Cor 13:1- 6 Directive to Examine Yourself from Paul

Well, good morning. We're getting to the end of 2 Corinthians. And it may most of you folks know, but if you don't know, we're planning to go to Romans. And I look back, and I think this will be the... We taught it in Sunday school, but I don't know when Romans was last taught at Holly Hills, in the main service. Even though we talk about it all the time, but in the main service. So Mike and I are looking forward to it. So I'll start in two weeks. But actually, there's some cool stuff still left in 2 Corinthians. Paul just never stops going. He's an energizer bunny. He just keeps going. Wonderful, marvelous things to tell us. Okay, so I've labeled this Paul's Directive to Examine Yourself.

So we're going to talk about that. That's toward the end of the message. But there's quite a bit that goes before that. Actually, there's quite a bit about the character of our Savior in this. You wouldn't think, but interspersed in that, when Paul says, I'm going to come to examine you folks, I'm going to really lay it on the line to you guys in Corinth, he really reveals characters of Christ in all this. And it's really pretty neat. OK, so here's my outline.

This is from Constable. basically today's message will be on actually the first six verses and you know Mike covered the last little part of Chapter 12 has a really cool verse that Paul really discloses what was been going on he spent you know almost the entire book of 2nd Corinthians talking about the Issues that Corinth and what's going on in Corinth and he employing his those the faithful there to to listen to what he's saying But it's really a cool statement in verse 19 of chapter 12. It says All this time you have been thinking that we are defending ourselves to you Actually in the sight of God we have been speaking in Christ and all for your upbuilding beloved so his desire and all this dialogue all this all pen on ink, all this writing is to build up the brothers in Corinth. And it may seem like he's defending himself, but his true message is to build them up. And then next week we're going to do the conclusion, which is exhortation, salutation, and benediction.

Okay, so I'm not going to reread this again, but just if you observe verse 3 verse 3 and 5 are kind of interesting things the Corinthians and Paul says it he says since you verse 3 since you are seeking for proof of Christ who speaks in me they wanted proof they doubted his apostleship he says you're seeking a proof that word proof it is actually word for test so they were testing Paul so Paul's gonna come back in verse 5 and say okay I You wanted to test you wanted to prove me or test me I want to test you and in verse 5 he comes back and says test yourself So that's kind of the context that 3 and 5 are kind of compliments to one another They desired to test Paul and Paul will come back and say test yourselves And it's going to be really instructive for us in the body of Christ to understand what he means by that Okay So let's start in verse 1 So he says this is the third time I'm coming to you and So I thought I'd just do a little history of his visits.

And there's not actually a tremendous amount of history. The most history we have is in Acts, Acts 18, verses 1 to 18. So I just kind of took that verse and put it in bullet form, if you will. So it starts. It says, this is the start of the church in Corinth in Acts 18. It describes that and his missionary journey. Paul preached in the synagogues first. That was his practice. He went to the synagogues first. But as you know, if you read Acts, he didn't last there long.

So this is a cool section where he says, you guys, he says, from now on I'm going to the Gentiles. He got so fed up with the Jews, he said, okay, that's it, I'm going to the Gentiles. And that's a pretty interesting verse. And so he had settled there a year and six months. And then, of course, over time, over that year and a half, the Jews rose up against him, and he had to leave.

And he left the brethren. There were some brethren that stayed in Corinth. He left them. Of course, the church in Corinth stayed there, certainly. And then he wound up in Ephesus. And that's where he penned 2 Corinthians from. And 1 Corinthians too. So his second visit isn't quite so clear.

His second visit, you kind of get by inference, because he doesn't directly say here's my second visit blah blah blah blah blah blah blah he kind of says it in in phrases and he calls it the sorrowful visit apparently it was a visit that was done very quickly and we see some of that in 2nd Corinthians 2.1 where he says he said to them not to come to you in sorrow again he regretted he came to them basically chastising them and it was a sorrowful visit apparently he came quickly from Ephesus to Corinth and back And we know also that was a second visit because he tells us in chapter 12 and 13, this is my third visit.

