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On the need for spiritual check-ups.

Most folks are not thrilled when it comes to test time. If they have done no preparation, then they will likely be terrified. But even if they have studied hard and prepared as well as they can, it still can be a nerve-wracking experience. And it need not just be a test in school – we can also think of going in for a medical exam, and so on.

This fear or hesitation is more or less true in our spiritual lives as well. Various passages speak to the need for us to test things, including testing ourselves. For example, what the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5 is something we all must take to heart: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.” Verses 5 to 10 provide the immediate context:

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong — not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is that you may be fully restored. 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.

The fuller context is this entire epistle, where Paul has to deal with the Corinthians and their support of false apostles or “super apostles” and so on. They keep demanding that Paul prove himself as a real apostle. His rivals were urging the Corinthians to question his authority and legitimacy. So here Paul turns the tables on them. He says they need to examine their own lives.

And he is hoping that they will pass the test. Even though he has had to rebuke and chastise the Corinthians more than once, his aim is to see them become all that they should be in Christ. Or, as verse 9 says, “our prayer is that you may be fully restored.”

Regular Check-Ups

Having regular medical check-ups is good for our physical bodies. And having regular spiritual exams is also necessary for our journey with Christ. Without testing and searching ourselves – by the help of the Spirit and in accordance with the guidance of Scripture – we all can go astray.

If we are not keeping tabs on our spiritual condition, we can drift away, which Scripture warns about. For example, Hebrews 2:1 says this: “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” And 1 Corinthians 10:12 puts it this way: “Take heed lest you fall.”

One commentator is worth drawing upon here. As to tests and exams, what Trent Casto says is quite useful. He reminds us that exams are not the problem:

A health exam does not give us a bad health condition; it simply reveals one that is already there. Likewise, an academic examination does not cause us to fail; it simply reveals that we are failing. A spiritual self-exam does not make or break us as Christians; it simply reveals what we are. This can help us: whether we are Christians or not, we should know what we are. Paul certainly thinks so. When he gets to Corinth, he will find out what the Corinthians really are and deal with them accordingly. It is far better for them to self-examine and deal with the issues immediately than to wait for him to get there and deal with them more forcefully.

Consequently, in this passage Paul instructs the Corinthians to examine themselves. Up to this point, thanks to the super-apostles, the Corinthians have been much more focused on examining Paul and his ministry to see whether he is legitimate. As the apostle brings his letter to a close, he turns the tables and instructs the church members to examine themselves before he comes, so that he can deal gently with him and not severely.

Admittedly, we do not have an apostle coming to visit us anytime soon. But we do have Someone far greater on the way. Jesus is coming, and the severe discipline that Paul may have to show the Corinthians if they have failed to repent is a faint picture of the severe authority that Jesus will exercise upon his return. Once he is here, it will be too late. We need to examine ourselves today and see whether we are ready for his visitation. So as we go through this passage and examine ourselves, we will look for evidence of the purity of Christ, the presence of Christ, and the posture of Christ in ourselves in our churches.

Focus Above

On this issue of examining ourselves, we certainly do need to keep tabs on our lives, but we also must guard against being overly introspective. It is not our own lives that we mainly need to keep our eyes on, but on Christ. Casto goes on to offer these helpful remarks:

While there is great value in examining our public and private lives, there is also some danger if we do not also look to Christ. The danger is that in pure introspection we get lost in a dark maze of the heart, which leads only to despair. To guard against this danger, the Scottish preacher Thomas Chalmers gave some of the best guidance on self-examination. He said that the best way to find something in a dark room, as in the heart, is not to go on probing and searching around in the dark, but instead they throw open the window shades and let light in. How can we do that? By looking in faith to Jesus. Chalmers writes:

“Should the eye fail of its discernment when turned inwardly upon the evidences, we should bid it turn outwardly upon the promises, and this is the way to bring down a clear and satisfying light upon the soul. Just as in some minute and difficult search over the floor of an apartment, we throw open all its windows to the sun of nature, so we ought, by faith, to throw open all the chambers of the inner man to the light of the Sun of Righteousness. They are the truths that be without, which give rise to the traces of a spiritual workmanship within.”

If as we examine ourselves we are not sure that we see love for Christ or devotion to him, we should not just keep looking within. Rather, we should look to Christ in faith, and we will see love appear. Chalmers goes on to say:

“In defect of a manifest love, and the manifest loyalty, and a manifest sacredness of heart, which we have been seeking for in vain amongst the ambiguities of the inner man, we should expose the whole of this mysterious territory to the influences of the Sun of Righteousness, and this is done by gazing upon him with the believer’s eye. It is by regarding the love wherewith God in Christ hath loved us, that the before cold and sluggish heart is roused into the respondency of love back again.”

Looking to Christ in faith is the surest way to discern the presence of Christ in us. As Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” If we desire to look more like Christ, we must look more to Christ. If upon examining ourselves we do not see enough of the presence of Christ in us, then we must look more frequently in faith to Christ himself outside us as revealed in the Word. The more we press into self-examination and see our own deficiencies, the more we will see of the all-sufficiency of Christ. One of Chalmers’s students, the Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne, put it beautifully:

“Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief! Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams. Feel his all-seeing eyes settled on you in love, and repose in his almighty arms.”

The presence of Christ should be evident in his people.

Those are very wise words indeed. We must always test ourselves and consider carefully our spiritual condition. But we do this best by keeping our eyes on Christ.

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Republished with thanks to CultureWatch. Image courtesy of Adobe.