Our Passage

The Bible passage we are unpacking is about testing yourself to see whether you are in the Faith. This is part II of our explanation of a verse that says that we should test ourselves to determine whether we are in the original Christian doctrine--the doctrine handed down to us from the Apostles.

Here is the passage again. In it, Paul addresses the Corinthian believers, and says to all of us:

Test yourselves to see if you are in the Faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—Unless indeed you fail the test (2 Corinthians 13:5; NASB).

You Must Examine Yourself

Logically, Paul wrote 2 Corinthians after he wrote 1 Corinthians. Two comes after one, right? And if two comes after one that means that what we see in 2 Corinthians is Paul’s follow-up to his first letter to the Corinthians.

Well, then what did Paul tell believers in 1 Corinthians? The same thing! Here is Paul in his own words:

… a person must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not properly recognize the Body (1 Corinthians 11:28-29; NASB).

So, in his first letter to the Corinthians Paul exhorted the believers to test themselves. That's when he did it for the first time. And in 2 Corinthians Paul exhorted them to do test themselves again.

Repetition is the mother of learning. Paul repeats himself to get his message across. The message is: test yourselves. It's as if Paul were a doctor telling someone with a persistent cough to get a chest x-ray, but twice. Two times he encouraged them to see if there was something wrong inside.

When in 1 Corinthians Paul said ‘a person must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup,’ Paul meant that each believer in the church of Corinth needed to examine their conscience--their inner man. And Paul indicated that they needed to examine their conscience at a critical moment in the routine activities of the Church: prior to participating in the Lord’s Supper.

This applies just as significantly to you and me in the 21^st century as it did to Christians in the first century. Supposedly, the Church still has the Lord's Supper. Supposedly it's still a core custom of the Church.

If it is, then before any of us breaks bread with other believers, we must make sure we are not being hypocrites. A person who outwardly professes the Christian Faith must check themselves inwardly before they take the bread and wine. They must make certain they are free from sin. Otherwise, their action of taking the bread and wine counts as sin--the sin of hypocrisy.

New Conscience, New Life

Your conscience is the mechanism within you that gives you an awareness of sins. If you are aware that you have committed a sin by thought, word, or action, then—according to the covenant you made with Jesus in baptism—you must confess it. If you don't, then you're not fulfilling your part of the covenant.

For example: You must admit to God in prayer if you lied, if you were mean to someone, if you gossiped, if you stole something, if you were stingy, or if you committed a sexual sin. You have to ask God to forgive you for your sins.

Have you fought with someone recently? Ask God for forgiveness before you take the Lord's Supper. And ask the person to forgive you if they're nearby.

You committed to abide in Christ when you were baptized. To abide means to remain, dwell, or to live in something. We live in Christ. He is the vine, we are the branches.

You are not to abide in sin any longer. Be free. For this very reason Christ died for us: to free us from sin. Remaining in sin is the opposite of remaining in Christ, so we must cut sin out of our life.

There are no other options: You're either out of sin and in Christ, or you are in sin and out of Christ. Which will it be? Judas wanted both: to appear to be in Christ but to remain in sin at the same time. That approach cannot work.

This is the New Covenant. It’s not a game. It’s not a whimsical walk in the park. You entered a covenant with God when you were baptized. Now you're in a commitment, but you're in a commitment to do something. What is it? To keep a clean conscience. To confess your sins.

When you were baptized, the old you died. The old you was buried with Christ, and you committed to Christ as Lord from that point forward. He became your Lord.

You told God that you would follow Jesus. Are you still doing that? Did you think that it would be a single-day emotional experience and nothing more? It was a covenant stronger than marriage--because marriage is only until death do you part. You entered an eternal covenant with God in Christ, and so you must demonstrate that you are still living in Christ. Take the Lord's Supper.

If You Confess

So, Mr. or Ms. Christian: If you are sinning in any way in your life, you must desist. You must confess your sin and recommit to the New Covenant you started at baptism. It doesn't matter if you have to confess 490 times--keep doing it until you have the victory. God will continue to forgive you in Christ until you come out a winner.