So there was indeed a second visit. And he alludes to it in various spots all throughout the book. And we've seen that. Okay, so now we're on our third visit. And he says in his third visit, he makes this statement, which is a quote from the Old Testament. Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Actually every fact you could say and you could say accusation so Paul actually wanted here He wanted this to be there have been lots of dialogue between In letters between himself and the Corinthians and through messages that people brought to him. He wanted basically He wanted a public presentation of the facts. So he kind of went back to the Old Testament and And he actually wanted, this is from Merriman, he wanted a judicial exam. He wanted a court hearing. If we're going to talk about, this is what you think of me, I want every fact to be examined. So he kind of went back to the law and said, this is the kind of situation I want.

So let's look in the Old Testament law in Deuteronomy. And it basically quotes this verse, or part of this verse. single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any inquiry or any sin which he has committed on The evidence of two or three witnesses all matters shall be confirmed So we start there and then we're going to see that Christ is going to talk about this and then Paul's going to talk about this the same concept then Christ talked about this and this was in the context of the church discipline about a sinning brother and So Christ is speaking here, but if he does not listen to you, this sinning brother, take one or two more with you, so that the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed. And then Paul talks about it in terms of elders. He says, do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.

So you've got to get two or three if you're going to talk to Micah or I. That's supposed to be a joke, but... You can talk to us other times. If you have something really serious, get two or three. Okay. Alright. So let's see here. That's interesting. Alright, good. Alright, so let's go. And those two comments on the top are by Merriman. Alrighty.

So verse two. So Paul says here, I have previously said, when present a second time, so here he alludes to the second visit, and though now I'm absent, I say in advance. So Paul's saying here, he had warned them on his sorrowful visit, his second visit, and now he's going to warn them approximately on the same issues. And there were two groups of people that he was talking to, and he mentions the last part of this verse, to those who have sinned in the past, One we found out about in first Corinthians a man who had his father's wife, but there were others apparently that had sinned as well as well And he says to all the rest as well and those apparently could be possibly the was described in chapter 12 verse 20 B And they failed to submit to his his authority And then we come down to the last phrase of this verse, and that's kind of the third point. The first point was, I'm returning again.

Second point, we're going to do it in a courtroom situation. Third point, I'm not going to spare anyone. Pretty hard words. If I come again, I will not spare anyone. Okay. So now, so verse 3 and 2 kind of link together, and so they have the word sense, and it modifies that I will not spare him, it modifies that verb, I will not spare, in verse 2.

So he says sense, so what follows is going to be, he's going to give proof, they've asked him for proof, he's going to give proof of his authority. He says you Corinthians are seeking proof, seeking is the idea to endeavor, desire, to strive, And proof here, we're going to see this word quite a few times. It's dokime. There are a couple of words in the Greek for proof or test. And dokimazo is a verb form. And so he says, and it's the idea to test with a view to approval.

This is something that you, like if you're in an automobile factory and you test the engines on your car. You don't blow up the engine, typically, to test that engine. You run it to a certain number of RPMs, and you say, OK, it meets specs right there. And when Courtney tests wells, he doesn't want to blow up the well. He'll test it to a point and says, that's a good well. So this is a test with a view to approval. So Paul expects them to pass this test. And we're going to see it in verse 5 and 6, this documento.

So he says you see you're seeking proof or a test of Christ who speaks in me so they want us is he is Christ really speaking through Paul the Apostle that's what they want to know and it's just kind of a review about Christ in you we know from many verses in Scripture and I'm going to quote one verse right after this that all believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit that's a fact well established in Scripture and here's one of the many verses I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So now what's cool, he's going to talk about, he's actually going to introduce characteristics of Christ. And he says, he'll describe Christ working in the Corinthians.

He says, who Christ is not weak towards you. So Christ is not weak towards you. And the word weak is to lack strength. And it's in relationship to you. here's a verse that kind of speaks to that be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might so he says he's not weak towards you but and this is the the Allah's a strong contrast Christ is he's not weak towards you but he's mighty towards you and this is a word to be powerful from the word dynamo or dynamite and is in your in you and Ian in the Greek in your union with Christ and Here's a cool verse.

I took the Weiss translation for this verse. Moreover, God is powerful to make every grace super abound to you in order that you may super abound to every good work. So God is working in every believer who's walking in fellowship with him powerfully. He wants to do that.

