Test Yourself!

19th Sunday after Pentecost, 10/23/11
2 Corinthians 13:5-8


Test Yourself!
I. Do you trust in Christ?
II. Do you live for Christ?


Tests are or were a large part of our education. Like clockwork every other week or so there was another test to take. It was an unpleasant but necessary undertaking. And if you’re in school now and you dread taking tests and are looking forward to the day you’re your education is complete and you think that then you will no longer be subjected to tests, think again. Many professions require continuing education that culminates in a test. Even if it’s not on a piece of paper or a computer screen, your employer is grading you daily on a very subjective test.

And there are other types of tests throughout life. The next time you see your physician, there’s a good probability that he or she will want you to undergo a test of some sort. Either your doctor wants to make sure there’s nothing that needs to be addressed, or your doctor suspects something is wrong and needs more information, the kind of information that a test provides. Others of you may have a condition that requires ongoing tests, sometimes even daily. Like it or not, tests are a regular part of our lives.

And that’s true in our spiritual lives as well. The Lord Jesus through his Apostle Paul opens today’s sermon text with this sentence, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.” Like our physical health, our spiritual health is all too easy to take for granted. We may think we’re doing just fine, but the reality is that there is reason for concern, sometimes deeply so. So that we don’t slide into grave spiritual danger, our Savior encourages you to test yourself. Let’s see what for and why as our Lord shares his word with us this morning.

Part I.

We hear so many conflicting reports every day that we don’t know whom to believe. Whether it regards politics, our health, our environment, our economy, or our investments, it seems as if there are competing expert opinions everywhere we turn. So we’ve become rather skeptical. We look for guarantees. We want proof and sometimes loads of it, before we’ll trust an opinion and make a decision about what course of action we’re going to take.

The Christians in Corinth to whom Paul wrote these words also wanted proof. Paul had worked long and hard to establish this congregation. These people were near and dear to him. During his time with them he had faithfully shared God’s saving truth with them and the Lord blessed his efforts. Many people came to faith in Jesus and left behind their heathen beliefs and lifestyles. They now knew and believed in Jesus as their Savior from sin.

But not long after Paul left Corinth, false teachers claiming to be better apostles than Paul wormed their way into the congregation and began discrediting Paul and the message Paul proclaimed. They maligned the way Paul handled things as he had worked among the members of the congregation. They found fault with Paul’s motives. In short, they threw Paul under the bus. In doing so, they were tearing down the congregation Paul had worked so hard to establish. Worse yet, they were ruining the faith of these people.

Naturally, doubts about Paul and his message arose in the minds and hearts of the Corinthians. So they wanted proof from Paul that he and his message were authentic. They wanted Paul to supply some touchstone by which they could be certain that the “truths” he had shared with them were actually the truth. They wanted some guarantee that Paul was a genuine apostle of Jesus Christ.

In response, Paul didn’t send them a copy of his credentials. Instead, he told them, “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?” Paul instructs them to go back to the very basics of their Christian faith. Those basics began with God’s law—a law which does not tell us how wonderful we are, but a law that shows us how sinful we are and how much we need a Savior from sin. As heathen people, they had been under the damning notion that they could save themselves by their sacrifices to their false gods. Paul used the truth of God’s law to convict them of their sin and to convince them of how impossible that was.

And then he used the good news of Jesus as their only Savior from sin to rescue them from hell. By God’s grace the Corinthians believed Paul’s message about Jesus. The Holy Spirit used that message to work saving faith in them. They now believed that their sins were forgiven by the life and death of Jesus. They believed that he had risen from the dead and was ruling over all things. And, in a very real yet spiritual way, Jesus was living in them. So, when Paul told the Corinthians to test themselves, he wanted them to ponder what they believed. If they trusted that Jesus was their Savior from sin, then there was the proof they were looking for that Paul’s message was genuine.

And that’s a good thing for any Christian to do. I say that because there are countless souls today who once had faith in Jesus but have lost it. And I don’t think any of them woke up one morning and said to themselves, “Today I no longer believe that Jesus is my Savior.” Instead, it’s something that occurred over a long stretch of time, a stretch of time in which they willingly separated themselves from our Lord and his word.

God forbid that such a tragedy should occur with you. So test yourself. Do you trust in Christ?

Next Sunday we’ll celebrate Luther’s Reformation of the Church. On October 31, 1517 Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The first of those theses states, “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ…willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.” In other words, every day of our lives Jesus wants us to recognize our sinfulness and trust in him for forgiveness.
We need to test ourselves in that regard every day. What do we believe about our sins, that they deserve damnation or that they aren’t that bad? What do we think about ourselves, that we’re sinful by nature or that we’re pretty good, at least better than average? What do we think about Jesus, that he was absolutely necessary for ourselves, or something less? By God’s grace you’re sitting here today with faith in Jesus as your Savior. That faith is strengthened only through God’s means of grace—his word and sacraments. Don’t take your faith for granted! Test yourself to see if you trust in Christ.

Part II.

From its earliest days the Christian church has not only been plagued by false teachings, but also by false living. What I mean by that is that there have always been Christians whose manner of life doesn’t match with what their Savior says in his word. In modern times, it appears that all too many Christians aren’t concerned about that. They see that a Christian’s life is contrary to what the Bible says, but they use one of several methods to rectify it in their minds.

That’s what was occurring among the Corinthians to an alarming degree, and it’s one of the reasons Paul wrote this letter to them. In our text he urges them to do what they say they believe. He says, “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.” Recall that Paul’s ministry among them was under attack by false teachers and the Corinthians wanted proof of Paul’s authority. Paul replies by telling them it’s not important that he withstands such a test. What’s important is that they withstand the test. That test is avoiding what is wrong—sin—and doing what is right. He encourages them to live their Christian faith every day and thus show everyone what they believe.

And when they do that, they would be an encouragement to their fellow Christians to do the same. Sometimes that’s a forgotten aspect of our lives together as God’s people gathered together in a congregation. Our world drums into our heads that we should be tolerant to the extent that we let others live as they please, but Jesus gives us the huge responsibility of watching out for our brothers and sisters in the faith. If we see something sinful in their lives, we are to bring it to their attention in a loving way. And on the positive side, we are to encourage each other to live as God’s people.

Such encouragement and Christian discipline is critical for the spiritual health of a congregation. The Corinthians were struggling with that very thing. Some of the members of the congregation were living in gross immorality and defending it as a loving and acceptable lifestyle. By its very definition, a church is a gathering of people who have been called out of the world by faith in Jesus. These people were living just like the world they had been called out of. And it was tearing at the very fabric of the congregation. So Paul urged them to test themselves to see if they were living for Christ.

That’s a critical test for you and me as well. With the evil influence of our world constantly bombarding us, it’s easy to take a sinful attitude or get into a sinful way of living and not think anything of it. After all, that’s what everyone else is doing. So test yourself. First ask if you trust in Christ. And, if you do (and I hope that’s the case with everyone of you), then ask yourself if you’re living according to your faith. We can all find areas in our lives that need improvement. We fall into laziness on one hand and sinful self-advancement on the other. We don’t care enough about others and we care far too much about ourselves. We don’t care enough about spending time with our Savior and we care far too much about worldly pursuits. But that’s why we’re here as a congregation of Christians. We’re here to test ourselves and to see where we don’t measure up to God’s holy law, to confess those sins and to receive the assurance of God’s forgiveness in Christ. And then we go from here renewed by Christ’s forgiveness and empowered by his love for us to live for him.

Test yourself every day and may God keep you in your faith and in his grace! Amen.