Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, (who is not weak towards you, but is powerful among you,
Some in Corinth asked Paul to prove that Christ really spoke through him. This verse is his answer. Instead of listing his credentials, he points to them: their own faith is the proof.
The demand came from the last people who had any right to make it.
The final chapter answers a challenge which he kept for last. Of all people, the Corinthians were the last who should have raised it. What a distress to him to speak of it at all! They had actually dared to ask for proof that Christ had spoken to them through him. Had they forgotten that they owed their life and salvation in Christ to his preaching?
The opening words of this verse do not finish here. The clause "since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me" runs on past verse 4 and lands in verse 5: "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith."
Some have taken verse 5 out of its context and turned it into a plea for constant self-inspection, and even for doubt about one's own salvation. That happens when readers miss the parenthesis, which runs from the middle of verse 3 to the end of verse 4. Connect the early part of verse 3 with verse 5, and the sense is quite clear. There is again a touch of irony in Paul's words. The doubts they had foolishly raised about Christ speaking in him fell back on their own heads.
Reading it the other way does real damage.
This shows how baseless the all too common abuse of this passage is, when people use it to support a doubting self-examination. That error strikes directly at the peace of the believer, and perhaps at the truth of the gospel too. For God sends the gospel, founded on the personal glory and the work of His Son. It brings the believer into communion with the Father and the Son, in full freedom of heart and with a cleansed conscience. These wrong readings, dressed up as zeal for holiness, quickly plunge the soul into doubt through questions about itself.
The words inside the parenthesis describe Christ, not Paul.
After the words, "since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me," the apostle says that Christ "is not weak in dealing with you." He may look weak in the person of His servants, who are only made spiritually strong in proportion as they are weak. But He "is powerful among you," as shown by the effects of the ministry of Paul and his fellow workers.
The same pattern runs back to the cross. A complaint about Paul's manner was a complaint about Christ's.
Suppose they found fault with the apostle for being indifferent to human power and worldly wisdom — indeed for despising and hating it. Then let them think again of the Saviour, who "was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God." And let them judge who was consistent with Christ, His cross and His resurrection: they with their natural thoughts, or the apostle with his ministry, so despised in the eyes of some?
Behind the demand stood teachers who questioned where Paul's commission came from. His answer points to the Corinthians themselves.
Paul had been proving that he was an apostle, which false teachers had called in question, because he was not ordained and sent out by Peter and the others. Paul appeals to his miracles and his work among them, and to every other proof of his apostleship. At last, reproaching them for their folly, he says, "If I am not an apostle, how are you Christians? 'Since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me, examine yourselves.' If Christ did not speak by me you are not Christians, for, as he says, I have begotten you all by the gospel." It was an unanswerable argument to them. They denied their own Christianity if they denied his apostleship.
One writer captures the logic in a picture:
Their Christianity and his apostleship were so closely connected that to question one was to question the other. It is as if I were to show an expensive watch to someone and say, "Since you seek proof that the man who made this is a watchmaker, examine it."
Paul had another proof in reserve: discipline when he arrived. He writes so that he will not need it.
The apostle was content with no better evidence than his Corinthian converts, unless indeed they failed the test — which was far from what they claimed or what he believed. He would far rather give them no proof of his apostolic power in severe discipline.
- Demand. They asked Paul to prove that Christ spoke in him — the one question converts of his preaching had no right to raise.
- Sentence. The clause that opens this verse ends in verse 5. The words about weakness and power form a parenthesis in between.
- Christ. "Not weak but powerful" describes Christ. His strength had already shown itself in what that ministry did among them.
- Cross. Christ was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. The servant's despised manner matched his Master's.
- Proof. The evidence was themselves. To deny his apostleship was to deny their own faith. This self-examination rebukes pride; it does not create doubt.
for if indeed he has been crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power; for indeed *we* are weak in him, but we shall live with him by God's power towards you,)
The Corinthians wanted proof that Christ spoke through Paul. His answer points them to the cross, where a servant's weakness turns out to look exactly like his Master's.