So the idea here, Paul's trying to, as he's going to chastise these Corinthians, He's going to encourage them to he's not weak towards you, but he's mighty towards you. He's powerful towards you So now we're going to verse 4 So Paul will now he will he will contrast Christ's life Christ's character and the believers character once again He's I believe he's trying to encourage the Corinthians. So he starts out with well, what's your what's your resume? What do you have in Christ if you're a true believer? for indeed and he expands on the last part of three and He, Christ, was crucified.

It's a past. It's a fact, right? That's a factual fact from Scripture. It's an event in Scripture. And He was crucified, it says, because of weakness. But if you look at the original, it's the ek. It's out of weakness. And that really speaks more to the point.

So how was Christ crucified out of weakness? Well, at one point, if you think about this, He had a fully human body, right? His fully human body showed his weakness, right? It bled. It got hurt. It showed the marks of the crucifixion, the scourging. So his human body showed his physical weakness, but also he had a weakness that he displayed.

He put up no defense. He didn't open his mouth. He didn't know Paul appealed to Rome. He was a Roman. He appealed to Rome to Christ didn't appeal to higher authority He could have right he had the highest authority could appeal to we didn't and I love this verse in Isaiah 53 for Surely our grief himself for our sorrows he carried yet.

We ourselves esteemed him stricken smitten of God and afflicted I So from his appearance, he appeared in weakness, right? That's what he appeared. His physical demeanor and how he acted, he appeared in weakness. But we know from many scriptures that he was in control. And when it was time to leave, he said, it's finished. And he gave up his spirit. He was in control, but he appeared in weakness.

So I think it speaks to the verse. For indeed, he was crucified because or out of weakness. Yet, or but, another strong contrast, but he lives, present tense, continuous action, he's living. I love the song, we serve a risen savior, he's in the world today. Anyway, the rest of it. I'm not a singer. I like to listen to it though. Okay. He's living.

Wonderful. And it's because it says he lives, or he's living because of God's, because of the power of God. It's out from the deck is there again out from the power of God God power of God is the source So it's kind of a little summary. We all know this the things Christ's birth was by the power of God We in the miraculous birth when the angel came to Mary and said don't be afraid I'm sorry. This is Joseph.

Excuse me. Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child who has been conceived in you is of the Holy Spirit and And then, 23 says, you know, the thing that was foretold in the Old Testament, a virgin shall give birth. How can a virgin give birth? That's an oxymoron, right?

It can't happen. And it's interesting, we were reading in the Gospel of John with Mike on Wednesdays, How many times the Jews kind of come in there and they kind of they kind of jab at Christ? Well, you're not a you're you know, you know, you're illegitimate child. You're this you're that you know, we don't listen to you because you're illegitimate, but you know, they couldn't handle the fact that he you know, that's impossible. It's impossible to have a virgin birth. No, it's not not with God.

So Christ's resurrection displayed his power. then lastly there's a verse in Hebrews therefore he's able to save forever those who draw near to him since he ever lives to make intercession for us okay so that kind of speaks to the fact if he lives because of power we go on so now that the rest of us is going to tell us some more so now what we see here is so he talked about Christ so now he's going to talk about the believer so we talked about all these wonderful things now he's going to say I Well, what is a person who's put their faith and trust in Christ? What is his resume? What does he have? And we're going to find it's much the same thing. For we, Paul, and his team, are weak, present tense, in him, in our living union with Christ. We're weak, and Paul did that beautifully.

Mike went through it beautifully in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 10. So in bullet form, therefore I'm well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulty, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." So, similar picture. Christ was weak, and we as believers, that's when God can do the best in us, when we're weak. Then I am strong.

And it goes on. Then it's going to have another contrast here again. Yet, Allah again, we will live, future tense, This is a statement we'll explain the remainder of the verse here. We live together with Him. And again, we see God's power coming in here over and over again because of the power of God, or out from the power of God, directed toward the believer.

So this is a verse that Mike covered also, speaking about God's power in his life. My grace is sufficient for you. 4. Christ's power is perfected in weakness. I will rather boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." So it's the opposite. As Mike points out, it's the inverse of what the world thinks. You serve God the proper way when you're weak. Then His power can be shown through you. Okay, so now, Now we get out of the park. You've all been waiting for this part, right?

