More of Jesus

Pray for Your Church: Members (1)

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 2 Corinthians 13.5

Who? Me?
I will sometimes try to imagine Paul’s epistles as they were first read to the people who received them.

Imagine, for example, hearing the book of Romans read to a gathered assembly of all the house churches in Rome. We would have been slack jawed like everyone else to hear that powerful and practical letter of sovereign grace and Kingdom encouragement.

Or imagine being present in Philippi, assembled with all the other churches, to hear Paul’s epistle to them, written from a prison in Rome. What a soaring reminder of the greatness and humility of Jesus, of the magnitude of His exaltation, and of those encouraging words to press on in Him!

I’m pretty sure we would all have been amazed, even thrilled, to hear those letters read for the first time. Amazed and thrilled and encouraged and pretty much swept up in Paul’s vision and love.

Now imagine gathering with all the other believers in Corinth to hear Paul’s second epistle to them. They’d been scorched by the first one, although not without words of encouragement and hope. What would Paul have to say in this second epistle?

Surprisingly perhaps, 2 Corinthians would have sounded very upbeat and encouraging by contrast with Paul’s first epistle. He commended them for doing the right things. He said they refreshed his soul. He gave them a vision for working their “sphere” for the Lord, just as he was doing.

But then the reader would have come to 2 Corinthians 13.5: Examine yourselves! Test yourselves! Are you really saved? Do you really know the Lord? Or are you just playing at the faith?

I suspect that “Who? Me?” might have been a fairly common response.

Such a great salvation
Every believer should take to heart Paul’s exhortation to examine ourselves, and that every day.

I know, I know. I can hear the objections now: “Hey, friend: Once saved, always saved!” 

True, of course. Just not enough. Not according to Paul or the other apostles, at any rate. After all, there are certainly some people in our churches who consider themselves to be saved. They have professed faith in Jesus. They come to church. Once saved, always saved, right?

But lots of folks having “believed” in Jesus and who go to church each week have not truly come to the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (Jn. 17.3). If that were not so, Paul would not have exhorted us in this manner.

We must examine ourselves daily, not so much for the “Who? Me?” side as for the “Is it I, Lord?” aspect of our discipleship. Have I betrayed the Lord? Do I need to repent of sin? To be filled with His Spirit? To abide more fully in Him? Bear more fruit in Him? Feast on His Word and Presence more consistently? Be more faithful in my witness? Is it I, Lord?

We are the beneficiaries of what the writer of Hebrews referred to as such a great salvation—of which Paul said there will always be exceedingly and abundantly more to know and enjoy (Heb. 2.1-3; Eph. 3.20). Unless we examine ourselves daily, we won’t be able to discover any obstacles keeping us from growing more fully in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. And unless we examine ourselves in the light of Scripture, we won’t understand the greatness of Jesus nor of the great salvation He offers us day by day.

More and more about Jesus
My favorite hymn is More about Jesus, composed by Eliza Hewitt in a previous century. It offers the refrain:
“More, more about Jesus!
More, more about Jesus!
More of His saving fullness see;
mor of His love Who died for me.”

The more we know Jesus, seeing Him in His Word as the Holy Spirit leads, the more we will become like Him (2 Cor. 3.12-18). The more we become like Him, the more we will want others to know Him and be like Him as well (cf. Acts 3.4-6). And for this to be true of any of us, we need to pray. We must pray for ourselves and the other members of our church that God would grant us a clearer and more constant vision of Jesus, that He would increase our love for our glorious King, and that we might grow in true and devoted knowledge of God so as to live daily for His glory in all we do (1 Cor. 10.31).

And here’s a prayer that you might use to that end:

Heavenly Father, we would see Jesus!
Show us Jesus everywhere in Your Word!
Move us to seek Him throughout the day,
to know His Presence,
be filled with His power,
and serve as agents of His grace to our world.
Let the beauty of Jesus and the greatness of our salvation
be that toward which we strive
and press
and run
with all our might,
every day, all day long,
to the praise of Your glorious grace.

For reflection
1. What do you think of when you hear “Jesus”?

2. What could you do to improve your vision of Jesus—for great clarity and constancy? Why should you?

3. Where your salvation is concerned, what do the words “exceedingly and abundantly more” suggest?

Next steps—Transformation: Use part of your prayer time each day to focus on Jesus, exalted in glory and yet filling the world with Himself (Eph. 1.15-23). Pray that He will make you more like Him.

T. M. Moore

Give thanks
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

Other columns of interest this week: Read Moore (from the book, Revived!); from Crosfigell, “He Knows What He’s Doing”, on the work of the Holy Spirit; and “The Bitter and Sweet Word” from our daily Scriptorium series, “Jesus throughout the Scriptures.” And new in our bookstore, Let God Be True and Enjoying God, both free to download and share.

Thank you.
Many of you are faithful and generous in praying for and supporting Crosfigell and The Fellowship of Ailbe. Thank you. I encourage all our readers to seek the Lord about becoming a supporter of The Fellowship of Ailbe. It’s easy to give to The Fellowship of Ailbe, and all gifts are, of course, tax-deductible. You can click here to donate online through credit card or PayPal or Anedot, or send your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.