◄ 2 Corinthians 13:5 ►
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Can't you see for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you--unless you actually fail the test?
Study Bible
Examine yourselves
The Greek word for "examine" is "peirazō," which means to test or scrutinize. In the context of 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul is urging the Corinthians to conduct a self-assessment of their faith. This is not a superficial examination but a deep, introspective look into one's spiritual life. Historically, self-examination has been a crucial practice in Christian spirituality, encouraging believers to ensure their lives align with the teachings of Christ. This call to self-examination is a reminder of the importance of personal accountability in one's faith journey.

to see whether you are in the faith
The phrase "in the faith" refers to living in accordance with the Christian doctrine and the teachings of Jesus Christ. The Greek word for "faith" is "pistis," which implies trust, conviction, and fidelity. Paul is challenging the Corinthians to verify that their beliefs and actions are consistent with the gospel. This is a call to authenticity, urging believers to ensure that their faith is not merely intellectual assent but a transformative relationship with Christ.

Test yourselves
The repetition of the call to "test" underscores the seriousness of the self-examination. The Greek word "dokimazō" is used here, which means to prove or approve after testing. This suggests a process of refining and purifying one's faith, much like gold is tested for purity. In a historical context, this reflects the early Christian community's emphasis on genuine faith, free from hypocrisy or superficiality.

Can’t you see for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you
This rhetorical question emphasizes the indwelling presence of Christ in believers. The phrase "Jesus Christ is in you" is a profound theological truth, highlighting the intimate relationship between Christ and the believer. The indwelling of Christ is a central tenet of Christian faith, signifying that believers are temples of the Holy Spirit. This presence is both a source of comfort and a call to holiness, as believers are to reflect Christ's character in their lives.

unless you actually fail the test
The possibility of failing the test serves as a sobering warning. The Greek word for "fail" is "adokimos," meaning unapproved or disqualified. Paul is cautioning the Corinthians that without genuine faith, they risk being disqualified from the blessings and promises of the gospel. This is a call to vigilance, urging believers to remain steadfast in their faith and to continually seek spiritual growth and maturity.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Paul the Apostle
The author of 2 Corinthians, addressing the church in Corinth with pastoral concern and apostolic authority.

2. The Corinthian Church
The recipients of the letter, a diverse and often troubled congregation in the city of Corinth, known for its moral and spiritual challenges.

3. Jesus Christ
Central to the faith and the one in whom believers are to find their identity and assurance.

4. Self-examination
The process Paul urges the Corinthians to undertake, reflecting on their faith and relationship with Christ.

5. Faith
The core subject of examination, referring to the genuine belief and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Teaching Points
The Importance of Self-Examination
Regular self-examination is crucial for spiritual growth and assurance of faith. It helps believers identify areas needing repentance and growth.

Testing the Authenticity of Faith
Believers are called to test their faith to ensure it is genuine and rooted in Christ. This involves evaluating beliefs, actions, and motivations.

Christ in You: The Assurance of Salvation
The presence of Christ in a believer’s life is the ultimate assurance of salvation. This indwelling should be evident through the fruit of the Spirit.

Avoiding Spiritual Complacency
Self-examination guards against complacency, prompting believers to remain vigilant and active in their faith journey.

Community and Accountability
While self-examination is personal, it is also beneficial to engage in community and accountability, allowing others to speak truth into our lives.
Bible Study Questions
1. What practical steps can you take to regularly examine your faith and relationship with Christ?

2. How can you discern whether Jesus Christ is truly at work in your life?

3. In what ways can the practice of self-examination lead to spiritual growth and maturity?

4. How do other scriptures, such as James 1:22-25, reinforce the importance of being doers of the word in the context of self-examination?

5. How can you involve your Christian community in your journey of self-examination and accountability?
Connections to Other Scriptures
James 1:22-25
Encourages believers to be doers of the word and not hearers only, which complements the call for self-examination by urging practical application of faith.

Galatians 6:4
Advises believers to test their own actions, which aligns with the theme of self-examination in 2 Corinthians 13:5.

1 Corinthians 11:28
Paul also calls for self-examination before partaking in the Lord’s Supper, emphasizing the importance of introspection in the Christian life.

Philippians 2:12-13
Encourages believers to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, recognizing God’s work within them, similar to the self-examination Paul advocates.