Merriman says he's going to encourage the Corinthians to judicially try themselves. And I said, wait a minute. Let's look at the verb tense here. It's present imperative. That's not an encourage. That's a, you guys better do this. And it's, he's going to test yourself. So Paul says, test yourself. And it's a different Greek word for tests here. This is a paradozo. It's to test or prove, but there's a possibility that you could fail. You could fail the test. So what you're all sitting on the edge of your seats, can they fail the test here? Are they going to fail? We'll see. In our case, this is from Merriman. I thought it was pretty good.

Since Paul asked for this kind of courtroom situation, he wanted them to have a test, you know, with two or three witnesses. Put yourself to test. Put yourself on trial. So he's looking at that kind of idea. So now we'll see what's the issue in their testing. To see if you're in the faith.

So, raise your hands. Do any of you see here a real key? Is there something, just a real key in this? Is this personal faith? Raise your hands. If this is not personal faith, raise your hands. Okay, alright, okay. Anyway, it's a little, maybe a little inside stuff.

Anyway, it's actually, the definite article is the faith. It's the body of truth. It's just so critical to this verse, because I've read Some people, and they will take this to be, this is personal faith, and it just doesn't fit. It just does not fit. This is the body of Christian truth. So what he's asking them to do is to test themselves against the body of Christian truth. That's a whole different ballgame. Am I really saved? I don't feel saved today. I'll test myself. Is that what scripture is asking us to do? And it's not.

So a good usage of this word, the faith, the body of Christian truth, is in Jude. I felt necessary to write to you, appealing to you, to contend earnestly for the faith, and it describes that, which was once for all handed down to the saints. And if you trace through, there's about 30 occurrences in scripture about a the faith. If you trace through that, you'll see that that it describes this body of truth that Paul taught.

He taught this to the Corinthians. He taught this body of truth. So that's what he's concerned about with the Corinthians, not their personal faith. He assumed they had personal faith. He was concerned about the body of, or they following, the truth. So a few more thoughts here about putting yourself to the test in regards to the faith, or putting yourself on trial as Paul liked to think of it.

So Merriman says, this is saying you are to measure yourself against the objective truth in the Bible. We've taught the idea of objective truth. That may sound kind of academic, if you will. But objective truth is just, since we have God's word revealed, We have His objective truth in our hands when we open our Bibles. That's His objective truth. We may have an opinion about that objective truth, but that is true without our opinion. Our opinion doesn't matter in the truth of that. It's objective truth. So, for example, here's some critical objective truth that every person needs to come to understand to become a Christian. And it's the objective truth of the Bible. of the gospel.

Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He was raised on the third day. And He appeared to more than 500 brethren. That's objective truth. You may say, well, I'm not sure Christ really died. He swooned. Well, that's just your opinion. The scriptures say He died for your sins. That's objective truth. So that's the question. He's asked them to test themselves against the objective truth. And if you think about every book of the Bible declares objective truth in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth Right, there's objective truth some people and they throw their hands up.

No, it's something else. There's something else It was a big bang or whatever. They whatever they think and I love this verse and and this this really speaks to the issue And we're going to cover this in a couple weeks in our first John first second third John class. I Have no greater joy than this to hear that my children are are walking in the truth.

So God desires us to know the objective truth and to walk in that. And there's a little, at the second, next to the last bullet I put in here, that the objective truth is to be known and believed and to be walked in. And that kind of seems to be the pattern, we're to know it, we're to read it and know it, then we're to believe it, right? Then we're to walk in it or we can say appropriate it make it our own it becomes real in our life there's kind of a process we know we believe when we walk in it and Scripture talks many places about walking in the truth or walking in fellowship And Paul taught this objective truth to the Corinthians while he was there So let's go on so now It wasn't good enough to say to test yourself. He now comes back and says I He says, you examine yourselves. And he uses a different Greek word. He comes back to dokimadzo. So first he used paradzo. There was a possibility of failure with that one. And this one he comes back and says, no, I want you to examine yourself.

And this word is the one we saw earlier that kind of lined up with prove yourself with a view to approval. And once again, it's an imperative. So Paul, I think Paul used this documento that he expected they will pass the test. That's what he expected. And even in the other Greek word, he expected them to pass as well. And actually, that's the word that was used back in verse 3 for they seeking proof of him. So here's kind of the tension here.

