5Examine 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? 6And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. 7Now 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. 8For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 9We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is for your perfection. 10This 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.
Dig Deeper
Some young people were standing around late one night, not particularly doing anything wrong, but certainly when a group of teenagers hang out in a parking lot around midnight it raises some suspicion. Just then an undercover policemen, whose job was to patrol the downtown area and keep the young people, who like to cruise around at night, under control. He questioned the young people about what they were doing. They began to question his authority and credentials in a fairly respectful manner, though, so he pulled out his identification and established who he was. Once that was done, he turned the tables and began to question them about their activities and the legitimacy of being where they were.
Paul’s authority and legitimacy in Christ has been questioned and he has spent a great deal of time establishing and legitimizing that authority. They have given him a test and Paul has clearly passed that test. With that firmly out of the way, he now turns the tables and asks the Church in Corinth to test themselves. They have been so busy questioning Paul that it hasn’t occurred to them that the problem might lie with the claims of Paul’s opponents, or with themselves. Paul is confident that he is in good standing before the holy God, so if there is a problem, it might be in the fact that the Corinthians have drifted from the faith. Paul, of course, feels that they are in the faith and wants them to realize that. He does ask them to test themselves and holds out the possibility that some might fail the test, but as a whole, Paul has already stated that he has great confidence in them. He has, as he says in verse 6, great confidence that we have not failed the test.
Why would Paul say “we” if he is talking about the Corinthians testing themselves? Because he believes firmly that his apostolic legitimacy rests in part on them, they are the seal of his apostleship (1 Cor. 9:1-3). Paul’s heart is so directly tied to the Corinthians that even though he believes that his sufficiency and competence have come from God (2 Cor. 2:16; 3:4-6; 12:9), if they fail the test of faith, Paul’s leadership would also fail. This attitude is, perhaps, instructive for leaders who might continually blame problems on those that they are shepherding. There are possible situations where that may be true, but more often than not the attitude of followers reflects their leadership. If an entire church has problems, perhaps the core issues have more to do with the foundation laid by the leaders than with anything else. Paul leaves that possibility open, but more as an opportunity for them to see his connection with them. Paul does not seriously believe that they will fail this test. He will stay with them to the end, though, as they go, he goes. The last thing Paul would do is call them lukewarm and weak in their faith and abandon them, even when they questioned his legitimacy. A true spiritual shepherd would never do that. That type of behavior is far more indicative of something that Paul’s opponents, the false apostles, would do.
Paul also knows a principle that Jesus demonstrated throughout his life. A servant leader not only serves for the benefit of others but he also takes the responsibility of change for the group on himself to a certain degree. Jesus never asked his followers to do something that he had not already done himself. Paul lives out that kind of leadership and serves as a wonderful example for Christian leaders today. Paul knew that the way to lead effectively was not to just call the Corinthians to certain behaviors but he went first. Just rebuking others or giving another lesson on a topic doesn’t work. If they didn’t love enough, he loved them more. If they were not being humble, he demonstrated genuine humility. For leaders today, if your group doesn’t pray or evangelize as much as you would like, then don’t immediately feel that you have to give another lesson on that topic. Rather perhaps the answer lies in you praying more or demonstrating radical evangelism.
The principles Paul lays out should also be instructive for many liberal theologians and churches that reject much of what Paul taught (which is becoming increasingly popular to do these days). The principle is the same, in many ways, as it was for Corinth. If we reject Paul, a true apostle of Jesus Christ, we reject the gospel. We simply cannot dismiss Paul without doing serious damage to the gospel message that was handed down to us.
So what test of their faith did Paul have in mind? He doesn’t say precisely in this passage what he has in mind, but based on this letter and his previous one to the Corinthians we can assume that it had to do with whether the crucified and risen life of the Messiah was present in their life. Did they have a life that reflected both the willingness to die to self and suffer in the life of the Messiah as well as allowing the power of the risen Christ to make manifest in their lives? Did they talk like Jesus, forgive like Jesus, see the life of the Messiah in fellow believers rather than all of their faults? Did they know the gently guiding peace of the Messiah despite the circumstances that life might offer up? These are the sorts of things that we need to consider when examining the veracity of our own faith.
Paul turns to prayer, though, to ensure that they will continue to follow the path of truth. Paul will pray for them but that does not take away the fact that it is still largely up to them to do the right thing. Paul says that he is more concerned with them passing the test than with his own reputation, and although that was no doubt true, he also knows that their spiritual health and his reputation are intertwined.
In everything he has done, Paul works for the truth; that is all that really matters. What he wants most for them is to embrace that truth and be brought to perfection in Christ. When Paul talks about perfection, he is not referring to what we tend to think of, which is to be without flaw. The term has more to do with maturity, with being complete. All of the struggles and trials that we go through teach us and refine us, bringing us closer to the final product that God is crafting us into. This is why we can view trails as a source of joy when we are in Christ. We know and can trust that God knows that what we will learn and how we are changed from that trial is better for us than if we did not go through the trial at all. Regardless of how difficult situations may be, we can have faith that if we remain in Christ, he will use it to develop us towards our perfection.
Paul ends this section by summarizing why he has written the sometimes harsh and confronting things that he has. It was not to avoid the situation or to make things easier for himself. He has done it because when he comes he wants to use his legitimate and God-given authority to encourage, strengthen, and edify the Church. He does not want to have to use his authority for harsh discipline when he comes. We should not miss the fact that Paul does not want to use his authority in that way, yet, he does not dismiss the legitimacy of church discipline. Church discipline is necessary sometimes. Yet, Paul’s genuine love for the Corinthians is so strong, that he truly hopes and prays that he will not be put into a position where he has to.
Devotional Thought
When was the last time you examined yourself to see whether you are in the faith? Is that a prospect that fills you with enthusiasm or dread. Will an honest examination reveal the powerful life of Christ in your life or something quite different?
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