Confession: I’m a big fan of tests. I know—it’s nerdy, but I love demonstrating that I’ve grasped the content I’ve been taught. I also recognize that my love of tests is not the norm, and for most people, exams aren’t popular. So when Paul says “test yourself,” I can see how it might come across with negative connotations. But when we dig a little deeper, we see an invitation into a closer walk with Christ.
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Corinthians 13:5, ESV)
For context, Paul was sending this epistle, or letter, to the church at Corinth. In it, he’s sharing a message of defense—defending the truth of the Gospel and the authority of his ministry. In light of false teachers, Paul was challenging the body of believers in love. He wasn’t trying to condemn them. He was opening the door to self-examination. Something that all Christians need to do regularly in their walk with the Lord.
Paul encourages them to, “Examine yourself,” meaning take the time to look closely. This wasn’t necessarily a question of salvation, but one of “are you looking like the faith you profess?” So often, we call ourselves Christians, yet we don’t actually align ourselves with being a true disciple of Christ. And then, Paul takes it a step further with, “test yourself.” It’s like he’s calling their belief into action. If you are indeed a Christian, and you look like the faith you profess, are you really walking it out? It reminds me of when I was getting my first driver’s license. There was a written test with the rules of the road and a driving test to prove I knew how to put that knowledge into action. Paul is asking about both—knowledge and lived practice, because it is common to know better, but not do better. How often do we spout out Psalm 23, but succumb to fear, coveting, and anxiety? Exactly. Knowing and doing are two different things.
In this passage, Paul is presenting an invitation to perform a Holy Spirit–led check-in. And honestly, it’s time for us to do the same and ask: Am I growing in Christ? Is my faith rooted in Christ or routine? Do I see the evidence of His presence, like repentance, joy, humility, hunger for truth? Does my Monday look different because of Jesus?
One of the most dangerous places we can be is in church, but not in Christ. These questions push us deeper than the surface. They invite us to wrestle with where we actually struggle. Perhaps it’s pretending to believe, while our actions show the fruit of unbelief. Or being self-righteously blind to our own sins. Maybe it’s resting in our good works instead of finding confidence in our faith in Jesus Christ. Regardless of what is revealed, God never exposes what He doesn’t also want to restore. When we surrender it instead of striving, He meets us with grace every time. He reveals to redeem. He convicts to cleanse. He tests to transform.
Without regular examination, we drift. We confuse being busy with being fruitful. We settle for being around spiritual things instead of being transformed by the Holy Spirit Himself. That’s why this invitation matters—not just for individual believers, but for the Church as a whole.
The world doesn’t need more Christians who know the motions. It needs those who walk in the Spirit—those whose faith is marked by love, repentance, and action.
Selah
When was the last time you tested your walk? Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart. Write down one area where you see growth, and one where you feel stuck. Create space to repent and pray for guidance on the next step to take. Then, invite a trusted friend or mentor to pray with you over it for accountability.
Scripture is clear that spiritual warfare is real, and it does not primarily play out in dramatic moments. It happens quietly, internally, thought by thought. Paul reminds us in Ephesians that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces. The enemy rarely begins with overt rebellion. He begins with little lies. A thought here. An assumption there. A narrative repeated often enough that it starts to feel true. Over time, footholds become strongholds when those thoughts go unchallenged. A foothold might sound like, “This is just how I am.” A stronghold sounds like, “This will never change.” Both shape how we live.
Hebrews 12:1 calls us to lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and then it tells us how. We run with endurance by fixing our eyes on Jesus. The race is not just about outward obedience. It is about where our focus rests. What we fix our minds on determines how we run. When our thinking is cluttered, we run distracted and weary. When our thinking is anchored in truth, we run lighter, freer, and with purpose.
Emotions are not a design flaw. They are part of God’s good creation. They are not sinful in themselves, even when they feel intense or inconvenient. Jesus, fully God and fully man, felt the full range. Luke tells us He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit with joy that overflowed. John records the shortest verse in Scripture, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), reminding us that sorrow has a place in holy ground. Mark shows us His righteous anger as He looked around at hardened hearts with grief mixed in (Mark 3:5). Matthew lets us overhear His deep distress in Gethsemane when He said, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). Over and over again, we see compassion move Him toward people, not away from them. If Jesus felt emotions without sinning, we need to stop labeling emotions themselves as the problem.
To be unhindered is not to have a flawless plan or a perfectly curated life. It is to clear away the distractions that keep us from being faithful right where we are. It is to remember that our identity is in Christ, not in comparison, not in productivity, not in striving. And because God is our source, we are not dependent on systems that exhaust us. We lean into the Holy Spirit who sustains us. Steward It Well
And as we sit here in 2026, I think many of us aren’t tangled up in obvious sin and rebellion. We’re actually exhausted by accumulation. Expectations. Distractions. Comparisons. The pressure to do more and be more, even when God hasn’t asked us to.
That’s why the Word of the Year, Unhindered, is so timely and fitting.
We’ve got to get more honest about what we’re carrying. We often assume that spiritual growth and maturity are tied to adding more and increase, but here in Hebrews, we see the opposite. We see release. Casting things off. Laying things aside. Surrender.
It’s an invitation to reflection. What has slowly attached itself to us? What fills our days and dulls our discernment? What keeps us busy, but lacking real fruit?
