Any Christian who has read 1 Corinthians knows that the Corinthian church had problems. There were divisions, quarrels, strife and jealousy among them as they fought over their favorite teachers (1 Cor. 1:10-12; 3:1-4; 11:17-19). There was sexual immorality in the church, and tragic toleration of it (1 Cor. 5:1-2; 6:15-20). There was also toleration of professing Christians who were greedy, idolaters, swindlers (1 Cor. 5:11) and drunkards (even during the Lord’s Supper; 1 Cor. 11:21).
And it wasn’t as if God was ignoring it all. Paul wrote that some in the church were weak, ill, or had even died prematurely due to God’s discipline (see 1 Cor. 11:30-32). Paul reminded the Corinthians that, although God delivered the people of Israel from Egypt and did many miracles for them soon after, they suffered His judgment in the wilderness because of their idolatry, sexual immorality, and grumbling. Thousands of them died prematurely. In one case, 23,000 died in one day (1 Cor. 10:1-12). Paul wrote, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction” (1 Cor. 10:11).
Paul also told the Corinthians that God disciplines disobedient believers in order that they “may not be condemned along with the world” (1 Cor. 11:32). Those words are variously interpreted. Some believe they mean that, had God not disciplined the disobedient Corinthian Christians, He would have had no other choice but to ultimately condemn them “along with the world”—in hell. Others believe they mean that God disciplined the disobedient Corinthian Christians in hopes of motivating them to repent, and unless they did repent, they would be condemned along with world when they died.
It is certainly noteworthy that Paul also warned the Corinthians that the very things that some of them were doing would result in their forfeiting God’s kingdom:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9).
Clearly, that was a warning to those in the Corinthian church who were guilty of some of the very things Paul listed.
In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul expressed the same fear:
I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ… For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish…that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances; I am afraid that when I come again…I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced” (2 Cor. 11:2b-3; 12:20-21, emphasis added).
And that is why Paul concluded his second letter to the Corinthians with the admonition:
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (1 Cor. 13:5).
Obviously, Paul doubted that at least some of those in the Corinthian church were “in the faith” and that Christ was in them. That is why he admonished them to “examine” themselves. True believers—those who are indwelled by Christ—have evidence for it, and that evidence is obedience to His commandments.
Tragically, many professing Christians ignore all of these plain passages in 1 and 2 Corinthians, but they can always be counted on to quote three verses from Paul’s introduction to 1 Corinthians: “…so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:7-9, emphasis added).
“See!” they say, “Paul wrote that God would confirm those carnal Corinthian believers blameless to the end,” so there is no possible way that believers will not inherit God’s kingdom.”
But they not only fail to harmonize those three verses with everything else Paul wrote to the Corinthians, but they also fail to notice three very important words in that short passage that they are so quick to quote. Allow me to italicize them for emphasis:
“…so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:7-9).
God will confirm blameless to the end those whose Lord is Jesus. We have no right to claim the promise if we don’t meet the condition.
If Paul were alive today, do you suppose he might have the same fear regarding many modern churches as he did 2,000 years ago for the Corinthian church? Might he again write, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”
