Testing Our Faith by What Standard?

[Christsfreeservant]

“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?” (2 Corinthians 13:5 NASB1995)​

By what or whose standard do we test ourselves to see whether or not our faith which we profess in Jesus Christ is genuine? It is not by the standard of the world, and not by the standard of the institutional market-driven “churches” of today which are partnered with the government in an unholy union, and which are busy diluting and altering the message of the gospel to make it more acceptable and less offensive to the ungodly of the world.

And it is not by the standard of the gospel taught by Billy Graham, or by his son Franklin Graham, or by his daughter Anne Graham Lotz, or by the standard of any other famous preacher or gospel messenger such as Chuck Swindol, Charles Stanley, John MacArthur, Rick Warren, Max Lucado, Charlie Kirk, J. C. Ryle, Charles Spurgeon, D. L. Moody, John Wesley, or Martin Luther, and the like. For these were/are humans who were/are fallible.

We are also not to go by the standard of church denominations and by their theologies and creeds rooted in different interpretations of Scripture and church tradition, nor by the standard of their religious institutions, including their Bible colleges and seminaries, nor by the standard of old theologians and by commentaries such as Benson, Cambridge, Matthew Henry, Barnes, Bengel, the Pulpit Commentary, J-F-Brown, Matthew Poole, and the like.

So, who sets the standard by which we test ourselves to see whether or not we truly are in the faith? God does! God – Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit – sets the standard by which we are to test to see if we are in the faith. And we can read about that in the Scriptures. But I recommend we use the KJV or some of the earlier translations which came out in the 1970s such as the NASB and the NIV, or the ESV (2001). For some of the more modern translations take some religious liberties with the truth, I believe.

And then we need to make certain that we are reading the Scriptures in their correct biblical context. I would definitely recommend reading the New Testament epistles each in their entirety to get the full biblical context before forming your doctrine of salvation based off singular Bible verses which are very popularly today being taught often deliberately out of their context for the intended purpose to deceive and to lead people to a false gospel.

So, if we are going to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith, we need to read the New Testament Scriptures which talk about faith in Jesus Christ, but in the correct biblical context, comparing Scripture with Scripture, for they must agree with one another. For only ONE GOSPEL is being taught in the Scriptures, but it must be consistent throughout all the teachings. And then we must compare those teachings with how we are presently living.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Matthew 15:17-20; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

Walking in The Light

Based off 1 John 1-2
An Original Work / November 16, 2011
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

When I lift up my voice, and
Sing praise unto God,
I will fellowship with my
Lord and Savior, King.
In Him there is no darkness.
He is in the light of truth.
If we walk in His light,
From sin He purifies.

If we repent of our sins,
He’ll forgive us now,
When we humble ourselves, and
Before Jesus bow.
The man who says, “I know Him,”
But does not obey His truth,
There is no truth in him.
In darkness still he’s found.

Do not love the world of sin,
For it is hell bound.
If you follow the world, you’ll
Not in Christ be found.
The world and its desires
Will not last; they’ll expire.
The one who does God’s will,
Receives eternal life.

See that what you have heard from
Christ remains in you.
Then, you’ll remain in Christ, and
In His Father, too.
This is what He promised us –
His eternal life with God.
So, continue in Him, and
You’ll receive a crown.

Testing Our Faith by What Standard?
An Original Work / September 21, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love