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 sentence Paul is writing
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.
A challenge turned back
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?
What "reprobate" means
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."
Christ in you — the mark of every believer
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.
Not a licence for doubting
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.
The self-examination that is right
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.
Summary
- 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.