2 Corinthians 13:5-6
5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, of course, you fail the test. 6 I hope you will discover that we have not failed.
Paul has a specific application of his advice in mind when he writes this to the Corinthians, having to do with some division within the community. But his advice applies to all communities in all times since every community will find itself facing divisive problems. Paul, as founder of the Corinthian church, has been very clear about how he believes they should be responding to the division. When he says in verse 6 “I hope you will discover that we have not failed,” he is referring to his own leadership, which should have prepared them to make the right decision in this case. He is very reluctant to simply order them to do the right thing. Why? Because as maturing Christians, they should be able to arrive at the right decision and act upon it themselves.
Arriving at the right decision in this (and all) cases involves realizing “that Jesus Christ is in you.” IF Jesus Christ is actually living in you, then you will strive to act as Jesus would act. You would try to model your behavior on his behavior. You would try to evaluate things as we see him evaluate them in the Gospels. We would take as immediate models others around us who act, speak, believe as Christ taught them through prayer, worship, personal example, Scripture, and day-to-day inspiration by the Holy Spirit. Paul is not trying to produce Christians who simply follow orders–after all, Paul can’t follow each of them around all day running their lives. God has way too many things going on and needing to be done in this world to be able to lean on a few leaders giving orders to the rest of us.
If Christ is in us, we should be eager to grow into spiritual adulthood under his tutelage.