The Test
2Corinthians 13:5 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?
I read these words and they make me very uncomfortable.
Depending on the translation you read some have the words “examine yourself” first in the sentence while others have the words “test yourselves”, either way it’s unnerving.
Let’s break this statement down before getting to the meat.
To examine something is to make through inspection, leave no rock unturned. It’s a serious and focused look, not some casual glance.
A test is a tool to answer the question: do I know or can I perform enough to qualify. Am I really the real deal? Am I really a 10th grader, am I really a Green Beret, am I really a mechanic, am I really a follower of Christ/Child of God? Tests answer these questions and more.
We’re called to thoroughly inspect/examine our lives and to test ourselves to answer a very important question… am I in the faith.
Of coarse for some, they’ve never put Jesus in charge of their life and don’t claim to follow Him, so the answer is easy and obvious, but this scripture wasn’t written to non-Christians. It was written to followers of Jesus. This is important!
The fact we, as Christians, are told to test and examine ourselves to make sure we’re in the faith points toward a reality stated at the end of the verse… we can fail the test. It points to the reality that no matter how sincere and perfect we started out we can get off track/stray and end up outside of the faith.
Proof: Look at the story Jesus told to illustrate how the condition of people’s hearts determines their overall response to the truth of God’s word and it’s affect in their lives.
Luke 8:11-15 11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
This same story is found in Matthew 13:1-23 and Mark 4:14-20. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with all three versions of the story, because there is some details that each brings out that are worth noting.
According to this story Jesus teaches that not everyone will turn to good/ accept the word of God in their life. In fact, Jesus tells us about 25% of the people we share with will not accept it. (Hard soil along the path)
Well, 75% isn’t bad. Right? Wrong. Another 25% (Stony ground) will hear it and accept it but their commitment is shallow and because of their “what’s in it for me” attitude when hard times come because they follow Jesus they will abandon ship.
So, 50% of the people we share with, in the end, will not live for Jesus.
Well, that still leaves us 50% to respond to the truth, experience the life of God, and go to heaven! Right? Wrong.
Another 25% (Thorny ground) will believe and follow until something better comes along. They don’t cease to believe, but they don’t make following Jesus the number one priority in their life. They will focus most of their time, energy, thought, and effort toward the accumulation of things and experiencing a variety of pleasures that this life has to offer. While they believe in Jesus, it is these things that are priority to them and these things that they live for.
So, 75% of the people will be of no value to God in the advancement of His Kingdom here on earth. 50% in the big picture will not believe and live for God and another 25% believe (and may go to heaven), but produce no good fruit.
The final 25% (Good Soil) is the only soil that will actually have long-term deep commitment and will produce large quantities of fruit, thus personally experiencing the life of God and being of value to God in the advancement of His Kingdom here on earth.
Even in this final 25% there is variance from one person to the next on just how productive they will be.
I had some questions based on 3 scriptures to test themselves and examine their life with. They were: 1) Do I seek God first above all other things? 2) Do I Know God’s word, do I believe God’s Word, and do I do God’s Word? 3) Am I becoming more and more like Jesus in thought, word, and deed?
But, I want to provide another tool to test us and evaluate our lives with… this story from Jesus. WHAT SOIL ARE YOU?
It seems like it would be an easy question, but take the time to study the attributes, qualities, and characteristics of each soil, their experiences, their responses, their results.
I’ve done this study and am going to post it in the document section of this website.
I encourage you to take the time to figure out where your heart/life is in relation to following Jesus faithfully and experiencing the life He’s planned for you.
It’s important that the test isn’t made up by the ideas or opinions of some guy. Let God’s word be the source and standard of our test.
Take the test! Be honest. How are you doing? Are you all you thought and said?
You are not taking the test so you can be condemned, but so you can have an accurate diagnosis on how healthy your relationship with Jesus is, an evaluation on how well you are running your race!
The whole point of this evaluation/test is to find the areas of weakness and make improvements! Not see how bad we are and quit.
We want to know where we’re missing it and how, so we can correct the issues and really experience the life God promises us in Jesus and be all he made us to be.
God is gracious, merciful, compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love, forgiving, patient and He is on your side. He wants you to win! He’s cheering you on and believes you can do it, you have what it takes, just don’t loose sight of the fact we are all human and have weaknesses and tendencies to stray, so we’ll need to make corrections regularly.
I read these words and they make me very uncomfortable.
