Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of 2 Corinthians
Chapter 13: Examine Yourselves
2 Corinthians 13 closes the letter with a solemn warning, a searching command, and a benediction of grace. Paul is coming a third time, and 'if I come again, I will not spare,' for they sought 'a proof of Christ speaking in me.' He reminds them that Christ 'was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God.' Then comes the searching call: '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?' Paul prays not for his own vindication but for their good, 'your perfection,' using his authority 'to edification, and not to destruction.' He ends with tender exhortations, 'Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you,' and the great benediction, 'the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.' The chapter shows us self-examination, the indwelling Christ, and the fullness of the one God in grace, love, and communion.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of 2 Corinthians chapter 13, the final chapter of the epistle. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Greek words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Here Paul warns of coming discipline, calls the church to examine themselves, prays for their perfecting, and closes with the great benediction of grace. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
I Will Not Spare
Coming a third time, Paul will deal with unrepented sin.
Examine Yourselves
Prove whether you are in the faith; is Christ in you?
Your Perfection
Paul's authority is for edification, not destruction.
Grace, Love, and Communion
The one God with us in grace, love, and the Spirit's fellowship.
Examine Yourselves, Whether Ye Be in the Faith (2 Corinthians 13:1-6)
Coming to deal with sin, Paul turns the church to a searching self-examination: is Jesus Christ truly in you?
How That Jesus Christ Is in You
"This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare: Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you. For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. 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? But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates."
Word Study
"prove," Greek dokimazo (δοκιμάζω). The word means to test, to try, to examine in order to approve, as metal is assayed to prove it genuine. "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves." Paul turns the examination the Corinthians wanted to aim at him back onto themselves: test your own hearts, prove your own faith. And the test is definite: "know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" The mark of genuine faith is the indwelling of Christ; if a person is truly a believer, Christ dwells in him by the Spirit. The word for "reprobates," adokimos, is the negative of dokimazo: it means failing the test, disqualified, counterfeit, like metal that does not pass the assay. So the searching question is whether Christ is truly in us. This is not meant to rob true believers of assurance, but to press every professor to make sure his faith is real and Christ genuinely indwells him. The Apostolic call is to prove ourselves, and the surest evidence is the living presence of Christ within, by His Spirit, changing the life.
Explanation
Coming a third time, Paul warns that discipline will be orderly and firm — "in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established" — and he "will not spare" the unrepentant, for they seek "a proof of Christ speaking in me." Then he turns the searchlight on them: "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves." The decisive test is the presence of the living Christ: "know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" Before scrutinizing the apostle, they must scrutinize themselves — is Christ truly within?
Gospel Focus
Paul announces his third visit and, invoking the law of "two or three witnesses," warns plainly that "if I come again, I will not spare." Those persisting in sin will face discipline. The Corinthians had wanted "a proof of Christ speaking in me"; Paul assures them Christ's power, working through him, "is not weak, but is mighty in you." Then he draws a profound parallel between Christ and His servants: "though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God." Christ went to the cross in genuine human weakness, truly suffering and dying as a man, yet He lives by the power of God, raised in triumph. "For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God." Paul, too, is weak in himself, sharing his Lord's weakness, yet will act among them in the power of God. So the servant mirrors the Master: weakness that is met by the power of God. Then Paul turns the tables on those who examined him: "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves." Rather than judging Paul, they should test their own hearts. And the decisive question is the presence of Christ: "know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" The proof of true faith is the indwelling Christ; He lives in every genuine believer by His Spirit. This is a word every professing Christian must hear: it is possible to claim the faith yet fail the test, to be "reprobate," counterfeit. So examine yourself, not with morbid doubt, but with honest care: is Christ truly in me? Does His life change mine? The One who was crucified in weakness and lives by God's power desires to live in us, and His indwelling presence is the mark that we are truly His.
The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 13:7-14)
Paul prays for their perfecting, gives his final exhortations, and closes with the benediction of the one God in grace, love, and communion.
The Communion of the Holy Ghost
"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. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection. 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. 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. Greet one another with an holy kiss. All the saints salute you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen."
Word Study
"be perfect," Greek katartizo (καταρτίζω). The word means to mend, to restore, to put in order, to complete or make fully fit; it is used of mending nets (Matthew 4:21) and of setting a bone. Paul prays for "your perfection" and exhorts, "be perfect." He is not demanding sinless flawlessness but calling the fractured, quarreling church to be mended, restored, and brought to maturity and full working order, its divisions healed, its life set right. The same grace that saves also mends and completes. This is the goal of all Paul's labor, warning, and love toward them: not their destruction but their katartizo, their restoration and perfecting, "to edification, and not to destruction." God's discipline and His servants' correction aim always at mending, not breaking. So the letter that began in the comfort of affliction ends with a prayer that the broken be made whole: be mended, be complete, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Explanation
Paul's aim is not to prove himself but their good: "I pray to God that ye do no evil... that ye should do that which is honest." His whole authority is "for edification, and not to destruction." So he closes with tender exhortations: "Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you." The letter ends with its famous benediction, invoking the fullness of God's blessing upon them: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." Grace, love, and fellowship — the whole wealth of God — is Paul's parting gift to a church he loved through much pain.
