2 Corinthians 13:5

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves The words rendered (1) examineand (2) provehave the sense (1) of testing(the word is often translated tempt) and (2) subjecting to a process the result of which is satisfactory. See for (2) 1 Corinthians 11:28. The words yourselvesare in each case emphatic. The connection with what has gone before would seem to be as follows. The Apostle had been among the Corinthians in weakness (1 Corinthians 2:3; cf. ch. 2 Corinthians 10:1; 2 Corinthians 10:10). He had boasted of nothing but his infirmity (ch. 2 Corinthians 11:30; 2 Corinthians 12:5; 2 Corinthians 12:9). So that many of them had come to regard him with contempt. But the Gospel, he says, is a power. He appeals to the testimony of their own Christian experience on the point, as in ch. 2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 5:11; 2 Corinthians 6:4. -Is it nota power?" he says. -Look at yourselves. Do you not feel it to be so in your own hearts? Does not Jesus Christ dwell in you, at least in all who are not finally cast off by Him, and does He not make manifest His power in the subjugation of the natural man within you? Could this have taken place unless the Gospel were a real power of God? And then to whom, humanly speaking, do you owe this power? Is it not to him of whom you are ready to believe that he is no true Apostle of Christ?"

whether ye be in the faith i.e. whether "Christ be present and actively working within you, the certain result of all true faith." Meyer. Cf. John 15:1-7; John 17:21-23; Romans 6:23 (in the Greek), 2 Corinthians 8:1; 2 Corinthians 8:10; Galatians 2:20; Galatians 4:19; Ephesians 3:16-19; Colossians 1:27; Colossians 3:1-4, &c.

except ye be reprobates Rather, unless indeed ye be rejected. The word translated reprobates(see note on ch. 2 Corinthians 2:9, and 2 Corinthians 13:3) signifies those who have been tried and found wanting. See also Rom 1:28; 1 Corinthians 9:27; 2 Timothy 3:8; Titus 1:16; and Hebrews 6:8, where the word again occurs.