Ep 314 – 2 Corinthians 13

With this episode, we'll wrap up our study in 2 Corinthians. We'll close it out by looking at the final chapter in the book, chapter 13. In it, Paul is going to demand that the Corinthian believers test themselves. He wants them to do some serious soul-searching to determine if they are really in the faith, or not. As we will see, Paul is not really questioning their salvation, as much as he is raising some serious doubts about the effectiveness of their sanctification. The problem as he saw it, was that their lifestyle wasn't tracking with their profession of faith. Their behavior was not matching their belief. For Paul, life change was non-optional for the believer. True conversion brought about true life transformation. Spiritual maturity is to be characterized by increasing Christ-likeness. Transformation into the likeness of Christ is one of the primary byproducts of coming to faith in Christ. Paul was done having his authority as an apostle questioned. He was through letting the Corinthians raise doubts about his credentials and his right to speak for Christ. They needed to spend more time examining their own lives. They needed to concentrate on becoming who God had called them to be, rather than worrying if Paul was who he claimed to be.