Text: “Check up on yourselves. Are you really Christians? Do you pass the test? Do you feel Christ’s presence and power more and more within you? Or are you just pretending to be Christians when actually you aren’t at all?” – 2 Corinthians 13:5, Living Bible.
Comment: A genuine Christian life must be one that gives room for self-examination. This is necessary to ascertain whether one is living up to expectations in the Lord. The godly advice of our Lord and master, Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:24 that leave our gift before the altar and first be reconciled to the person we have a quarrel with before coming to offer the gift, shows that such examinations should be undertaken often so that our sacrifices will be accepted by God. “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” (1 Corinthians 11:31, 32) For if we follow this admonition of Christ, which is part of God’s grand design to help man serve Him with a pure heart always by His grace, we would live a life void of offence towards God and man. We are enjoined in the Bible not to allow the sun to go down on our anger, as it is written: “Be ye angry, and sin not: Let not the sun go down upon your wrath” – Ephesians 4:26.