Paul starts a sentence in verse 3, breaks off, and picks up the thread again in verse 5.
As people often point out, the part of verse 3 that begins "who is not weak in dealing with you," and the whole of verse 4, is a parenthesis. So the sentence runs on like this: "Since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me... examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith." They had been tempted to deny that Paul was an apostle. But he had been the means of their conversion. So he says, in effect: you yourselves are the proof of my apostleship, if you are Christians. If you deny that I am an apostle, you must surrender your title to belong to Christ.
The parenthesis is not a detour. It carries on the principle of the chapter before.
From "who is not weak in dealing with you" to the end of verse 4 is a parenthesis. It points to the character of his ministry, on the principles brought forward in the previous chapter. On man's side there is weakness, and what people treat with contempt. On God's part there is power. So it was with Christ: crucified in weakness, raised again by divine power. If the apostle himself was weak, it was in Christ. And he lived in Him, by the power of God, toward the Corinthians.
Kelly gives the literal force of both halves of the verse, then turns it back on Paul's critics.
If they found fault with the apostle for caring nothing about human strength and worldly wisdom — for despising and hating both — let them think again of the Saviour, who "was crucified in weakness" (literally, out of weakness), "yet He lives by God's power" (literally, out of God's power). Then let them judge who matched Christ, His cross and His resurrection: they with their natural thoughts, or the apostle with a ministry that some despised?
The weakness was genuine, yet it never touched who He was.
It is amazing to think about who this is. He grew tired from His journey and sat down at the well in Sychar. A repentant woman washed His feet with her tears. Above all, He died for us on the cross of Calvary. And He was none other than "Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). "He was crucified in weakness" (2 Cor. 13:4), yet at that very moment He was "upholding the universe by the word of His power" (Heb. 1:3).
The risen Christ is the same One who died. Pridham traces Corinth's low state back to not staying close to Him.
This richly gifted but unstable church had shown plenty of weakness and folly... But for God's assembly to be like this reflected badly on the Name they bear; for Christ is both the wisdom and the power of God. So their low condition came from failing to remain firmly in Him. For with Him the time of weakness was past; He was crucified in weakness, and that for them — but He lives by the power of God. The glory of the Father raised Him from the dead. He is the same living One who once lay down in real death under the burden of our sins.
Paul does not put his living with Christ off into the future only. The closing words fix it on the Corinthians now.
The words at the end of verse 4 are remarkable — "by the power of God toward you." The Apostle was not thinking of living in resurrection in the time to come. He meant that, joined to the living Christ, he would show the power of that life now, toward the Corinthians. The power of a new life marks Christianity, and that life works in blessing. Nothing less will do, whether creed or ceremony or work.
What was true of Master and servant becomes the shape of Christian service generally.
All the strength of nature was taken out of him. Everything now must be in the power of God. Christ Himself was crucified through weakness, but He lives now by the power of God... Weakness marks that day, but that is God's opportunity; He comes in with the power of resurrection... The weaker you and I are in our own estimation the better. We trust far too much in our own strength.
That order cannot be reversed.
It is not by human strength that the man of God conquers. The victories that will shine brightest are always those cast, so to speak, in the mould of the death of the Lord Jesus. With us it is life first and then death, because by nature we are dead in trespasses and sins. But with the Lord Jesus it is death first and then resurrection life. That is the pattern for the Christian's faith to grasp... A man cannot win Christian victories until he is bare and low before God. He must be broken down in one way or another.
- Weakness — the cross was real weakness. The One who hung there was upholding the universe at that very moment.
- Power — the same living One who died now lives by the power of God, raised by the glory of the Father.
- Pattern — death first, then resurrection life. Every Christian victory is cast in that mould.
- Present — Paul expects that power in his ministry now, not only in a future resurrection.
- Proof — the Corinthians were the proof they were asking for. Deny Paul's apostleship, and they lose their own claim to Christ.
examine your own selves if ye be in the faith; prove your own selves do ye not recognise yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed ye be reprobates?
