Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Corinthians · About this commentary
Test Yourselves
2 Corinthians 13:5-10
5 Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. · WEB
The examination they demanded of Paul is turned around, and he says he would rather appear to have failed than have them do wrong.
Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves.
The reversal is the sharpest turn in the letter. They were seeking a proof of Christ in him 2 Corinthians 13:3; he hands the instrument back. The second verb is the same one they had been applying to him, and the phrase your own selves appears three times in one verse.
Then the question that makes the test unnecessary: or don't you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?
If they can find Christ in themselves, they have found him in the congregation Paul planted — which settles the original question without any examination of Paul at all. The qualification attached is stark: unless indeed you are disqualified. The word belongs to failing a test, and it is the only alternative offered.
Verse 6 states his hope modestly: I hope that you will know that we aren't disqualified. Not that they will admire him. That he will pass.
And verse 7 gives away the thing he has been fighting for: I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honorable, though we may seem to have failed.
That is the most self-effacing sentence in the letter. His vindication depends on their condition — a healthy church proves the apostle. He therefore prefers the outcome in which they do right and he never gets to prove anything, and he says so: though we may seem to have failed. He would rather look like a failed apostle than have their improvement come as the by-product of his own defense.
Verse 8 explains why he can afford that: we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. A ministry aimed at truth has no stake in the reputation of the person carrying it.
Verse 9 states it as gladness rather than sacrifice: we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. In any ordinary contest that combination is defeat. Here it is the object.
And verse 10 gives the reason for writing rather than waiting: that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.
The definition of his authority closes the bracket opened in chapter 10 2 Corinthians 10:8, word for word — and the letter itself is offered as the alternative to using it.
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