2 Corinthians 13:5

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

‘Examine yourselves, … prove your own selves.’

2 Corinthians 13:5

Nothing unusual in this advice, but something very remarkable in purpose for which it is given by St. Paul. He is appealing to their personal experience for proof of the truth of their new faith. He thus states two great truths: that there ought to be in every one of us a proof of the truth of our religion; and that we may obtain this proof for ourselves. Have we such proof? St. Paul tells us that if we examine ourselves we shall find ‘Christ in us’—a remarkable expression.

I. What are the features of Christ that should reproduce themselves in every true Christian? Christ will show Himself as—

(a) The obedient Son of God.

(b) The absolutely true and perfect brother of every man.

(c) The Perfect Man—perfect in His holiness.

II. Is Christ thus living in us?

(a) Have we ever had even one thought of loving obedience to God?

(b) Have we ever felt in our hearts a thought of love to our fellow-men?

(c) Have we ever felt in our hearts a hatred of evil for its own sake?

III. If we find these beginnings, that is the proof of our faith which lies within the reach of every one of us. You cannot prove logically the articles of your belief concerning Him, but experience will teach you that there is such a Saviour. Thus may we gain evidence for our faith, and be evidences of it to others. So lives still on earth, in the lives of His servants, the ever-living Christ. Then can we say, ‘I know in Whom I have believed.’

Archbishop Magee.

Illustration

‘The truth in which you find yourself is far greater than you, and extends far beyond your ken. You are tentatively feeling your own little way, by gradual experiment, into harmony with the eternal truth which embraces all things. But then, if so, your own experiments can cover but a tiny corner of the vast truth, a passing moment in an endless movement. That is all that you can personally and experimentally verify. But if your own experiment stands; if you are convinced by trusting what supported and ennobled, and are sure that it is a reality to which you have by faith committed yourself—then you will trust the truth, in which you are, for all that which is out of your sight and beyond your verification. You will say: “I have found Christ true in me, for me; therefore I am sure that He is the same in the heart of those perplexities which I cannot solve any more than you. I have no answer to give you in face of all kinds of dark enigmas. I have to leave them as black and terrible as they are to you. I cannot tell what Christ is at behind them. Only I know that He works on a scale which I cannot follow. He takes in a whole series of generations to work through one problem; a long sequence of centuries to disclose a secret. He takes long views. I can only take short ones. How can I pretend or presume to say what He is doing? Only day by day I win through experience a deeper and deeper assurance that I am co-operating through Him with the very truth in things. He meets me at every turn with renewals of confidence. I am at one with the secret, somehow, which holds the world together. Whenever I trust Him He practically answers. That is enough for me. The truth is one. And I am in the truth. Some day I shall know all that it means. For the present I am content to know that I shall know hereafter.” ’