's Word.
posted by Mel | 1:06 PM
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