Having spent the past few chapters responding to some in the church questioning his authority, Paul now turns the tables on them and urges them to examine their own lives. The imperatives,“examine yourselves” and “test yourselves” (2 Cor 13:5) to the Christians in the Corinthian church apply to us today as well.
Jeremiah was a prophet who received and spoke God’s word to Judah. In Jeremiah 17, he spoke on self-examination from the perspective of a whole nation. Looking closely at this chapter in the Old Testament will give us insight into the self-examination that Paul is urging in 2 Corinthians.
(A) SELF-EXAMINATION AND TESTING: OUR HEARTS ARE OFTEN HARD, DISORIENTATED AND DECEITFUL (2 COR 13:5A, JER 17:1-11)
In Jeremiah 17, Judah’s heart is described as sinful and hard. Their sin is written on the tablet of their heart with a pen of iron and a point of diamond (Jer 17:1). These materials are usually used to inscribe on hard surfaces, which implies that Judah’s sin is severe and has a permanent nature. Their heart is also described as deceitful above all things (Jer 17:9).
Judah’s sin is also engraved on the horns of their altars (Jer 17:1) – altars on which they make sacrifices to God. They whore after other gods while falsely believing that sacrificing to God in the temple would keep them safe. This text calls out God’s people who are supposed to be set apart for Him. Instead of having God’s law on their hearts, they filled it with sin. As we read these verses, we ought to also pause and reflect on our own hearts. What do you fill your heart with? Are you growing in grace and godliness? The Apostle Paul urges us to test and see if we truly know God.
Judah’s idolatry was a blatant and outright rejection of God. Instead of teaching the next generation about God as He commanded in Exodus, their children only knew the idols they worshipped. They remember their parents’ altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, on the mountains and in the open country (Jer 17:2-3). Their idols spread across the Promised Land – the land the Israelites journeyed through, clinging to God’s promise of deliverance. This land symbolized God’s faithfulness to them! Yet they marked it with altars on which they prayed to other gods. If we walked through the land of our hearts, both through the mountaintops of our public lives and through the valleys of our private thoughts, what would we find?
In addition to these, Jeremiah also spoke of how Judah also trusted in man and made flesh its strength; its heart turned away from the LORD (Jer 17:5) to lesser things. In contrast to the man whose trust in in God, who draws sustenance from God and bears fruit, Judah was parched. We ought to check our hearts’ orientation – where is our trust now? What do we rest our heart on? Are we aware of the consequences of turning away from God?
Like a partridge that gathers a brood that she did not batch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice (Jer 17:11). Judah has taken others’ rights and riches dishonestly; they have preyed on people. In Jer 17:9, Jeremiah describes the heart has deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Here we have a “user manual” of the human heart. It takes work to understand it, and it is necessary for our souls. We are to examine our hearts, questioning it forwards and backwards, knowing that like a dishonest person, it will justify itself. True gospel self-examination seeks to identify specific sins.
Paul takes it a step further in 2 Cor 13:5-6. He says to “test yourselves”; verify that your faith is indeed real. Test yourself in the furnace of daily life. Jer 17:10 contains a stern warning – the LORD is the final judge who renders the final judgement for your life. When He does, there will be no time for correction. In fact, justice will be served even in the midst of their days, while waiting for the end (Jer 17:11).
(B) SELF-EXAMINATION AND TESTING: REST IN A MAJESTIC GOD FOR CHANGE (2 COR 13:5B-6, JER 17:12-13)
Paul’s intends and hopes that the church in Corinth would pass the test (2 Cor 13:6). This test is meant to be passed; it wasn’t set up for them to fail. Paul did not want them to be stuck in a cycle of chasing idol after idol.
David Powlison writes on sin and the testing of our hearts: “that at my death there will remain sin that has not been completely removed. I will die as a sinner in need of further purification/glorification.” As we see our sin, we need to be clear about how it offends God. Biblical examination points us outside ourselves, away from introspection that leads to despair, and towards God Himself. Jeremiah turns their mind to God’s glorious character in Jer 17:12. A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. Our self-examination must point us to the everlasting God – glorious, worthy, and enthroned above all.
David Powlison also writes, “An accurate description of my sin is the doorway to God’s revelation of who He is.” Our struggle with idolatry shows our failure to see how precious God is. Are we looking to Christ or relying on our works? Because Christ was crushed as a worthy sacrifice, he’s turned our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. God’s law is now inscribed on our hearts and we can respond in joy to God!
Here are six helpful reflection questions (from Jerry Bridges) for our self-examination:
What is my attitude toward God? Do I gladly acknowledge my dependence on him and my accountability to Him?
What is my attitude toward sin? Am I concerned or indifferent about it?
What is my attitude toward Jesus Christ? Do I trust Him as the one who dies for my sin on the cross?
What is my attitude toward the Bible? Do I truly want to grow in my understanding and application of it in my life?
What is my attitude toward prayer? Do I also want to grow in this area of my life, or am I quite content to see prayer as an occasional call out to God for help?
What is my attitude toward other Christians? Do I appreciate being with them and learning from them, or do I actually prefer the company and lifestyle of my non-Christian friends?