NOTES for Co2 13:1-14

Paul calls his Corinthian brothers to test ("examine") and investigate first of all themselves - not in the sense of tests for conformity to some religious doctrines, but with regard to their faith. Here the apostle has in mind above all what he has already written much about to the recipients of his letter: personal relationships with Christ as the basis of Christian life, the life of the Kingdom as the foundational experience without which there is no Christianity. About himself Paul says that he is strong not against the truth, but for the truth. For him, however, truth is precisely that very experience of living Christian life against which he invites his readers to check themselves.

The apostle is not going to convince anyone of anything and will not prove anything to anyone when it comes to the many arguments and disputes that were then going on in the Corinthian church. He simply sees no point in it. Not because nothing can be proved that way - something can in fact be proved that way - but because even if one succeeds in proving something to someone, it will be completely different from what a Christian should care about at all. One can prove one's own rightness or an opponent's wrongness on one theological question or another, but who benefits, and how, from all such proofs? It is only a kind of intellectual sport, a contest of minds and erudition, in which victory proves nothing except the intellectual superiority of one rival over another or over others. In the spiritual life of those arguing, such a victory or defeat changes nothing, and if it does change something, it is not for the better: it gives the winner one more occasion for self-exaltation and arouses negative emotions in the defeated.

Paul is not going to Corinth in order to take part in contests of this kind. He does not want to prove anything to anyone - he wants the Christians of Corinth to wake up spiritually, leave useless disputes over words behind, and return again to that spiritual life in the true sense of the word, the experience of which they had, judging by the apostle's words. And if Paul succeeded in this, he would consider such an awakening his chief victory.

Concluding his discussion of witness and rebuke, Paul once again draws the attention of the addressees of his letter to the fact that among Christians any rebuke makes sense only insofar as the life of the Kingdom is at issue. He says: you are looking for proof that my witness is true, that through me the Savior Himself is addressing you, but you will still find no proof of this if you yourselves are not living one life with Him (v. 3). Only the life of the Risen One, the life of the Kingdom, can be a reliable foundation joining Christians to one another, and only in connection with it does everything Paul says to his Corinthian brothers make sense (v. 4). They must be firmly confident in their Christianity, just as Paul himself is confident, and then everything will fall into place (vv. 5-6). As we can see, the apostle again and again reminds the Corinthian Christians of that spiritual wholeness without which it is impossible to live in the Kingdom, and therefore impossible to be a Christian. If there is no wholeness, there is no confidence either: in that case a person is in fact unable to be rooted in the Kingdom as he should be.

Paul, of course, does not write by chance to the Corinthian Christians that he prays for their perfection, that they may be able to live the life of the Kingdom in all its fullness (v. 9). He is not frightened by the fact that against the background of a spiritually strong church he himself may appear spiritually weak: the apostle is not trying to demonstrate his strength to anyone, and he is not frightened by the prospect of "appearing to be something other than what he ought to be" (v. 7). He understands perfectly well the difference between "being" and "appearing," and he knows that in the Kingdom all human comparisons of oneself with others are worth nothing. For him only one thing matters: that the Church remain the Church and Christians remain Christians (v. 11). That is how it should be for a genuine witness of Christ and the Kingdom.

Paul tried more than once, in different words, to describe what Christian life is. And now he calls his fellow believers to test themselves: are they Christians? At first glance the question may seem strange, since everyone entering the Church, and in those days baptism was received only at a conscious age, knew perfectly well what he was doing and whom he was following. And yet, as we can see, the matter was not so simple.

Of course, if Christianity were only one more new religion, a choice made once, a promise pronounced once, a baptism received once would be enough: as long as the person who had made his choice did not renounce it, he would remain a Christian. But Christianity is not a new religion, but life in the Kingdom that the Savior brought into the world. Here one cannot limit oneself to one choice, one decision, one action, even if it is of fundamental importance. Life does not stop; it continues in the Kingdom, and the choice once made must then be confirmed again and again. That is why the apostle advises testing ourselves, watching our spiritual state, giving account to ourselves whether we are living Christ's life or not. For the life of Christ is the life of the Kingdom, and we remain Christians only as long as we live one life with Christ.

It would seem that for those who have entered the Church, it cannot be otherwise. And so it would really be if we had already completed the path of our transformation, if our human nature had been renewed to the end, as will happen at the end of times when the Kingdom is revealed in all its fullness. But for now the Kingdom is only entering the world, and we are entering the Kingdom, and just as the world has not yet been transformed to the end, so we have been transformed only partially. In such a condition sins, mistakes, and falls are still possible. Until full transformation, we still have something to fear.

And if so, then the constant self-control of which Paul writes is necessary. Every sin committed separates us from the Kingdom, and if in committing it we still do not lose our salvation, it is only because the history of the Kingdom has not yet been completed, the period has not been put, the doors have not been closed. But even in such a situation it is better not to take unnecessary risks and to reduce the possibility of losing the fullness of life to a minimum. This is what the apostle calls us to.