Your Lord is Jesus now—but if you’re not treating him as Lord, and if you're not obeying him, then don't take the Lord’s Supper. Continue to go to church, and keep receiving the Word, but let the bread and the cup pass you by. Do not take them into your hands until you have repented and you’ve stopped your pattern of sin. Do not take the bread and the wine until Jesus' body and his blood have truly become your food and drink once more.

If you have been cowardly, or if you are worrisome, or if you dishonor your parents--then don't take the Lord's Supper. If you cheat, commit fraud, use foul words, are gluttonous, or get drunk--then don't take the Lord's Supper. If you have been worldly or selfish, then you must turn from that sin immediately. You've got to repent!

Do that first. Repent. Turn from your sins prior to eating the bread or drinking the cup because it would be dishonest to take the bread and drink the cup while you're practicing sin. It would be saying “I’m living in Christ” to a group of Christians when you’re living in sin. You would become an actor.

The Bible was written in Greek and the Greek word for actor is hupokrites. Can you tell what English word we get from hupokrites? You probably can: hypocrite. Jesus used that very Greek word when he warned us:

... you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men (Matthew 6:5; NASB).

Your Part in the Covenant

If you confess your sin to God, then you remain in the Covenant. Isn't that a great deal? God didn't tell us that one sin and we're out of the Covenant--no. He said that we have to continue to cleanse ourselves. Although you have sinned, and that’s very bad, if you keep a clear conscience, you're good.

The covenant is not that you will never sin. The Covenant is that you must confess and reconcile yourself with God when you do sin. Your commitment is to maintain a clear conscience before God.

So this is our commitment in the New Covenant: not sinless perfection, but good spiritual hygiene. Once you’ve taken a shower, you only need to wash your hands. And we all get our hands dirty during a normal day's work. Does an auto mechanic need to take a second shower during his workday? Of course not. He just washes his hands before lunch.

So, confess your sins constantly. Your confessions will maintain your access to God in Christ. Confession is the door to God’s forgiveness. Your confession cleanses your conscience. It will allow you to continue in the New Covenant with Christ--but not only that. It will allow you to continue in fellowship with other Christians. Fix the fellowship you have broken.

If You Refuse to Confess

In the meantime, don’t take the Lord’s Supper. Don’t compound your sin with hypocrisy. If you refuse to confess your sins, then you should not take the Lord’s Supper.

Your non-participation will be your public recognition that you are not truly in fellowship. And although it’s a bad thing not to be in fellowship, it's worse to corrupt fellowship.

One thing is not to have a family, like an orphan. Another thing is to ruin a family, like an unfaithful spouse. The orphan is doing badly, but he can receive mercy and help.

One thing is to not have a job and to be unemployed. Another thing is to be responsible for a toxic workplace and to make employment miserable for others. The guy who has no job can at least collect unemployment.

One thing is to have your citizenship application denied at a port of entry and to return home. Another thing is to enter a country illegally and to become a criminal offender. At least the person whose citizenship was denied can apply again.

Let's say you don't take the Lord's Supper because you’re not remaining “in Christ.” Okay, that's bad, but at least you’re not trying to deceive his people. At least you're not lying to the Holy Spirit.

Where Is the Body?

But if you harden your heart and hypocritically decide to still take the Lord’s Supper, you are guilty of a sin Paul calls ‘not discerning the Body’ (1 Corinthians 11:29). What is that sin? It's not one we talk about much. Let's talk about it.

To not discern the Body means that you have not understood that on a spiritual level, the Church is the Bride of Christ. You may be looking at it as if it were a business. It's not. Maybe you thought it was a social club. It's not. Maybe you thought that it was like a government agency. It's not.

The Church is very precious to Jesus. It's the apple of his eye. He treasures it more than any other group in the World. He even treasures it above angels.

But if you didn't know that, then it will be easy for you to underestimate the Church. It will be easy for you to look down on the Church--to despise it even! We are, after all, just an unimpressive bunch of ex-sinners who are not of much value to the World's economic, political, educational, military, or entertainment networks. We are not the World's leaders, albeit we are the salt of the Earth.

Indeed, God has chosen us to be part of his Church because we are weak and insignificant.

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth (1 Corinthians 1:26).

And although we recognize that the Church is made up of the poor in spirit, the pariahs of society, and many poor folks, we'll never ignore how important the Church is to Jesus. We are his Bride!