Depending on the translation you read some have the words “examine yourself” first in the sentence while others have the words “test yourselves”, either way it’s unnerving.
Let’s break this statement down before getting to the meat.
To examine something is to make through inspection, leave no rock unturned. It’s a serious and focused look, not some casual glance.
A test is a tool to answer the question: do I know or can I perform enough to qualify. Am I really the real deal? Am I really a 10th grader, am I really a Green Beret, am I really a mechanic, am I really a follower of Christ/Child of God? Tests answer these questions and more.
We’re called to thoroughly inspect/examine our lives and to test ourselves to answer a very important question… am I in the faith.
Of coarse for some, they’ve never put Jesus in charge of their life and don’t claim to follow Him, so the answer is easy and obvious, but this scripture wasn’t written to non-Christians. It was written to followers of Jesus. This is important!
The fact we, as Christians, are told to test and examine ourselves to make sure we’re in the faith points toward a reality stated at the end of the verse… we can fail the test. It points to the reality that no matter how sincere and perfect we started out we can get off track/stray and end up outside of the faith.
Proof: Look at the story Jesus told to illustrate how the condition of people’s hearts determines their overall response to the truth of God’s word and it’s affect in their lives.
Luke 8:11-15 11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
This same story is found in Matthew 13:1-23 and Mark 4:14-20. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with all three versions of the story, because there is some details that each brings out that are worth noting.
According to this story Jesus teaches that not everyone will turn to good/ accept the word of God in their life. In fact, Jesus tells us about 25% of the people we share with will not accept it. (Hard soil along the path)
Well, 75% isn’t bad. Right? Wrong. Another 25% (Stony ground) will hear it and accept it but their commitment is shallow and because of their “what’s in it for me” attitude when hard times come because they follow Jesus they will abandon ship.
So, 50% of the people we share with, in the end, will not live for Jesus.
Well, that still leaves us 50% to respond to the truth, experience the life of God, and go to heaven! Right? Wrong.
Another 25% (Thorny ground) will believe and follow until something better comes along. They don’t cease to believe, but they don’t make following Jesus the number one priority in their life. They will focus most of their time, energy, thought, and effort toward the accumulation of things and experiencing a variety of pleasures that this life has to offer. While they believe in Jesus, it is these things that are priority to them and these things that they live for.
So, 75% of the people will be of no value to God in the advancement of His Kingdom here on earth. 50% in the big picture will not believe and live for God and another 25% believe (and may go to heaven), but produce no good fruit.
The final 25% (Good Soil) is the only soil that will actually have long-term deep commitment and will produce large quantities of fruit, thus personally experiencing the life of God and being of value to God in the advancement of His Kingdom here on earth.
Even in this final 25% there is variance from one person to the next on just how productive they will be.
I had some questions based on 3 scriptures to test themselves and examine their life with. They were: 1) Do I seek God first above all other things? 2) Do I Know God’s word, do I believe God’s Word, and do I do God’s Word? 3) Am I becoming more and more like Jesus in thought, word, and deed?
But, I want to provide another tool to test us and evaluate our lives with… this story from Jesus. WHAT SOIL ARE YOU?
It seems like it would be an easy question, but take the time to study the attributes, qualities, and characteristics of each soil, their experiences, their responses, their results.
I’ve done this study and am going to post it in the document section of this website.
I encourage you to take the time to figure out where your heart/life is in relation to following Jesus faithfully and experiencing the life He’s planned for you.
It’s important that the test isn’t made up by the ideas or opinions of some guy. Let God’s word be the source and standard of our test.
Take the test! Be honest. How are you doing? Are you all you thought and said?
You are not taking the test so you can be condemned, but so you can have an accurate diagnosis on how healthy your relationship with Jesus is, an evaluation on how well you are running your race!
The whole point of this evaluation/test is to find the areas of weakness and make improvements! Not see how bad we are and quit.
We want to know where we’re missing it and how, so we can correct the issues and really experience the life God promises us in Jesus and be all he made us to be.
God is gracious, merciful, compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love, forgiving, patient and He is on your side. He wants you to win! He’s cheering you on and believes you can do it, you have what it takes, just don’t loose sight of the fact we are all human and have weaknesses and tendencies to stray, so we’ll need to make corrections regularly.
Labels: diagnosis, evaluate, faith, fruit, health, love, money, percent, pleasure, produce, soil, test, wealth
posted by Pastor Mike @ 9:07 PM
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