Paul ends this letter by answering critics who demanded proof that Christ spoke through him. His reply turns the demand back on them, so the verse is a rebuke, not a call to doubt your salvation.
The command to examine yourself does not stand alone. It is the second half of a sentence that starts two verses earlier, broken by a long aside.
It helps a lot in understanding what follows to see this. Whether it is marked in print or not, a parenthesis opens after the first clause of verse 3 and runs through verse 4 as well. So the first clause of verse 3 connects with verse 5: "Since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me … examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves." It is a final notice of, and answer to, their unworthy questioning of Paul's apostleship.
Read that way, the tone is not anxious but sharp. Paul is pointing at the one thing his critics could never explain away — their own conversion.
The Corinthians had questioned whether Christ spoke in Paul, and whether he was a real apostle. You can see it all through both letters. As a final argument he says, "You had better examine yourselves. How did you come to be Christians?" He was the one God used to convert them. So he adds, "Do you not know your own selves, that Christ dwells in you, unless you are reprobates?" How did He get there?
The ESV ends the verse with "unless indeed you fail to meet the test." Older translations read "unless indeed you are reprobates," and that older word is the one these writers explain.
A reprobate is someone thrown out as good for nothing. The picture comes from silver rejected as worthless. He means, "If you are Christians, Christ has spoken through me, and it is through me that you are Christians."
That raises a fear: could a believer end up in that group?
With the apostle there were only two things in view: either Christ Jesus in you, or you are reprobates. There is no thought of a Christian becoming a reprobate. He says, "But I trust that you will know that we are not reprobates."
Paul's question expects a yes.
We turn first to the case of the Corinthians. We read, "Do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" So Christ was in the Corinthians after all, as He is in every true child of God. The only exception, according to the verse, is the reprobate, the unconverted.
The verse is often used to keep believers unsure. Commentators push back hard on that use.
This also shows how groundless the far too common misuse of this passage is. People use it to justify a doubting self-examination. The truth is that a look at the context clears the error away — an error that strikes at the peace of the believer, and even at the truth of the gospel. These misreadings wear the cover of concern for holiness, but they plunge the soul at once into doubt by making it question itself.
Where then should a troubled believer look? Not inward.
Nothing in the Apostle's words tells the Christian to look inside himself for the assurance that he is a Christian. It is the outward look to Christ risen that gives inward peace, and the word of God that gives assurance. When the Lord appeared among His disciples on the day of the resurrection, He found them troubled by thoughts rising in their hearts. At once He dispelled their fears by directing their gaze to Himself: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself." Looking within filled them with doubts and fears. Looking out at their risen Lord, they saw in His hands and feet the proofs that He had died for them and was risen, and this brought peace and joy.
Commentators differ on how much self-searching Paul intends. One writer reads it as a real summons: the Corinthians had judged Paul, so now "let them test and prove themselves, about the faith they boast in" (A. Pridham). Others draw a line between testing your walk and testing your relationship.
It is quite right to examine whether we are living up to it. But that is a very different thing. A child does right to examine how he behaves as a child. It would be sad work for him to do the other thing and examine whether he is a child. Being aware of a relationship — an awareness that never fails — is one thing. Living consistently with it is another. We must not confuse the two.
- Context. Verse 3 runs straight into verse 5, because verses 3b–4 are an aside. Read together, they answer people who wanted proof that Paul was Christ's messenger.
- Proof. His evidence was the Corinthians themselves. If Christ was in them, He had spoken through the man who brought them the message.
- Gift. "Christ in you" is not a prize to hunt for. It is the mark of every true child of God. The only exception named is the unconverted.
- Limit. "Reprobate" means cast out as worthless, like rejected silver. Paul names two groups only, and no path from one to the other.
- Result. Assurance comes from looking out at the risen Christ and resting on God's word. Examine your walk; do not put your relationship on trial.