So, consider who you are messing with when you contaminate the Church. You are messing with the Bride of Christ! How do you treat a young woman about to be married?

Maybe you think that it’s not such a serious sin to not discern Christ’s Bride, his Body. However, Paul says that the price for this sin can be sickness or death! Ananias and Saphira both fell dead when they lied to the Church.

Jealous Jesus

A word of advice: Don’t mess with the Bride of Christ. Would you dare to contaminate a young lady who is the fiancé of a powerful and wealthy man—a leading politician? Of course you wouldn’t. And neither should you tamper with the Church. Her husband is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Anyone who corrupts the Church of Jesus Christ by soiling her with sin will have to render an account to her Fiancé, Jesus. He has the righteous jealousy of a husband towards his wife. He is passionate about having her only for him. He will not share her with another.

Jesus will act just as jealous of his Church as the Persian King Ahasuerus acted with Queen Esther. Do you remember how jealous Ahasuerus became when Haman dared to touch the couch on which Queen Esther was sitting? Here's what the Bible recounts:

Haman… stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, ‘Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?’ (Esther 7:7-8)

King Ahasuerus had Haman executed by hanging in the next verse. That’s serious stuff. Lesson learned: Don’t ever get too close to a king’s wife. Impropriety will be punished severely wherever a jealous man is present. And Jesus is one of those jealous men. Is that wrong, or is it right?

Let's go to the Old Testament. What does Proverbs say about a husband's jealousy? Is it justified? Yes! It says:

For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge (Proverbs 6:34).

Pastor Protection

But it’s not only Jesus and Ahasuerus who feel jealous—even the good pastors who serve in the Church will be jealous for the Church. Yep, pastors should feel jealous about the Church, but their jealously is more like a father’s jealously than that of a husband.

Just as a father protects the purity of his daughter with the goal that his daughter might experience the joy of a holy matrimony—pastors should jealously guard the sanctity of the Church. How do we do that? By rebuking sinful influences that get close to the fellowship of God's people.

Pastors purge sin from the Church so that they might present the Church to Jesus on the day when the Wedding Feast of the Lamb is announced.

Paul said this to the Corinthians:

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin (2 Corinthians 11:2; NASB).

Holy Matrimony and Jesus

The Scriptures repeatedly enforce the highest standards of purity for marriage—but why? It’s not just for a well-functioning society. It’s not just for the future of your family. Nope. It’s because marriage is a picture of the relationship between Jesus and the Church. And that is a picture which Christians hold ever before us as the model covenant—the most important covenant in the history of the Universe.

Can you visualize what it will look like to be at the Wedding Feast in Heaven?

The Church is the Bride of Christ, and just like any other groom, Jesus expects his Bride to be a virgin. That’s why Christians affirm marriage as a holy union. All Bible authors affirm it, but the author of Hebrews puts it more clearly than any other.

Here’s what he tells us:

Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral (Hebrews 13:4).

Now you understand what there is to be jealous about--contamination. Jesus is justified in his jealous love for the Church. But we have to see him for what he is: the Church’s Groom.

And Jesus is a great Groom. In fact, Jesus has become the Greatest Groom ever. Our Lord Jesus is the model for every groom that will ever take marriage vows.

Holy and Blameless

Our Lord Jesus eagerly awaits his wedding day. He looks forward to it, especially that he might find his Bride ‘holy and blameless.’ Should a groom settle for anything less in his bride? Should he settle for anything less than that she should be gloriously pure and holy—set apart for him? Of course not.

Look at why Jesus died for the Church: '... that he might present to himself the Church.' In other words, he has betrothed her to himself. He has wooed her. He has courted her. Listen to this from Paul's writings:

… Christ also loved the Church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that he might present to himself the Church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:25-27; ESV).

Okay, so now we know what Jesus expects of us. He expects that we would be his Church—his Bride. And now you know why it’s so important for us to test ourselves. We have to ‘Test ourselves to see if we are in the Faith.’ We have to ‘examine ourselves’ (2 Corinthians 13:5) because we need to be sure that—as the Bride of Christ—we are ‘holy and blameless.’

Are we holy and blameless? If not, then we need to confess our sins. If we will but do that, then all will be well. So let's do it. Let's test ourselves to see if we are in the Faith.