“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you fail the test.” (2 Corinthians 13:5, CSB)
With regards to our health, we often need to examine ourselves. We are told by doctors to be sensitive to changes in our physical bodies. One time I looked in the mirror and saw something growing on my left ear. So, I went to the primary care physician and was referred to a dermatologist. Apparently, there was an early-stage carcinoma, which the doctor removed before it could spread. A simple self-examination caught something that needed immediate specialized care.
It is the same with our spiritual health. Everyone needs to do a self-examination from time to time. I was in a ministry called Evangelism Explosion and one of the things they had us do was a “Spiritual Inventory.” Frankly, it was a great exercise, but one that was also a bit painful.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians these words.
“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you fail the test.”
He asked them to do a self-examination to see if they were in the faith. Now there are two aspects of this test. First, it is positional. The question is this “Have you been saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone, who died to pay the penalty of your sins on the cross?” If you have not trusted in Jesus for salvation then you definitely have failed the test. Of course, the remedy is to transfer trust from what you have been trusting to Jesus Christ.
Yet there is another test for spiritual health it is not one to determine if you are or are not a believer. It is one to see if you are living like a believer should. Paul wrote to the Galatians about this issue.
“I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.” (Galatians 5:16–17, CSB)
Here He is speaking about the characteristic walk of the believer. The question is this. “Are you living by the Spirit or by the desires of the old nature?” Paul listed the kinds of things that the old nature produced in the verses following verse 17. I will not list them, but then in contrast, he enumerated the fruit of the Spirit.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22–23, CSB)
The point is this. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus. Thus, it is very much possible that these characteristics of godliness can be manifested in believers in every situation of life.
I believe that this is the test of spiritual health for believers, that is to see if you are walking by the Spirit or the flesh. Rather than focusing on the limited list that Paul gave of the misdeeds of the flesh, it is better to examine one’s actions based upon the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit. If our actions are not in accord with the fruit of the Spirit then we are in the flesh. There is no middle ground. We are either walking by the flesh or the Spirit. What is the solution? It is found in seeking the Lord and His righteousness with a whole heart, and when we do cross the line, and we will, to confess it to the Lord and seek Him to renew you from within. This means a deep walk where we yield to the leadership of the Spirit who dwells within.
Renewing the Heart 