Prove, test, examine, discern

I've been looking at this word translated 'prove' in the King James Bible, and it has revealed some practical and challenging thoughts. I will share them here so that hopefully they may prove to be also beneficial to others. I have quoted below from the New King James Version for a little easier reading, and here the word is translated as prove, test and examine.

DISCERNING HIS WILL

"do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Romans 12:2

In other words what the Apostle is saying is that we shouldn't copy or imitate the ways of this world. There is nothing more sad than a worldly Christian! The Apostle John could say "Do not love the world or the things in the world." (1 John 2:15) and the end result of such an attitude was known only too well to the Apostle Paul - "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world" (2 Tim 4:10) how solemn! We should continually guard against becoming more and more like the world, how do we expect to have a testimony for Christ if we look, sound, act and behave exactly like the world around us? The answer to the danger of worldliness is given in our headline verse - we should let God continually renew our mind and change the way we think so we are more like His Son. Only then may we learn, know and discern God's will for our lives and the Apostle says this is good, pleasing and perfect. If we want to know God's will and his design and purpose for our lives then surely we need to be 'renewing our mind' by continually reading his Word, learning more about Him and letting this impact and affect our lives.

EXAMINING WITHIN

"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." " Cor 13:5

Here is a solemn passage. Sadly there were obstinate, continual sinners at Corinth who claimed to be Christians. Paul challenged them directly and severely, to examine themselves to see whether they were in the faith. God does not envisage that a believer should lead a sinful life, Romans 6 teaches us that: "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" If there is continual and unrepentant sin in our lives this is most unusual and we should examine ourselves and see if we understand this truth of Christ dwelling in us and the Holy Spirit possessing our bodies. Of course we cannot be sinless, and so IF we sin the scriptures declares that Christ lives to make intercession for us and if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us. Let us be challenged and exhorted to live holy lives for Him!

TESTING ALL WORDS

"Test all things; hold fast what is good." 1 Thess 5:21

So if we truly are believers on the Lord Jesus Christ and wish to know him and live according to his desire and will, then we must be vigilant and test everything that is said and make sure that we hold on to the good things. As a Christian you will encounter many different teachings and doctrines, and we must test them according to what the scriptures say, if we are to hold fast to what is good and be profited and built up in our most holy faith. John in his epistle told the believers "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God" We should therefore be very wary when new teaching comes our way! Our spirit should be that of the Bereans in Acts 17 who "received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so."

SCRUTINIZING OUR WORK

"But let each one examine his own work..." Galatians 6:4

As we live for Christ in this world we are also exhorted to carefully scrutinize our own work, service and motives. This is very challenging as the passage assumes that we should all HAVE our own work! What about us today? Do we have a work we are doing for Christ? Is there a ministry that we are particularly exercised and burdened about? What are we doing personally for our Lord? On the other hand, the verse challenges us that we should not get carried away in our zeal and enthusiasm and lose focus or confuse our reason for the work in the first place! Our motives and our service will be reviewed in a coming day, we know this as believers and the scriptures say "each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is." 1 Cor 3:13 Let us be encouraged to examine carefully our own work for the Lord so that there may be more glory and honour brought to Him both down here, and up there in a coming day!

PROVING OUR LOVE

"I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others." 2 Cor 8:8

Here is another practical challenge from the Apostle Paul. The Corinthian believers seemed to excel in so many things - their faith, their gifted speakers, their knowledge and enthusiasm (v7) but there was an area in which they were previously well exercised in but had now forgotten about and that was the practical matter of giving of their substance to meet the need so evident in the churches round about.The Apostle reminds them of their previous exercise and brings to mind the generous grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (the perfect example of one who gave all for others), and that by giving in this way it would be a practical way of showing the sincere and genuine love that should characterize every child of God. Other churches were proving to be eager and diligent in this matter (v8) but the Corinthians needed a timely reminder to give as God had enriched them. We challenge ourselves, how is our giving? Not just donating money randomly to the Lord's work, but do we identify need (in whatever form that may be) and do we feel an exercise and seek to meet that need? There are many ways in which this can be done, but let us be challenged about helping and encouraging our fellow believers in whichever way we can!

We trust these simple thoughts will be for our mutual blessing and encouragement.

Yours in Christ, Mark.