2 Corinthians 13.5-9 challenges, 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. I hope the test won’t show that we have failed.

In every endeavor where we measure performance we test. From academia to sports to the lab we test in order to determine strength, truth or ability. In Christianity, we tend not to test.

We tend to ignore our spiritual disciplines and our moral development. We do this to make it easier for ourselves. Tests are hard, discipline takes effort, accountability can be painful so we pretend all is well agreeing with one another not to drill down upon one another so that we all ‘pass’ the test and receive the eternal participation award.

What if God is not playing this game? What if the Judge of all Who paid with His blood to redeem men and commands all who follow Him to deny themselves and carry their cross, really expects us to live as Jesus did? How would we test ourselves?

First, loving God requires knowing God. My love for someone or something is expressed first by my time. True in relationships true in my relationship with God. Do I spend as much time as possible reading the Scriptures to hear God and praying back to God those Scriptures so I can conform my life to His will?

Second, do I obey God? If I love God, He said I would obey His commands. Love honors the objective of its love. We honor God best and we honor God most when we obey God diligently.

Finally, we love God when we serve God. How well are we working to see God’s kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. One test to determine our eternal effectiveness is to ask how many we have led to eternal life in Christ and how many are we investing in their eternal life toward Christ? The mission of the Christian is the Great Commission. If we are not working with Christ in building His kingdom then we are working against Christ.

So let us not grow weary in doing good but let us test ourselves to prove we are in the faith.