“2 Corinthians 13”

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

As Christians, we most certainly recognize the importance of self-examination. It is all too easy to drift into bad habits and attitudes that would lead us away from the Lord. “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away” (Hebrews 2:1).

Especially are we in danger when we have been influenced by false teachers, as had the Corinthians.  They had listened to the Judaizing teachers and had fallen prey to their evil leaven. They had been the victims of a “spiritual con job” and did not even realize it.

This should be a grave warning to us today. Earlier the apostle had written to these Christians, including this warning: “Therefore let him who thinks he stand take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). This is an interesting passage in view of the prominent false teaching in the religious world that one cannot fall from God’s grace. Paul says you can and you need to “take heed” that it not happen.

Paul says that he trusted that they will not find themselves out of favor with God and be disqualified. But, in order that this would happen, they needed to listen to what he has written them in both of these inspired letters and make changes in their lives and their relationship with God. Without those changes, they might easily be disqualified.

He wrote these things to them, not to make a show of his apostolic authority, but for their “edification and not for destruction” (verse 10). We are in the church so that we might gain strength from the encouragement of one another.

Because the same thing could happen to us (that we might be led astray by false disciples), we must be constantly on guard, never forgetting that these false teachers appear as “ministers of righteousness” (11:15).

--Roger Hillis

Share