A Call To Examine Yourself

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you–unless indeed you fail the test? But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test. (2 Cor. 13:5-6)

Herein we see the Apostle calling on the Corinthian people to examine themselves. A rebellious faction within the church was causing great harm to the peace and purity of the church at Corinth, and there were others living in open rebellious sin that had gone unpunished.

So I call on you to examine yourself today to see if you have truly been converted and are persevering in the faith. Call on your spouse to examine themselves. Call on your children to examine themselves. Call on friends and fellow church members to examine themselves. Call on fellow-seminarians to examine themselves (I am convinced that there are unconverted people walking around even at conservative, Reformed seminaries).

For I fear that many spouses, children, friends, laity, and seminarians have deceived and deluded themselves into thinking that they are saved when they really aren’t. They are relying on a one time profession of faith, a signed card, weekly church attendance, being in seminary, etc. and yet, have not experienced the work of God in their hearts along with continuous repentance and faith.

Are you trusting in a one-time prayer to ask Jesus into your heart, while believing that praying a prayer doesn’t necessarily imply a changed life? If so, what will you do with such a verse?

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. (Heb. 12:14)

For all who are deluded with false assurance, it is as the prophet Amos records,

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light… (Amos 5:8)

and again,

…”as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. ”Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” (Amos 4:11-12)

I close with a quote from Spurgeoun:

I dare not preach to this congregation as if you were all Christians, for you are not. I dare not deliver even one discourse under the delusion that all my hearers are saved, for, alas, they are not. This is the fault with multitudes of sermons—that they seem to carry the whole congregation to Heaven when possibly the major part of those present may be going down to Hell! That will not do (Spurgeon, quoted in The King in Pilate’s Hall, Majesty in Misery vol 3 (BoT), p. 119, emphasis mine).

Are you speaking “peace, peace” to yourself or others when there is no peace (Jer. 6:14, 8:11). Are you assuring yourself or others that it is well, when all is not well, as wrath continues to accrue (Rom. 2:5)?

Further Reading:

A Sure Guide to Heaven – Joseph Alleine