Are You Qualified?

My title is drawn from two commands Paul makes in 2 Corinthians 13:5. Most translations of the Bible read, “Test yourselves… examine yourselves” or they reverse the two imperatives saying, “Examine yourselves… test yourselves”. In the Greek, the first imperative is a different word from the second. Either one may be translated test or examine which explains why translators have difficulty differentiating between them. The difference I find is in the subsequent verses. Paul uses forms of the second word four more times in the next two verses.

This is not just a trivial linguistic issue in my opinion. The first command asks the Corinthians to test or examine themselves “to see if you are in the faith.” What he means is to see if you are truly a believer, one who is “in the faith.” Throughout church history, there has been a debate over how people can know if they are saved – “in the faith.” It is glaringly obvious that the Corinthian church had people who claimed to be in the faith but acted very much like those who were not – like unbelievers. The two letters we have from Paul to the Corinthians are full of correction and rebuke. He certainly questioned the legitimacy of their belief.

One could ask whether the Corinthians believed Paul’s message at first (got saved), but later they stopped believing (lost their salvation). The answer to this question generally comes from one of two perspectives: either Calvinist or Arminian. (I wrote about this in some detail in “Calvinist or Arminian”) The Calvinist position holds that once a person is saved, it is not possible to lose salvation: once saved; always saved. The Arminian view is that everyone makes a conscious decision to be saved and can therefore decide to be “unsaved.”

This passage may be Paul’s entrance into the debate. I say this because of the second word he wrote in verse five. Whereas test or examine is a fair translation of the first of his commands (πειράζω), the word he used in the second command is dokimazō (δοκιμάζω) which may legitimately be translated “qualify.” The fact that he used forms of this word repeatedly in the rest of the passage leads me to think he meant “to qualify” rather than test or examine. An alternative translation of Paul might read, “Qualify yourselves! Or do you not recognize regarding yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are unqualified? And I hope that you will recognize that we are not unqualified! Now we pray to God that you not do wrong in any way, not that we are seen as qualified, but that you do what is good, even though we are seen as though unqualified.”

In the larger context, Paul had been asserting his qualifications as an apostle. At this point, he told the Corinthians not to concern themselves with his qualifications but to look to their own condition. In the end, the only thing that mattered was if they were qualified as believers. So, the question becomes what Paul says qualifies one as a believer. They claimed to be “in the faith,” or in Christ. Paul insists that to qualify as a believer, Christ must be “in them.” As he said to the Colossians: “Christ in you the hope of glory.”

The important question one must ask is what kind of faith qualifies one to say, “Christ is in me.” Paul told the Roman believers, “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also make alive your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you.”

This was Jesus’ promise to His disciples on the night He was betrayed. He prayed to His Father, “that they may be one, just as we are one – I in them, and you in me, in order that they may be completed in one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.” Just before this prayer for His disciples, He had told them, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love…. This is my commandment: that you love one another just as I have loved you.” The quality of faith that proves Christ is in you is a faith that loves selflessly, agape love, the love of Jesus. This reminds me of what James said: “Faith without works is dead.”

It should be no surprise that we are called to obey Jesus; life in Christ is a “long obedience in the same direction,” according to Eugene Peterson. That direction is conforming our life to the life of Christ. In his book Rumors of Another World, Philip Yancey asserts that, “Those who invest their hope in an unseen world prove it by their actions in this world…. putting feet to Jesus’ prayer that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” If we are in Christ and Christ is in us, we must continue His work doing His Father’s will.

None of this should suggest that once I am “qualified” I am good for eternity. In the same way that I had to fulfill continuing education requirements to maintain my teaching certificate (qualifications), believers must continue to affirm their qualifications by continuing to grow up into maturity in Christ. The essential quality of maturity is demonstrating selfless love to a greater and greater degree.

One wonders how this quality of faith affects the quality of one’s life here on earth. Yancey quotes Albert Schwietzer: “The only [people] who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” It is no coincidence that throughout the Old Testament prophets, the promised Messiah is called God’s Servant. He shocked His disciples at the “Last Supper” by washing their feet and proclaiming that servanthood was to be the hallmark of His disciples. Jesus said He, “came not to be served, but to serve.” I believe that one important qualification for saying you are “in Christ” is servanthood. Are you qualified?

Related Posts: Necessary Obedience; Weak-day Christians

When "Destruction" is not Destruction

I have written in the past that I thought 2 Peter 3:12, “the elements will melt with a fervent heat,” was a prediction of a massive explosion as the elements loosed their nuclear bonds. I thought if Christ “holds all things together,” when He lets go, there will be universal release of energy: BOOM! Peter mentions this event in his discussion of the end of this world and the coming of a new heaven and a new earth. Recently, a friend asked me about this verse, so I looked at it in the original Greek. I was surprised at what I found.

