Salvation Summaries

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?

If you’ve ever doubted your salvation and wondered if you were truly saved, then reading 2 Corinthians 13:5 could be concerning to you. After all, it says that we are to test ourselves to determine if we are in the faith, and if we fail the test…well, that must mean we are not saved. But is that what this verse really means? I believe the answer is no, and I’ll give you three reasons why.

Supporting Details

Reason #1: Paul wrote to Christians.

If you start all the way back in Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians, it is clear that he was writing to Christians, as he made many references to this (see 1:2, 4, 9, 10, 18, 26, 30; 2:5, 12; 3:1, 9, 16; 4:14; 6:19; 12:27, etc.). However, these Christians were spiritually immature and not acting like they should. They were jealous and sexually immoral. They defrauded other believers and abused the Lord’s Supper.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul is addressing a similar (but possibly larger) Christian audience, and he also makes several references to this (see 1:7, 8, 22, 24; 6:14; 7:9; 8:1; 13:3, 4, 11). However, they were still acting “fleshly,” so Paul criticized them for this. 7:1 is one example, where Paul says, “Let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit.”

In 12:20, Paul is concerned that when he visits them next, he will (continue to) find strife, jealousy, selfishness, anger, gossip, arrogance and sexual immorality. As a result, he wants the Christians who are living like this to repent of their impurity, sexual immorality and indecent behavior. This is why, in 13:5, he tells them to examine themselves, or to take a hard and personal look at how they are living so they can make changes to live like a Christian should (and like Paul does).

Note that Paul is not questioning their salvation here. He’s already established many times over that they are believers, and we know from other verses that once a person is genuinely saved, or has “saving faith”, they cannot become unsaved (you cannot become unborn after being born again, nor give back the Holy Spirit after receiving it, nor no longer be forgiven from your sins after being forgiven of them). As a result, failing this test is not a realization that you are not a Christian after all; rather, it is a realization that you are acting inappropriately as a believer.

Reason #2: Paul used similar language in 1 Corinthians

In 1 Corinthians 11:21-22, we see that some of the Corinthians were abusing the Lord’s supper. They were treating it like a meal and getting drunk. So, what does Paul do? He tells them to examine themselves (11:28) to determine if they are participating in the Lord’s Supper in an appropriate way, and if not, to make corrective changes (11:33-34). Here again, Paul is not questioning their salvation, but admonishing (in order to correct) their un-Christian-like behavior.

Reason #3: Paul prays that they become spiritually mature

At the end of 2 Corinthians, it is Paul’s prayer that these Corinthian Christians grow from being spiritually immature to spiritually mature. Paul does not pray for their lost salvation from bad behavior or lack of salvation to begin with; rather, he wants them to change their ways and act like a Christian should.

2 Corinthians 13:7-11 7 We pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. We pray this, not to show that our ministry to you has been successful, but because we want you to do right even if we ourselves seem to have failed. 8 Our responsibility is never to oppose the truth, but to stand for the truth at all times. 9 We are glad to be weak, if you are really strong. What we pray for is your restoration to maturity. 10 I am writing this to you before I come, hoping that I won’t need to deal harshly with you when I do come. For I want to use the authority the Lord has given me to build you up, not to tear you down. 11 Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Rejoice. Change your ways. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.

Conclusion and Take-aways

The people Paul wrote to in 1 and 2 Corinthians were spiritually immature Christians who were not acting like they should (as Christians). They were jealous, sexually immoral, abusing the Lord’s Supper, and committing a host of other sins. Paul tells them to examine themselves, or take a hard look at their personal behavior, to determine if they are acting like a believer should, and if not, to take corrective action. Thus, failing the test means that a person is living in a fleshly or sinful way despite being a Christian. For those who were living like this, Paul wants them to repent and change their behavior (at which time they would pass the test).

Even if we are not acting as badly as the Corinthians did, we should also examine ourselves to see where we might be sinning and how spiritually mature (or immature) we really are. As Christians, our goal is to be holy and blameless (like Noah and Job), and to live like Jesus did. We are not to measure ourselves against other Christians (where the bar might be low!). We also have a responsibility to grow and become spiritually mature, which gives us greater assurance that our salvation is genuine (2 Peter 1:5-11). To do this takes discipline (reading and hearing God’s word, meditating on and memorizing it, praying continuously, thinking and saying and acting in ways God wants us to) and time.

If you find yourself worrying over whether you are truly saved or not, there are other “tests” in the bible you can take to determine this. I’ll address one of these in my next post. But until then, be encouraged fellow believer! Today is another opportunity to seek God and strengthen your relationship with Him. Pray, pray, pray to Him and seek to know and do His will for your life (in these latter days), and you will be blessed!