---
title: 2 Corinthians 13:5
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-corinthians-13-5/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-corinthians-13-5.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 2 Corinthians 13:5
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 2 Corinthians 13:5

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Can’t you see for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you actually fail the test?

## JW Usage

"Keep testing whether you are in the faith; keep proving what you yourselves are. Or do you not recognise that Jesus Christ is in union with you? Unless you are disapproved" is read by JWs as a perpetual works-assessment. Are you keeping up with field service? Meeting attendance? Loyalty to the organisation? The "disapproved" clause is heard as a live threat — fail to endure faithfully and your standing with Jehovah is revoked.

## Protestant Usage

Paul's Greek word for "disapproved" is *adokimos*, and he uses it in two places in the Corinthian letters — 1 Corinthians 9:27 and 2 Corinthians 13:5. In 2 Corinthians 13:5 the test is explicit: "do you not recognise that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you fail the test?" The test is evidential — does Christ live in you? — not punitive. Paul is not threatening loss of salvation; he is asking believers to examine whether the faith they profess is real faith or counterfeit faith.
The difference between evidential self-examination and anxious insecurity is enormous. Paul the same letter-writer elsewhere says "there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1), that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39), that "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion" (Philippians 1:6). Paul holds both at once: rigorous self-examination AND unshakeable assurance. The self-examination is the way God's preservation works out in practice — not a treadmill that could at any moment revoke the verdict Christ has already earned.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Paul's Fear of Being Disqualified](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/1cor9-27-adokimos.md) — 1 Corinthians 9:27 and the adokimos question [Salvation]