(5) Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? (6) But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. (7) Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. (8) For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. (9) For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection. (10) Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction. (11) Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. (12) Greet one another with a holy kiss. (13) All the saints salute you.
I pass over everything of a private nature, which took place between Paul and the Church of Corinth, to attend wholly to such as concern the Church of God in all ages. What the Apostle saith of proving themselves and examining themselves, by way of ascertaining the reality of their Christian calling, is an employment suited to the Church of Christ, and to every member of Christ's body in every generation. The only caution to be observed in doing this, is, to form our conclusions by the Lord's standard, and not our own. Most are apt to err in their calculations for want of attending to this grand distinction. Our safety is in Christ, not in ourselves. And, hence I draw my conclusions of happiness in the Spirit's testimony from what I am to Christ, and Christ to me, and not from what I feel of those things. It may be at times, from various causes, my joys in those things are not at hand, but the things themselves are the same. Therefore, the unerring standard in proving ourselves is: God's manifestation of his love of his people in Christ, and not their sense of this love. There will be, there must be; a continual fluctuation between hope and fear, while men are looking to a somewhat within, instead of always looking off self unto Christ. It is his putting away sin by the sacrifice of himself, which is the sole cause of our salvation; our apprehension of Him, and his finished work by faith, is the effect. While believers prove themselves by this standard, they never fail to discover the state of grace in which they stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1
Reader! do not overlook with what sweet affection Paul closeth up the subject, however sharply he had found occasion to speak to the Corinthians, in a way of reproof: Finally, brethren, farewell! It is not the happiness of all faithful ministers, to be favored with an opportunity of a personal interview with their people, when taking an everlasting farewell upon earth of them; but, whether, in person, or by letter, nothing can be more suited than what Paul hath here said: Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you! What could Paul say, what ought he to have said beyond these precious things? Perfect (as he saith elsewhere) in Christ Jesus, Colossians 1:28. All perfection is in Him. And his people have no perfection but in Him. All their acceptance, justification, sanctification; grace here, glory forever; all, and every portion is in Him, from Him, by Him. And, oh! what endless, uninterrupted comfort must arise in the soul, through the Spirit, from such views, and such a consciousness of perfection in Christ? One mind, one heart, one desire, one object, would mark the Church forever, when thus established. And very sure must be His presence among them; and in them, as the sun, in the centre of the world, diffusing life and light in every direction, where these blessings are found; because God, as the God of love and peace, who is Himself love, and the sole author and giver of love and peace to his people, cannot but be the fountain from whence the streams flow, and to whom they tend, and in whom they centre. The God of love and peace be with you!