Examine Yourself

When Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthian church he encouraged its members to take a look in the mirror - to examine themselves to see if they found themselves lacking in their faith. Boy, do we need to do that right now in this country. I need to do that.

"5 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? - 2 Corinthians 13:5

There is a short book in the Bible that, if you read it with "examining yourself "in mind, you can get a pretty good idea of how you are doing in the faith.

1 John

The first test in our self examination comes in verse six.

"6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." - 1 John 6-7

If we claim to be Christians and yet continue to "walk in the darkness" we are fooling ourselves and we fail this test.

An example of his might be the Catholic church of today and the sexual scandal it continues to go through. There is a difference between love and lust. We are called to "love one another". 1st John describes this love quite well in chapter 4.

So, test number one is to see if we continue to sin. Our answer must be no. Look, we all continue to sin each day, but what do we do with that sin? Do we continue in it? Or do we repent of it? If we continue in it, the Holy Spirit does not live in us and we are liars for saying we are Christians. But if we repent of our sin and seek God's forgiveness, we are still Christians, just like every other Christian on the planet.

Can I be an alcoholic Christian? No. Can I be a recovering alcoholic Christian? Yes. Do you see the difference?

Can I be involved in a continuous same-sex relationship and be a Christian? No. Can I leave that same-sex relationship, seek God's forgiveness and be a Christian? Yes.

Can I lust after someone and pursue that lust to a sinful conclusion and still claim to be Christian? No. Can I lust after someone then repent of that lust and seek forgiveness and still be a Christian? Yes.

I will write more in the coming posts about how to test our faith. How did you do with test #1?

When A Christian Won't Repent From Sexual Sin - John Piper