Spiritual check-ups

II Corinthians 13:5 (The Message)

Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. 

In my job in the corporate business world I was reminded this past week that it is time for my semi-annual self-evaluation of the personal objectives I had established for myself at the beginning of the year.  Most corporate jobs have this requirement for self-evaluation semi-annually or at least annually.  Good health care typically requires an annual physical examination that even though is performed by a physician it is you who take the initiative to have it.  Same goes for dental checkups.  Self-evaluations are routine in many occupations.  Our pastors evaluate themselves almost weekly (and if they don’t, others will).  Indeed, if you don’t routinely evaluate your performance on the job or your health or any other thing that you do, others will eventually tell you news that you don’t want to hear. 

This passage is a reminder that spiritual check-ups are important too.  You are to test or examine yourself to make sure that you are solid in the faith.  Every single one of the hundreds of study vignettes that I have written require some kind of self-examination of where you are spiritually as well as who and what you are and doing in everyday life.

Life can become a drudgery; overcoming drudgery is one of Ostwald Chamber’s emphases in his book My Utmost for His Highest.  Life’s drudgeries can get you down, cause you to lose motivation and the energy it takes to keep pressing forward (Phil 3:13-14) in your Christian journey.  Scripture here says don’t drift along taking everything for granted.  If you do, you will fall into traps of sin and backslide into your old ways.  You need to give yourself regular checkups.  You do this with your physical health, but what about your spiritual health? 

So, how do you do this?  How do you obtain firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you?  How do you test yourself?  How do you know if you fail the test and if you do fail, what can you do to return to your Christian roots? 

This verse is NOT teaching that self-examination provides the assurance of your salvation.  Such assurance comes from the Bible, not from your own assessment.  Especially when you know that you have stumbled or even have committed a grievous sin, examining your salvation at these times would lead to discouragement and the kind of doubt that Paul writes about in Romans 7.  What this verse is teaching is to examine your attitudes about God, about church and fellowship, about sin (avoiding it), about service, about witnessing and all other things that relate to the Christian walk.  Of the seven churches listed in Revelation 2-3, six had “left your first love” (Rev 2:4) meaning that they had fallen away from their initial passion, devotion and affection to Jesus Christ and His ways.  This is what you should re-examine on a consistent basis----do you still have the passion, devotion and affection about your faith and works as a Christian as you once did?  The evidence is found in your attitudes (strength of your faith) and actions (service for the Lord through others).  If you find that these have waned or even disappeared from your daily life, then you must do something about it.  Otherwise, indeed, you were not a true believer to begin with.          

It is far better to examine yourself now and have time to make corrections than to ignore this and wait until Judgment Day. 

‘It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your soul than for a soldier to fight on the battlefield.’  William Butler Yeats