Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.           2 Cor.13:5 KJV

Reprobates! Who uses that word anymore? I don’t think you will find it in any of the newer English translations of the Bible. Say what you will about the old KJV yes its a bit archaic, I generally don’t read that version but you have to admit that its English is quite colorful and  poetic.

First thing I will mention is that Paul says that “we are not reprobates”, referring to himself and Timothy and whoever else is his traveling companions. Probably saying that to add weight to the things he was instructing the Corinthians.

Now he wants the Corinthian church members to do a self examination to see whether they truly are in the faith. We know from reading both first and second Corinthians that this was a worldly or carnal church. There was a good chance that there were unbelievers mixed in with the believers. Back in the Puritan days they called them professors meaning they professed the faith but were not  real mccoy believers. The test seems simple enough, is Jesus in you? If the answer is yes then your a Christian if no then your not.

And if Jesus is in you then your sins are forgiven and you are going to get your sorry bacon into heaven. Right! 

How do you get Jesus into your heart, simple you ask him, right? How do you know He came in? Because He promised He would according to Rev.3:12, right?

So we are golden right?…. I don’t think so, spiritual things are not that simple, as C.S. Lewis once said, life is complicated don’t expect simple answers.

The gospel is a simple message… but it is not that simple.

You would be a fool if you didn’t read carefully at least one of the gospels.  Pick one, it doesn’t really matter that much, all four are called gospels, but read it carefully because it is the gospel that saves us and don’t go cherry picking this scripture and that scripture and string them together to come up with a gospel that is to your pleasing, you do so at your own peril. 

At my church we have fellas who love to point their finger at the other churches in town and accuse them of cherry picking scriptures to create their doctrines. I tell them we are just as guilty of cherry picking as they are, we just came up with different conclusions then they because we are picking different cherries then they are. 

So we need to take a closer look at this very important verse. I am going to look at two words, examine and reprobate, using a concordance. All this research stuff is freely available on your phone or computer. And I have to say I’m no scholar but I do have a whooping 6 community college credits so yeah I’m just an average smock. So if I can do it you can too. I invite you indeed I challenge you to check my work. This kind of research stuff is doable  if you try. You probably are  not going to like what I have to say so again I would encourage you to check things out yourself, your eternal destiny may be at stake. So lets get started.

The word “examine” in greek is peirzo. It is used 38 times in the new testament, 31 of those times it is translated tempt or tempted or tempter. Only once is it translated examine and once “prove.”

Should we start the verse then by saying, tempt yourselves whether ye be in the faith? That does not seem quite right but let us put that on the back burner for now and let us look at reprobate.

Reprobate in Greek is “adokimos” which comes from the Greek word “dokimos”. Dokimos means approved and adokimos means unapproved. So let that sink in, “know ye not that Christ is in you, except ye be reprobate “adokimos” or unapproved.” Do we have to be approved then before Christ comes into our lives? The answer to this is no, we are saved by grace through faith, and this is not of ourselves it is a gift of God.

Dokimos is used 7 times in the new testament, 6 times it is translated approved like in Timothy “study to show thyself approved” the seventh time is interesting, it is used in James 1:12 and is translated tried.Blessed is the man who endureth temptation, for when he is tried (dokimos) he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Those who endure temptation are blessed because they are dokimos, they are approved. And they shall receive the crown of life. But wait a minute I thought you said we are saved by grace through faith and that it is a gift. That is correct but read on.

Lets go over this again and try to put this all together. Enduring temptation gets you approved, (dokimos) so the opposite of that would be not enduring temptation which would leave you unapproved (adokimos), or  a reprobate.

Now back to the word examine (peirzo) which remember is translated 31 out of 38 times as tempt or tempted or tempter.

So maybe we should render 2Cor.13:5 like this, Endure temptations (peirzo) to see whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves, know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be found unable to endure the temptations and thus are reprobates (unapproved or adokimos). 

So there you have it, if you say you are a Christian but are failing to endure temptations then you are a reprobate and you are not going to receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. James 1:12

One more thought, Paul says in 1Cor.16:22 If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” Does that mean we have to keep the commandments? Yes. What happens if we don’t? We will perish. What proof do you have of that? Cursed is anyone who does not love the Lord and if you love me you will keep my commandments. 

Are you saying that we cannot become a Christian until we obey all God’s commandments? No. I believe becoming a Christian probably the same way as you do, by believing in the basic tenets of the Christian faith like what is in the Apostles Creed, repenting of your sins and saying the sinners prayer and being baptized. Jesus has made it easy to be saved. We are saved by grace through faith. There is no works involved in this at all. At least the first part but there is two parts to our final salvation. The bible speaks of our having been saved, past tense, and our being saved, future tense. So there is two parts to our salvation. The second part is that we must maintain a love/faith relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Do understand we are not doing this to be saved we are doing this to maintain our already saved condition. 

That does not mean you have to live a perfect life to remain in a saved condition. This isn’t about sinless perfection its about living in a relationship with Christ. But not just any kind of relationship, it must be an obedient love/faith relationship with Christ. That is what Christianity is all about, you probably heard someone tell you this when you first became a Christian, but that relationship must be maintained. So our final salvation is not determined until we die, because we can lose our faith or our love. The scriptures are full of examples of people who lost their faith and love. If it has happened to others it can happen to you.

In conclusion we as Christians must maintain that love/faith relationship with Christ, failure to do so will result in the loss of our most precious possession, our eternal salvation. This means when we enter into temptation we must put our trust in Christ to deliver us from it, we must cling to Him until deliverance comes, that is what the Bible calls enduring temptation and that is when you engage your faith. Hold on to Him and don’t let go until deliverance comes, this is what builds your faith and your love for HIm.