Examine Yourselves

Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. 2 Corinthians 13:5

PAUL WROTE THIS LETTER to the church in Corinth to address their doubts about the genuineness of his apostolic authority. False teachers had questioned Paul’s authority because evidently he wasn’t an impressive speaker and constantly experienced significant suffering. Their message to the church in Corinth was that Paul was not the real deal.

So in his letter, Paul set them straight on what genuine faith looks like in the life of a believer. It is a treasure in a jar of clay. It is the power of Christ shining through human weakness. As he drew his letter to a close, he challenged them to examine themselves to see if they were authentic believers. He wanted them to examine their own lives for evidence of an increasing holiness and genuine affection for Christ. Their flirtation with the false teachers and their immoral living put a question mark over their spiritual condition. Interestingly, Paul was not asking the Corinthians if something happened in their past that made them Christians; he was challenging them to examine themselves in the present to see if there was genuine spiritual life.

Sometimes the beliefs and sins our children toy with put a question mark over their spiritual condition too. The truth is, we can’t know for certain the true nature of our child’s connectedness to Christ. But neither should we take it for granted that because they have grown up in our home and in the church, or because they “made a decision” or had an emotional spiritual experience, they have gone from death to life spiritually. Surely some children raised in Christian homes respond to the gospel out of a desire to please their parents or fit in rather than out of genuine repentance and faith.

We can’t examine our kids and know if their faith is genuine. But we can encourage them to examine themselves, not by comparing themselves to others or to cultural ideas of what it means to be a Christian, but by putting their lives under the microscope of God’s Word to see what is really there.

Lord, just like Paul prayed that his “children” in Corinth would pass the test and would become mature, we pray for ________, that she will have the courage to examine herself, the insight to see what is real, and the joy of knowing that she is genuinely and savingly connected to you.