First, as always, I looked at the larger context of the verse. Peter is responding to “scoffers” who were denying that Jesus would return. Their argument was that nothing had changed since the creation of the world. Peter points out that God made a major change when He flooded the earth with water. The Greek word he used for “destroyed” and “destruction” in verses six and seven means “not extinction but ruin; loss, not of being, but of wellbeing” according to Vine’s Dictionary. The planet was not destroyed; it was cleansed of the ungodly people. Peter says that the coming “destruction” in the last day will be for a similar purpose: to remove the ungodly.

We sometimes use “destroy” this way in modern English. We might say that a person who suffers a tragic emotional loss is destroyed. Obviously, we don’t mean they died; they were crushed in spirit. Similarly, a team that wins a massive victory is said to have destroyed their opponent. This type of usage follows what Vine’s says is “loss of well-being,” not utter destruction.

After the comforting thought that God is delaying the last day because He “does not want any to perish,” Peter warns his readers that there will be no warning when the day does finally come; it will sneak up like a thief. Peter’s first note is that “the heavens will disappear with a rushing noise.” In Peter’s first century understanding of the cosmos, “heavens” would mean what we call the atmosphere and possibly outer space. His usage of “disappear” could be translated as “swept aside.” Whoosh! The reason they are swept aside or averted or neglected (literal Greek) is explained by Peter a couple verses later.

Peter’s next phrase is where the real surprise comes. “The celestial bodies will be destroyed being burned up.” (LEB) Most translations say “the elements” will be destroyed. The Greek word Peter used is stoichion (στοιχει̂ον). Using “elements” in this case is another incidence of the English word not clearly translating the Greek thought. Of the seventeen Bible versions I have on my computer, only the LEB translates the word correctly. Stoichion means elemental in the sense of first principles. The LEB correctly uses “celestial bodies” because Peter’s audience would have thought of elemental spirits when they read stoichion. As the chart below shows, other occurrences of this word in the New Testament most often follow the LEB.

Vine’s Dictionary says stoichion refers to “the delusive speculations of Gentile cults and of Jewish theories, treated as elementary principles, “the rudiments of the world,” and spoken of as “philosophy and vain deceit.” (Colossians. 2:8 KJV) This clearly has nothing to do with the “elements” of the periodic table as I used to think. Vine’s Dictionary continues by explaining, “[stoichion] were presented as superior to faith in Christ; at Colosse the worship of angels, mentioned in [Col 2:18], is explicable by the supposition, held by both Jews and Gentiles in that district, that the constellations were either themselves animated heavenly beings, or were governed by them.” This makes it plain that the things being “swept away” are not planets, moons, and stars, but spirit beings who were thought to hold sway over circumstances on earth.

The next thing in Peter’s chronology of the Day of the Lord is “the earth and the deeds done on it will be disclosed.” This is his first mention of things on earth, and it does not say earth will be destroyed. It seems that with the “elemental spirits” having been “swept away,” the machinations and motivations of the people on earth will be revealed or “found out by inquiry” according to Vine’s Dictionary. That leads Peter to advise that those who are believers ought to be living holy, godly lives as they wait for the day of God. Since it comes without warning, there won’t be time to straighten things up ahead of time. The Apostle Paul seems to be referring to the same thing when he tells the Corinthians that their works will be revealed by fire on the day of judgment.

Then in verses twelve and thirteen, Peter explains why the celestial bodies, the elemental spirits are going to be swept away. He uses different terms but makes the same point as he did in verse ten. He says the result of the heavens being burned up is the celestial bodies melting (τήκω). Imagine the sun thawing an icy body. It would have been obvious to Peter’s readers that the elemental spirits (stoichion) are opposed to God, and He must get them out of the way so He can renew the heavens and the earth

The new heavens and earth are not just “new” in the sense of later in time. They are of an entirely new type (καινός). In one sense, they are not new but are of an older type: they are the same as God created them in the beginning. Peter says they will be a place where righteousness makes its home (κατοικέω). This is another way of saying that the evil “god of this age” who led the “elemental spirits” will have been swept off his throne, and the rightful king will take his place. All the beautiful imagery of the prophecies concerning God’s kingdom on earth will be fulfilled. The lion will dwell with the lamb; swords will be beaten into plowshares; pain and sorrow will be no more.

Peter’s fiery imagery is reminiscent of the Old Testament passages alluding to God’s ultimate judgment of His creation. As Peter reminds us, God did judge the entire world once before using water. God promised never to do that again, but He did say He would execute judgment once and for all using fire as a metaphor. Even though the earth is not doomed to destruction as I had thought, there is power Peter’s proclamation: judgment is coming; get straight or get burned.

Related Posts: And the Light was Good; The Patience of God