I have previously said when present the second time, and though now absent I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well, that if I come again I will not spare anyone, since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, and who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you. 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? But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test. 2 Corinthians 13:2‭-‬6

Even in our weakness Jesus lives within us

Paul seems to be having difficulty with the church at Corinth. There were those in the Corinthian church who didn’t believe Paul had the authority to speak as an apostle. They wanted proof of Paul’s Christ-given authority. The trouble-makers at Corinth thought Paul was weak just as Christ was weak.

Before we continue, we need a better understanding of the weakness of Christ. When Jesus came to earth to live as a man, he took on the weakness of a human being. He did that so He could bring people into a right relationship with God. When He died on the cross, Jesus appeared weak, but in reality He defeated the power of sin and the grave. Jesus purpose on earth was to bring glory to God in His life, death, and resurrection.

Paul recognized his own weakness, but he also witnessed the extraordinary power of God in his life. He put this in perspective in a previous chapter. Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16‭-‬18).

We, too, are like Paul. We are weakened by this human body but we can do amazing things in this life because of the power of God directed towards us. Just as Paul discovered Jesus living in him, so can we. We live day by day in the resurrection power in our lives. We live like we are alive.

We should examine our lives whether Christ be in us

We’ve reached the point of the study where a decision has to be made. How are we going to respond to the truth of the scripture? Just as Paul encouraged the Corinthian Christians to examine if they were in the faith, we should also test if our relationship with God is real.

What does this examination look like for a believer? There are many more questions we could add to the following list. These are just to get you started. Here are some questions we should ask ourselves when we examine our lives:

What kind of attitude do we exude?

Do we do what is right?

Do we put our faith in God?

Do we read our Bible daily?

Do we pray?

Do we love God and others?

Do we go to church?

Do we serve others?

Do we give God the glory?

The great theologian Matthew Henry wrote these words nearly 300 years ago and they still hold true to this day.

We should examine whether we be in the faith, because it is a matter in which we may be easily deceived, and wherein a deceit is highly dangerous: we are therefore concerned to prove our own selves, to put the question to our own souls, whether Christ be in us, or not; and Christ is in us, except we be reprobates: so that either we are true Christians or we are great cheats; and what a reproachful thing is it for a man not to know himself, not to know his own mind!