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 its English quite colorful and   its the most poetic of the English versions.

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. The test seems simple enough, is Jesus in you? If the answer is yes then your a Christian if Jesus in not in you then your not a Christian.

Christ has made it easy for us to enter the Kingdom of God. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Eph.2:8 KJV

The scriptural instructions seems to go like this, firstly hear and believe the gospel, secondly be willing to repent of all your sins, and thirdly to be baptized.

I go to a Lutheran Church and they teach firstly be baptized (as an infant) then as you grow older to hear and believe the gospel and finally to repent. That just seems messed up to me and it shows in their lives. I got to tell you I have come to believe that they are not really Christians at all based on the way they act and the way they talk.

So I am wondering if perhaps it is because they got the simple 1-2-3 instructions all messed up.

In addition to our initial past salvation experience there is also a future salvation that has not yet taken place. Jesus said, “he who endures to the end will be saved.” Will be, is future tense. So do we have to endure to the end? Well…yes. Always always take Jesus at His word. There are other conditions as well, it would behove you to read through the New Testament and using your highlighter mark out the other conditions you find in there.

Is Paul talking here then about our initial salvation experience or our final salvation? It must be about our initial salvation because he asks, do you know if Christ is in you or not? But how are we supposed to know if Christ is in us? I know but im not sure I can tell you why. Circling back to infant baptism and the fact that they messed up the proper sequence, I wonder if that matters? When I listen to them talk in Sunday School I can tell there is something wrong.

Faith is what’s important, obedience is desirable but optional. It is faith alone that saves us, they tell me.

Let me tell you a story I have conjured up in my sick and feeble mind. Imagine you are in WW1, your a French soldier in the ditches at Somme. There was multiple battles fought there and over a million casualties on that battle field. 

Now when your Sergeant blows his whistle you are to climb the ladder with your bolt action rifle and charge the enemy. The Sergeant tells you to run right straight towards the German machine gunner and when you get close enough drop down on your belly aim and fire your weapon at him and kill him.

You tell your sergeant that what he is asking is impossible that you will get mowed down by the machine gunner. The Sergeant, who is a type of Christ in this story, tells you that he will protect you and guide you and if you will put your trust in him he will make sure that you won’t die and you will in fact kill the machine gunner with one shot.

Now you must decide are you going to trust in your Sergeant and obey his orders or are you going to doubt his word and decide to cower in the trenches and let others do the fighting. Those who trust and obey their Sergeant are exercising their faith. That’s faith!

People tell me, “yeah I would be that brave soldier”, no you wouldn’t. You are a coward and you are cowering right now in the trenches of your life. “Bologna, prove it.” you tell me. Okay I will. Tell me what did you do the last time you were tempted to sin, not an easy one the tough one, the hardest one for you to resist? Did you like a good soldier charge the enemy who is spraying bullets all around you, drop down on your belly and shoot him dead? What I mean is, did you obey Christ at that moment and put your trust in Him to deliver you from the temptation? 

Did you drop down in prayer and put your complete trust in the Savior to save you? Were you willing to die while waiting for deliverance? Did you weather the storm? Or did you cave in? If you did cave in you are literally a coward in God’s eyes.

So you see we all face battles every day. The battle is real, the decision you make is real. The defeat against your sinful nature is real. When you sin you are consorting with the enemy, Satan. He scores a victory and you just scored a loss.

Keep piling up these loses and you will be classified as a reprobate. A reprobate in greek is adokimos it comes from the word dokimos. Dokimos means approved, adokimos means unapproved.

Dokimos is used in James 1:12 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 fail to endure temptations are not dokimos but are rather adokimos, unapproved, or as the King James puts it, “reprobates”

All is not lost. The next time temptation attacks you put up a fight, be like the soldier at the Somme, defy all the odds, stand up against Satan himself and fight like a man. And don’t forget the Man who is on your side, He will do all the heavy lifting for you, He will score a victory for you, all you have to do is trust Him.