They asked Paul, the Corinthians asked Paul to test himself or prove himself. Paul comes back and says, He asked him the same question in a different little way. Test yourselves. So the point is both parties in this discussion want to be walking with the Lord in right relationship to the Savior. That's what Paul's saying. Before we can have a discussion about what's happening, we need to be in a right relationship with the Savior.

And then he goes on. Do you not recognize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you? So I think, again, he's trying to point out this is what the normal Christian life is about. Jesus Christ is in you. And it's decided to have full knowledge, epigenosko, full knowledge. And actually, this is a repeat of what I did before. Every true believer has Christ, dwells in them.

And Galatians 2.20 again. But then I added one more verse that I really like.

Colossians 1.27. to whom God will to make known what is the riches of the glory of his mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And that's a mystery that boggles our mind today and it boggles minds for all time, how God can live inside a human being. How can that be? I mean, I don't understand it. It's amazing, incredible. But that's the objective facts of Scripture. So Paul was concerned. He was concerned about their Christian walk, their fellowship.

That's the testing that was going on here. And then he does leave open, unless indeed you fail the test. It's the idea of being unapproved, not standing, not standing the test. If he knows carefully, it's just an A in front of dakimos, negated. It's kind of a knit, a Greek knit. So Paul allowed that some Corinthians may fail the test. So they're not failing because they're not believers, they're failing because they're not walking with the Lord.

That seems to be the case. So Brown here, a constable quoted a gentleman named Brown. He says, the logic of Paul's argument is compelling. If the Corinthians want to prove for whether Paul's ministry was from Christ, they must look at themselves, not him, Paul. They were always kind of banging away on Paul all the time. They should be looking to themselves, are we walking with the Lord?

Am I interpreting what Paul is saying right? Am I interpreting what these other false apostles, super apostles are called, are saying? Okay. And verse 6. But I trust that you will realize that we, I believe it's Paul and his team again, ourselves do not fail the test. So again, it's this word for being unapproved. Again, it's the not standing the test.

So Paul tells Corinthians that we, Paul and his team, are passing the test, which is walking in the truth in fellowship with Christ. So to me, that really kind of sealed the deal. They're to walk in Christ, and he wants himself and his other fellow workers to be walking in Christ. And this verse kind of speaks to that in 1st John 1 3 What we have seen what we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us And indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ Pretty pretty neat stuff.

Okay. Well, I usually have final thoughts and I'm not going to disappoint you final thoughts and This one actually is there might be some homework in this one. I Because you might, you know, you might object to what I'm going to present here. I came across this one, Kostov likes to quote other people, and he quotes a lot of people. He quotes this gentleman, I never heard of this gentleman before, Dillow. So here's Dillow's kind of take on the last couple of verses here.

Okay. He says, nowhere in the Bible is a Christian asked to examine his personal faith or his life to find out if he's a Christian. Sounds kind of radical to me. Okay, let's keep going here. He is told only to look outside himself to Christ alone. This is my editorial thing. Objective looks outside to Christ. What's the objective truth for his assurance?

I'm gonna share a verse here about that in a second. Then lastly, The Christian is, however, told to examine his faith and life so to see if he's walking in fellowship and in conformity, I would say, to God's Word. So the focus of our life as believers is to walk in the light as He is in the light, walk in fellowship with Him. We're not to be constantly going back and re-examining ourselves. Scripture doesn't really talk about that.

It talks about assurance of faith. And along that line, there's a verse that we just covered recently in the Gospel of John. And let me just read it to you. And it says, this is in the Wynsee study. It's a favorite of a lot of folks here. John 10, 27 to 29. My sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me.

I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." Isn't that incredible? We can't be snatched out of the Son's hand or the Father's hand.

Secure in him and that's that's our that's our security. So if you have some objections, let me know So what do you think about that first statement send me an email or talk to me in person? All right, so let's close in prayer Dear father. We thank you so much Lord for our time in your word we thank you for the blessings we have and just the truth of were to walk in and walk in the light as you're in the light we're to walk in a fellowship with him and that's that's our focus in our Christian life that we're are we walking in the light and in fellowship with you in Christ's name Amen