Final Warnings

Prayer Practice

Lectio – Read today’s passage through once. Then spend some time praying and asking God to show you what you need to pay attention to in the text. Read it again. Now ask God to help you see what this text, and the part that has stood out, may mean for you. Don’t expect to get a clear word every time but always be ready to really hear from God through His Word.

 

DAILY READING

2 Corinthians 13:1-10

REFLECTION

Genuine or Fake

by Mary McGinnis

Do you like being tested?  Think about a time when you were preparing for and sitting through a final exam.  What was that experience like?  

Whether it is a final exam for a class, a physical fitness test, a test to apply for a job, or some medical tests that are recommended by our doctors, none of these experiences are particularly enjoyable. In fact, I would guess that most of us have experienced anxiety and tremendous stress while walking through such times of “testing.” 

In today’s passage, Paul beckons his beloved church in Corinth to examine themselves, to put themselves to the test.  Why?  He was afraid they were failing the most important test of all.  

Paul had visited this group of brothers and sister in person two times. He had warned them about some of their hard hearted attitudes and behaviors that were being influence by the culture around them.  They had succumbed to the “if everyone else is doing it, it must be okay” mode of thinking.

To draw attention away from themselves, the Corinthians were demanding “proof” that Christ was REALLY speaking through Paul.  In response Paul says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”

The Greek word “test” Paul uses means to examine, prove, scrutinize, to see whether a thing is genuine or not.  This word uses the imaginary of a person testing precious metals.  Silver or gold was only recognized as genuine after being thoroughly examined, and even purified by fire. 

They were NOT to examine themselves to make sure they were perfectly following the letter of the law.   No!  Instead, Paul urges them to examine “whether you are IN THE FAITH.”  

Who do you know that has walked through a time of severe testing?  How did they exemplified what being genuinely IN THE FAITH really means?  Many of the followers of Jesus, His disciples, and even Paul himself, went to their death proclaiming the amazing wonders of Jesus, crucified and risen.   They were compelled to do nothing against the truth! 

 Paul urges them to remember, “Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you? 

Galatians 2:19-20 says, “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

I love this quote from Charles Spurgeon:

 “Now, what is it to have Jesus Christ in you?

The true Christian carries the cross in his heart; and a cross inside the heart,

my friends, is one of the sweetest cures for a cross on the back.

If you have a cross in your heart – Christ crucified in you, the hope of glory –

all the crosses of this world’s troubles will seem to you light enough,

and you will easily be able to sustain it. 

Christ in the heart means Christ believed in,

Christ beloved,

Christ trusted,

Christ espoused,

Christ communed with,

Christ as our daily food, and ourselves as the temple and palace wherein Jesus Christ daily walks.”

How does this cause you to rethink your life?  What view does it give you of your trials, your times of testing?  How does it encourage you to live for Christ today, to reflect a life lived in the power of Jesus, the One who came to seek and save all who were once lost! 

If you are feeling the sting of conviction, come, bring the weight of your failures to the cross and leave them at His feet.  He came to redeem the broken. Know that you can be fully restored.