Scripture Daily

Context No. 767 of 4322 · 2 Corinthians

Context · Reflection

2 Corinthians 13:1-6: in context

1This is the third time I am coming to you. “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” 2I have warned previously, and I warn again, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, I write to those who have sinned before now and to all the rest that if I come again, I will not spare, 3seeing that you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me who is not weak, but is powerful in you. 4For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him through the power of God toward you. 5Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 6But I hope that you will know that we aren’t disqualified.

Paul is closing his most painful letter, to a church that has spent a lot of energy questioning whether he is a real apostle. He tells them he is coming a third time, and warns that this time he will not go easy on those who have kept sinning. Then he takes the challenge they have thrown at him and turns it around. You want proof, he says, that Christ is speaking in me. Christ was crucified in weakness, but he lives by the power of God, and I am weak in him, and I too will live by that power. Their demand for a display of strength he answers with the strange strength of the cross.

But the sharp turn is in the next line. The Corinthians have been examining Paul, testing his credentials, deciding whether he passes. Examine yourselves, he says, whether you are in the faith; test your own selves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? He redirects the whole critical gaze. It is much easier to run the audit on the leaders, the teacher, the other person, than to turn it inward and ask the same hard question of oneself. Paul refuses to let them keep scoring him while never being scored. Before you test me, he says, test yourselves.

The Corinthians were busy examining Paul, and he told them to examine themselves. Where am I quick to test everyone else's faith and slow to turn the same question honestly on my own?

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