[Darris McNeely] In a very short period of time, we're going to be upon the Passover, very solemn night for Christians who observe the New Testament Passover, the time when we remember the suffering and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. There's an anchoring verse for me and for many that I call to mind at this time of year. It's in 2 Corinthians 13:5 and a Scripture that I use to help me to prepare for Passover.

It says this, "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. Paul is writing this to a church that he wants to kind of settle and to help. He's given them some correction. They need some encouragement. They need to be encouraged that they are in the right way, that they are, in a sense, in a good relationship with God and they can find their way back to a solid relationship even among themselves.

In this verse, he gives three keys that I'd like to focus on in three separate "BT Dailys". He says, "To examine yourself, whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves." And then he says, "Know that you are." So, examine, test, and know. Let's look at the idea of examining ourselves here in this daily. You remember the examinations that we would have in school, how difficult they would be, and challenging.

It was a moment of reckoning to get to a final exam for math, history, physics, whatever it might have been. Some people would do well, some tests well, some don't do well in tests even though they have good knowledge there, but we always have to produce, on an exam, true answers to be able to pass the course.

And that's what Paul is doing. He's wanting them to come to a true examination, to a true answer. And he tells them to examine whether or not they are in the faith. Now, there's one faith. There's one truth to which we are called. Let me ask you, have you repented of your sins? Well, I think most of you would say yes, you came to understand God's law that sin is the transgression of God's law.

And as you began your walk of faith and relationship with God, you had repented of your sins. That is a very good place to begin. Ask yourself as well. Does sin rein in your life? Does it control you? Does sin have dominion over you? Well, we all are going to slip, make mistakes, but to be in the grip of a sin, that's something that, you know, we have to ask ourselves, but more times than not, the answer is no. We might sin, but it doesn't have a dominion over us because we're moving in faith toward God and in a relationship with Him.

A Christian is set free from sin and we are to become the slaves of God. We're servants of God. We're servants of the living Christ. And the walk we begin is a new walk. We're not perfect, but it is a new walk that we begin in. And that's what Paul is aiming us toward, examine ourselves, whether be we be in the faith. Are you on that path? Are you walking toward the kingdom?

Are you walking in a way of life where sin doesn't have dominion over you and your life is with God? Then we are in the faith and we should be encouraged by that. As we examine ourselves at this time of year, we're going to sin. We're to make mistakes. But when we confess that sin, God is just to forgive us. And He will.

We will, at times, even war within ourselves. In Roman 7, Paul makes a great deal about the fact that he wanted to do what was right, but there was a law within him, an internal struggle that sometimes he didn't always do what was right even though with the mind and the heart, he wanted to.

And that's where we find ourselves so often, but that shouldn't discourage us because at the very end of that passage, in verse 25 of Roman 7, Paul says, "I thank God through Christ Jesus, our Lord. So, then, with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin." He understood that he had a relationship with God and that he was on the right path.

And though he, at times, made mistakes, his examination brought him to the point where he could thank God. And that's what the examination to determine whether we are in the faith should do. That's the first step toward a settled approach toward Passover. We'll talk about the second one, testing yourself in part two.

That's "BT Daily." Join us next time.