Psalm 139:23-24
A prayer for God to search and know the heart, paralleling the call for self-examination in seeking God’s truth.
Sermons
On Being in the FaithC. Williams.2 Corinthians 13:5
Prove YourselvesJ.R. Thomson 2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-ExaminationB. Gregory, D. D.2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-ExaminationJ. Foster.2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-ExaminationJ. Grant, M. A.2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-ExaminationC. H. Spurgeon.2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-ExaminationJ. Burnet.2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-ExaminationW. L. Watkinson.2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-ExaminationBishop Hacket.2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-ExaminationJ. Burns, D. D.2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-ExaminationD. Fraser 2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-ExaminationR. Tuck 2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-KnowledgeC. Wadsworth, D. D.2 Corinthians 13:5
Self-TestingE. Hurndall 2 Corinthians 13:5
The Professing Christian TriedA. Ross, M. A.2 Corinthians 13:5
Who are the Reprobates?R. Tuck 2 Corinthians 13:5
Paul's Epistolary Farewell to the CorinthiansD. Thomas, D. D.2 Corinthians 13:1-14
The Proof of Our MinistryC. H. Spurgeon.2 Corinthians 13:3-5
Self-Examination Recommended; Supremacy of Divine TruthC. Lipscomb 2 Corinthians 13:5-10
People
Corinthians, Paul
Places
Achaia, Corinth
Topics
TRUE, Christ, Christ's, Conscious, Course, Disapproved, Discover, Disqualified, Examination, Examine, Except, Fail, Faith, Holding, Indeed, Insincere, Meet, Ownselves, Prove, Realize, Recognise, Recognize, Reprobate, Reprobates, Respect, Selves, Test, Truly, Try, Unless, Whether, Within, Yourselves, You-unless
Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Corinthians 13:5

     5473   proof, through testing
     5810   complacency
     6756   union with Christ, significance
     8478   self-examination

2 Corinthians 13:5-6

     8028   faith, body of beliefs
     8820   self-confidence

Library
Self-Examination
The Corinthians were the critics of the apostles' age. They took to themselves great credit for skill in learning and in language, and as most men do who are wise in their own esteem, they made a wrong use of their wisdom and learning--they began to criticise the apostle Paul. They criticised his style. "His letters," say they, "are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible." Nay, not content with that, they went so far as to deny his apostleship, and for once …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

How to Use the Prayer-Book
Before the Service.--If possible be in your place a few moments before the appointed hour, that you may collect your thoughts and prepare for the service. On entering, go at once quietly to your seat, kneel down, and say a short prayer for yourself and your fellow-worshipers. The Collect for the Nineteenth or the Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity, or the Collect, "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open," at the beginning of the Communion Office, you may find appropriate. When you have said …
Jacob A. Regester—The Worship of the Church

"And if Christ be in You, the Body is Dead Because Sin,"
Rom. viii. 10.--"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because sin," &c. This is the high excellence of the Christian religion, that it contains the most absolute precepts for a holy life, and the greatest comforts in death, for from these two the truth and excellency of religion is to be measured, if it have the highest and perfectest rule of walking, and the chiefest comfort withal. Now, the perfection of Christianity you saw in the rule, how spiritual it is, how reasonable, how divine, how …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Sermon.
The great and blessed God that made heaven and earth, the seas and the great fountains of the deep, and rivers of water, the Almighty JEHOVAH, who is from everlasting to everlasting. He also made man and woman; and his design was to make them eternally happy and blessed. And therefore he made man in his own image; "in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them:" He made them after his own likeness holy, wise, merciful, just, patient, and humble, endued them with knowledge, righteousness, …
William Penn—A Sermon Preached at the Quaker's Meeting House

Reprobation.
In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, I. What the true doctrine of reprobation is not. 1. It is not that the ultimate end of God in the creation of any was their damnation. Neither reason nor revelation confirms, but both contradict the assumption, that God has created or can create any being for the purpose of rendering him miserable as an ultimate end. God is love, or he is benevolent, and cannot therefore will the misery of any being as an ultimate end, or for its own sake. It is …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

On Being Filled with the Spirit
Text.--Be filled with the Spirit.--Eph. v. 18. SEVERAL of my last lectures have been on the subject of prayer, and the importance of having the spirit of prayer, of the intercession of the Holy Ghost. Whenever the necessity and importance of the Spirit's influences are held forth, there can be no doubt that persons are in danger of abusing the doctrine, and perverting it to their own injury. For instance, when you tell sinners that without the Holy Spirit they never will repent, they are very liable …
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion

The Clergyman and the Prayer Book.
Dear pages of ancestral prayer, Illumined all with Scripture gold, In you we seem the faith to share Of saints and seers of old. Whene'er in worship's blissful hour The Pastor lends your heart a voice, Let his own spirit feel your power, And answer, and rejoice. In the present chapter I deal a little with the spirit and work of the Clergyman in his ministration of the ordered Services of the Church, reserving the work of the Pulpit for later treatment. THE PRAYER BOOK NOT PERFECT BUT INESTIMABLE. …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren

The Greatest of These is Love.
"The greatest of these is Love."-- 1 Cor. xiii. 13. That the shedding abroad of Love and the glowing of its fire through the heart is the eternal work of the Holy Spirit, is stated by no one so pithily as by St. Paul in the closing verse of his hymn of Love. Faith, Hope, and Love are God's most precious gifts; but Love far surpasses the others in preciousness. Compared with all heavenly gifts, Faith, Hope, and Love stand highest, but of these three Love is the greatest. All spiritual gifts are precious, …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Of the Character of the Unregenerate.
Ephes. ii. 1, 2. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. AMONG all the various trusts which men can repose in each other, hardly any appears to be more solemn and tremendous, than the direction of their sacred time, and especially of those hours which they spend in the exercise of public devotion. …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

The Third Wall.
The third wall falls of itself, as soon as the first two have fallen; for if the Pope acts contrary to the Scriptures, we are bound to stand by the Scriptures, to punish and to constrain him, according to Christ's commandment; "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation

Concerning the Scriptures.
Concerning the Scriptures. From these revelations of the Spirit of God to the saints, have proceeded the Scriptures of Truth, which contain, I. A faithful historical account of the actings of God's people in divers ages; with many singular and remarkable providences attending them. II. A prophetical account of several things, whereof some are already past, and some yet to come. III. A full and ample account of all the chief principles of the doctrine of Christ, held forth in divers precious declarations, …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

Assurance of Salvation.
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may knew that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (1 John v. 13. ) There are two classes who ought not to have Assurance. First: those who are in the Church, but who are not converted, having never been born of the Spirit. Second: those not willing to do God's will; who are not ready to take the place that God has mapped out for them, but want to fill some other place. …
Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It

Testimonies.
"Without faith it is impossible to please God."--Heb. xi. 6. In order to prevent the possibility of being led into paths of error, faith is directed, not to a Christ of the imagination, but to "the Christ in the garments of the Sacred Scripture," as Calvin expresses it. And therefore we must discriminate between (1) faith as a faculty implanted in the soul without our knowledge; (2) faith as a power whereby this implanted faculty begins to act; and (3) faith as a result,--since with this faith (1) …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Christian's Peace and the Christian's Consistency
PHILIPPIANS i. 21-30 He will be spared to them--Spiritual wealth of the paragraph--Adolphe Monod's exposition--Charles Simeon's testimony--The equilibrium and its secret--The intermediate bliss--He longs for their full consistency--The "gift" of suffering Ver. 21. +For to me, to live is Christ+; the consciousness and experiences of living, in the body, are so full of Christ, my supreme Interest, that CHRIST sums them all up; +and to die+, the act of dying,[1] +is gain+, for it will usher me in …
Handley C. G. Moule—Philippian Studies

Concerning the Ministry.
Concerning the Ministry. As by the light or gift of God all true knowledge in things spiritual is received and revealed, so by the same, as it is manifested and received in the heart, by the strength and power thereof, every true minister of the gospel is ordained, prepared, and supplied in the work of the ministry; and by the leading, moving, and drawing hereof ought every evangelist and Christian pastor to be led and ordered in his labour and work of the gospel, both as to the place where, as to …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

Concerning Perfection.
Concerning Perfection. In whom this pure and holy birth is fully brought forth, the body of death and sin comes to be crucified and removed, and their hearts united and subjected to the truth; so as not to obey any suggestions or temptations of the evil one, but to be free from actual sinning and transgressing of the law of God, and in that respect perfect: yet doth this perfection still admit of a growth; and there remaineth always in some part a possibility of sinning, where the mind doth not most …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

Reprobation Asserted: Or, the Doctrine of Eternal Election and Reprobation Promiscuously Handled, in Eleven Chapters.
WHEREIN THE MOST MATERIAL OBJECTIONS MADE BY THE OPPOSERS OF THIS DOCTRINE, ARE FULLY ANSWERED; SEVERAL DOUBTS REMOVED, AND SUNDRY CASES OF CONSCIENCE RESOLVED. BY JOHN BUNYAN OF BEDFORD, A LOVER OF PEACE AND TRUTH. 'What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.'--Romans 11:7 London: Printed for G. L., and are to be sold in Turn-stile-alley, in Holbourn. Small 4to, 44 pages. EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. This valuable tract …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

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