The Test

 DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

THE TEST

2 Cor 13:5-10

5 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? 6 And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. 7 Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. Not that people will see that we have stood the test but that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. 8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 9 We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is for your perfection. 10 This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of authority — the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down.

NIV              

Who likes a test? When we were in school those tests were detestable, pun intended. But here we are told to examine ourselves, to test ourselves, to administer this test to see if we are in the faith. What are the criteria for this test? How can we know if we pass or fail, as Paul suggests that it may seem that he had failed? Although he did not, as he makes it clear that he stood the test, he passed. What it appears is that test is whether we are in Christ Jesus. But we are simply to realize that fact as we test ourselves to see if we are in the faith. Perhaps that is all the test is about whether we are in Christ or not. Maybe this test has nothing to do with anything we do, or our attitude or behaviors, or what number of good deeds we do. This is all about faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation. There is nothing else that matters here, but our belief that the one and the only way to eternal life is through our faith in Jesus Christ. Because of the rest of the letter, we know there were those false apostles spreading some form of the gospel that did not meet the test and that some in the church at Corinth were being deceived and had begun to accept some of this deceptive gospel. If they examined themselves truthfully, they might begin to see they had failed the real test. This is where we also have to make sure we do not fail. We cannot get deceived by some brand of the gospel that adds anything to Jesus. There is no Jesus plus gospel. There might be some Jesus plus doctrines that float around certain denominations. One fellowship, which they insisted was not a denomination, that we attended while on vacation, believed that salvation was dependent on Jesus and baptism. This is so wrong on so many levels, yet they never actually preached that doctrine from the pulpit, it was their belief. We all must administer that test to ourselves. Do we believe Jesus is the one and only way to heaven? Have we added anything to Him? Of course, we should be living in a manner that pleases him, but this does not add to our salvation. How we live could be a result of our salvation, that is out of our love for Him we do some form of service to Him. However, we cannot be tricked, or we should not allow ourselves to get tricked into thinking that our service has anything to do with our salvation, which is solely dependent on faith. This test has no grades, that is we cannot get an A, B, C, D, or F, it is simply a pass or fail. We believe or we don’t. We are either in or out. We are saved or we are not saved, we are either born again or we are not, and it all is about our faith and faith alone in Jesus. We know that someday Jesus will be the judge, but he will judge whether we accepted or rejected His salvation, but for now, we must decide if we have passed the test.