THE TEST

This past Sunday I taught on 2 Corinthians 13. There, Paul alludes to a notion that his "distractors" have made claims that he and his fellow workers have not passed THE TEST. Earlier in chapter 2 he mentioned that he had written them an earlier letter with the purpose of seeing if they would pass THE TEST. So, what is THE TEST?

THE TEST is to see if Christ is found in you. As we make every attempt to grow toward spiritual maturity (our path from self to God), it is important that we constantly examine ourselves to see if Christ can be found within us. If not, then we've failed the test. In class I asked everyone to explore the rest of 2 Corinthians to see what "qualifiers" Paul may have included in his letter to use when examining oneself. I thought it would be of great encouragement to us all to see these and then encourage you to examine the text further on your own and ask if you have passed THE TEST.

Paul's ultimate point is that it is ALL about God and NOT about us. He sums it up in saying, "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

Spend some time with these qualifiers to see if you pass THE TEST:

1:5 (Suffering/Encouragement)

1:9-10 (Suffering/Relying on God)

1:12-13 (Holiness and Sincerity/By God’s Grace)

1:21 & 24 (Standing firm/Faith)

2:14-17 (Captive/Aroma)

3:3 (Letter from Christ written by the Spirit on the heart)

3:5-6 (Competence from God through the Spirit)

3:7-4:6 (Unveiled and Radiant)

4:7-12 (Jars of Clay/Carrying the death and life of Jesus)

4:16-18 (Eyes Fixed)

5:1-5 (Longing for Heaven not Earth)

5:7 (Living by faith, not sight)

5:9 (Goal is to PLEASE HIM)

5:13-15 (Compelled by Christ’s love to live for HIM not SELF)

5:16-21 (New Creation/Christ’s Ambassadors/Righteousness of God)

6:1 (Did not receive God’s grace in vain, but as a gift lived out)

6:3-10 (TOO MANY TO LIST)

6:14-7:1 (Non-Contaminated by the world)

7:8-11 (Godly sorrow that leads to repentance)

8 & 9 (Gift of Generosity)

10 (Not measured by the world, but God)

11:1-13 (Not deceived)

11 & 12 (Boasting in human weakness, but Godly strength/power)