Our verse today comes from the Apostle Peter; he is saying that we do not make our election sure just for God. God knows His own. Rather, we are to make our election sure for ourselves. We need confidence in our salvation so that we might grow spiritually.
The Corinthians were Paul’s great critics. In both his letters to them, he defends his own apostleship. They were well educated and steeped in Greek philosophy. They reveled in powerful oratory and were thus mesmerized by the eloquent preaching of Apollos. However, they found Paul unimpressive and even questioned his credentials. II Corinthians 10:10 says, “For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.”
The Apostle Paul said in II Corinthians 13:5, “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?”
As he closes out this last letter he is saying, “You want to examine me but you should be examining your own lives to see whether you are really Christians.”
Do you know that you are really a Christian?