Examine Your Own Selves

"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?"  II Corinthians 13:5.  A reprobate is one who is rejected by God.  The reason for this rejection is that the reprobate is without Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ must be in us.  We must be in Christ.  We believe on Him and obey Him.  We are in Christ and Christ is in us when we are baptized.  Therefore, God accepts us.  We are to know that we are in the faith.  Our relationship with God and Jesus Christ is decided by this knowledge.  The faith is the standard of our examination.  We prove ourselves by the manner of life that we live holding our life to the standard of scripture.  We are to constantly and righteously examine our life so that we know that we are in the faith.  We must be awake lest we slip and slide out of the faith.  If we depart from the faith, we become a reprobate.  We are not to examine others.  We do not justify ourselves by the actions of others.  Our life must stand the test of our own examination.  What others do and who others are must never be used to justify ourselves.  We stand alone before God and Christ.