Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves…
—2 Corinthians 13:5

I remember once advising a brother who was always confessing his sins not to go in for self-analysis. He answered: “But it’s written: ‘Examine yourselves.'” I said to him: “Where is that written?” “In 2 Corinthians 13:5.” I opened the Bible and read: “It says here: ‘examine yourselves as to whether you are IN THE FAITH‘, not ‘examine how many times and how you have sinned.'” The brother, as if hearing this verse for the first time, began quickly leafing through his Bible to check whether it really said that. And indeed, by overlooking such “little” but very important details, we draw wrong conclusions and busy ourselves with needless works.

So what was Paul writing to the Corinthians about, and how are we to examine and test ourselves? For the word “examine” the Greek uses the word peirazō, which literally means “to tempt”. For example, it is used in the following verse: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted [peirazō] by the devil” [Mat.4:1]. So Paul writes: “Tempt yourselves.” Such an expression already puts a Christian into a slight shock. After all, the Lord said: “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off“, and here we are advised to tempt ourselves. So should we cut off our whole selves afterwards? How, then, are we to tempt ourselves? The same way the devil tempted Jesus, for Jesus said: “be wise as serpents.” And what does the wise serpent do? The first thing he did with Eve was to tempt her.

Often when we hear the word “tempt”, sin and doing all kinds of indecent things come to mind straight away. But why reinvent the wheel? Let’s look at how the serpent tempted Jesus: “Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’” [Mat.4:3] Did he urge Jesus to break the law? Does the law say: “You shall not make a flatbread out of a stone”? If you are hungry and see a stone, is it a sin to make soup out of it? Of course not. So what was the serpent’s temptation? He urged Jesus to do something in order to confirm His identity — that He is the Son of God. In other words, if the thought comes to us to do something in order to confirm our identity as Christians, we are being tempted.

For example, you are walking down the street and see a homeless man, and the thought comes to you: “I must help this poor man. What kind of Christian will I be if I don’t help him?” There’s your temptation. You are trying to confirm by your works that you are a Christian, although works have nothing to do with it. A person becomes a Christian when he is born again, and after that his identity doesn’t change in any way. Just as Jesus was the Son of God regardless of His works. The devil tried to pull the same trick on Him as on Adam and Eve — to throw Him down from the high position of grace into the works of the law. In the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness there are even hints showing that it is about falling into the law: “stone”, “throw Yourself down from the temple”, “worship”. In other words, come back from the Spirit to the flesh. Jesus, in fact, had by that time already fulfilled the righteousness of the law when He was baptised in the river Jordan, and He was now led by the Spirit, who led Him into the wilderness. And those who are led by the Spirit, as it is written, are not under the law [Gal.5:18].

Well, that seems clear with Jesus, but how are we to tempt ourselves? Urge ourselves to do something? Precious ones, this isn’t about works at all. Paul doesn’t say: “Examine your works.” He says: “Test yourselves.” And then he explains: “Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?” In other words, Paul is saying: “Don’t you know that you are righteous and holy, because Jesus Christ, your righteousness and holiness, lives in you?” [1 Cor.1:30] Examine yourselves: are you born again or not? Does Jesus Christ live in you or not? Are you living in faith or in the works of the law? Are you already a Christian, or are you trying to do something to prove to yourself or to someone else that you are already born again? And further: “Unless indeed you are disqualified.” That is, examine yourselves, and if you are still in the works of the law, perhaps you are not born again and are not who you claim to be — a Christian. If so, it’s all very simple: “Receive Jesus into your heart once and for all, and He will settle there forever and will be your righteousness and holiness forever.”