Gospel Focus
Paul's heart in all his warnings is love: "I pray to God that ye do no evil," not to prove himself right, but "that ye should do that which is honest." He would gladly appear weak if only they were strong; his one wish is "your perfection," their mending and maturing. That is why he writes sharply now, so that when present he need not "use sharpness," for the authority the Lord gave him is "to edification, and not to destruction." Then come his tender parting words: "Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you." Be mended, take courage, be united, live at peace, and the God who is love and peace will dwell among you. He calls for the "holy kiss" of Christian love and sends greetings from "all the saints." And then the letter closes with one of the most beloved benedictions in all Scripture: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen." Here the whole gospel is gathered into a blessing. And for the Apostolic reader it is vital to see it rightly: this is not a proof of three separate divine persons, for Scripture is emphatic that "there is one God" (1 Timothy 2:5; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Deuteronomy 6:4). It is the one God described by three aspects of His saving relationship to us. The "grace of the Lord Jesus Christ" is that grace which reaches us in Jesus, God manifest in flesh, the grace that "though he was rich... became poor" for us. The "love of God" is the eternal love that is the fountain of it all, the love of the Father, who is the very deity from whom the grace flows. And the "communion of the Holy Ghost" is the fellowship and indwelling of God's own Spirit, the same one God dwelling in us, for "the Lord is that Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:17). One God, known to us as grace in Christ, love as the Father, and communion by the Spirit, not three, but the one God in the fullness of His saving work, given "with you all." So the great letter ends where the gospel begins and ends: with the one God, in grace, love, and the communion of His Spirit, blessing His people. Amen.
Chapter 13 in Review
2 Corinthians 13 closes the epistle with warning, self-examination, and blessing. Coming a third time, Paul warns that "if I come again, I will not spare," reminding them that Christ "was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God." He turns their scrutiny back on themselves: "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith... how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" His aim is not his own vindication but "your perfection," his authority given "to edification, and not to destruction." He ends with tender exhortations, "Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you," and the great benediction, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."
For the Apostolic reader this closing chapter presses the searching question of true faith and rests in the fullness of the one God. The proof that we are truly in the faith is the indwelling of Christ, who was crucified in weakness and lives by God's power, and who lives in every genuine believer by His Spirit; so we examine ourselves, not in morbid doubt but in honest care, that our faith be real. And the letter ends in a blessing that gathers up the whole gospel: grace, love, and communion, all from the one God. This is no charter for three separate persons, for God is one; it is the one God known to us in three aspects of His saving grace, reaching us in the Lord Jesus, loving us as the eternal Father, and dwelling with us by His Spirit. That one God, in all the fullness of His grace, love, and communion, is the final blessing Paul leaves with the church, and with us. Examine yourself that Christ is in you, be mended and made whole, live in peace, and know the one God with you always, in grace, love, and the communion of His Spirit. Amen.
- Christ "was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God" (13:4).
- "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves" (13:5).
- The mark of true faith is that "Jesus Christ is in you" (13:5).
- Paul's authority is "to edification, and not to destruction" (13:10).
- "Be perfect... be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you" (13:11).
- The benediction blesses with the one God in grace, love, and communion (13:14).
Questions for Reflection
- Have you examined yourself to know that you are truly "in the faith"?
- Is Jesus Christ living in you by His Spirit, changing your life?
- Do you use whatever influence you have "to edification, and not to destruction"?
- How does the benediction show you the one God in grace, love, and communion?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. Two or three witnesses; coming discipline: 2 Corinthians 13:1-2; Deuteronomy 19:15; Matthew 18:16. Christ crucified in weakness, living by God's power: 2 Corinthians 13:4; Philippians 2:7-9; 1 Peter 3:18; Romans 6:4. Examine yourselves; Christ in you: 2 Corinthians 13:5-6; 1 Corinthians 11:28; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27; Romans 8:9-10. Perfecting, peace, and the one God: 2 Corinthians 13:9-14; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Romans 15:33; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Deuteronomy 6:4; 2 Corinthians 3:17. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- Examine yourselves; Christ in you: 2 Corinthians 13:1-6; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27.
- Perfecting and peace; edification not destruction: 2 Corinthians 13:7-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
- The benediction of the one God in grace, love, and communion: 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 Corinthians 8:6.