Does your life match what you say you believe?

Have you ever had someone make you a bunch of promises—tell you how great something was going to be—and then you signed up only to discover it was nothing like they said? Sometimes people are just talk. They say whatever they think you want to hear to get you to agree.

It's a lot easier to post a perfect selfie on social media than to actually be kind to people all week long, right? You can curate a snapshot of your life in photographs, but that's much easier to control than actually being a nice person who smiles at strangers.

So here's the question we want to explore: If we say we believe something about Jesus, does it only matter what we say? Or does it matter that we actually live out the things we say?

And how would we even know?

When Talk is Cheap

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to a group of Christians in the ancient city of Corinth (think Las Vegas meets Amsterdam—wealthy, culturally vibrant, but with really loose morals). Paul had started this church and taught them about Jesus, but after he left, some smooth-talking "influencers" showed up. These people were saying all the right things, but they were manipulative, arrogant, and boastful. They talked a big game about following Jesus, but their lives didn't match their words.

Paul was writing to address this disconnect. In 2 Corinthians 13, he basically says: "When I visit, we're going to deal with this. I'm not coming to hug it out at Thanksgiving and avoid the real issues. We're going to address the gap between what you say and how you actually live."

Here's what Paul was getting at: Our true beliefs are seen in how we live.

You can say you believe in being generous, but if you never give anything away, do you really believe it? You can say family is important, but if you never make time for them, is it actually a priority? The same is true with faith in Jesus.

The Real Test

Paul gets really direct in verse 5: "Examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves."

Wait—test ourselves? That sounds uncomfortable.

Here's the thing: Paul is asking the Corinthians (and us) to ask some big questions:

• Are you actually following Jesus, or just using the label "Christian"?

• Is Jesus actually living in you and changing you?

• Are you doing what's right?

The word "Christian" literally means "little Christ"—a miniature version of Jesus. It was actually meant to be an insult at first, like people were making fun of the early believers: "Look at these little Jesuses running around!" But the early Christians owned it. They said, "Yeah, actually, that's exactly what we're trying to be."

So the question is: If you call yourself a Christian, is Jesus actually renovating your heart, your soul, the way your mind works? Or are you just comfortable with your sin, feeling a little guilty on Sunday mornings but mostly okay with how you're living?

You cannot trust Jesus to save your eternal soul unless you're also trusting him moment by moment to lead you in how to live. The two are inseparable.

Why Doubt Isn't the Enemy

Now, you might be thinking: "Wait, you're telling me to doubt? Isn't that bad?"

Here's the truth: Doubt may be a signal of weak faith, but doubt is necessary to build faith.

If you never question your relationship with Jesus, if you never wrestle with whether you really believe this, there's a problem. Faith isn't about praying a prayer one time and getting your "ticket to heaven" and never thinking about it again. Real faith begins a complete renovation of how your heart works, how your soul takes nourishment, how your mind processes the world.

Think about it like this: If you don't ever test whether you actually believe something, what happens when life gets hard? What happens when following Jesus actually costs you something? If you've never kicked the tires on your faith, it's going to fall over when the world pushes back.

Standing in a church building doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. Being born into a Christian family doesn't make you a Christian—your grandmother's faith cannot save you. These are questions each of us has to answer for ourselves.

Keep Your Eyes on Your Own Paper

Paul makes another important point: Don't compare yourself to the person next to you.

When it's test time, we suddenly want to look at how everyone else is doing. But Paul says, "Hey, don't do that. I'm asking you to examine yourself. Don't use someone else's failure as an excuse not to try."

Even if every other Christian you know walks away from their faith, that doesn't give you permission to do the same. Our evaluation isn't whether we're better than the person next to us. It's whether we're becoming who Jesus is making us to be.

And here's the encouraging news: We're not graded on a curve. You know who "ruins the curve" for all of us? Jesus. He was perfect. He was tempted in every way possible—with lust, greed, manipulation—and he was without sin. There's no way we can pass this test on our own.

So we either let Jesus take the test for us, or we fail. That's the gospel. That's the good news. Jesus passed the test we couldn't pass, and when we trust in him, his perfect score becomes ours.

What Real Faith Looks Like

So what does it actually look like to live out what we say we believe?

Paul gives us a list at the end of 2 Corinthians 13:

Rejoice. Have joy—not by pretending problems don't exist, but by knowing that God sees what you're going through and has the power to address it. Every pain has purpose when we trust God with it.

Aim for restoration. Work toward healing in your relationships. Restoration is the goal, even when it's hard.

Comfort one another. Be there for each other. Show up.

Live in peace. And when we do these things, Paul says the God of love and peace will be with us.

The Holy Kiss Thing

Now, Paul says something that might sound weird: "Greet one another with a holy kiss" (verse 12).

Before you get uncomfortable, let's talk about what this means. In Roman culture, kissing on the cheek was how people greeted each other (think Italian or French culture today). Paul was writing to people in conflict and basically saying, "You need to actually greet each other. Everyone can see the tension when you're avoiding each other."

For us, the principle is this: Genuine affection should be a mark of our community. When we gather, it should be obvious to outsiders and insiders that we actually like each other and want to be together.

Does that mean we have to kiss? No. But it does mean we need to show real, authentic care for one another. Maybe it's a hug, a fist bump, eye contact, or a smile. In a culture where everyone stares at their phones and avoids looking at people, actually making eye contact when you talk to someone is a gift.

The way we relate to each other reflects how we relate to God. If we're isolated, pushing everyone away, unable to let anyone know us—what does that say about how we're approaching our Creator?

God Wants to Be With You

Here's what it all comes back to: God wants to be with you.

From the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, God walked with people in the cool of the day. They had nothing to hide. Throughout the entire Bible, God is trying to communicate: "I want to be in your presence. I want you to be in my presence. This is what I'm working toward."

That's what Christmas celebrates—God coming to be with us. Emmanuel means "God with us," and it's not just a Christmas thing. It's an all-the-time thing.

The miracle of Jesus is that God doesn't just want to save you someday in the future. He wants to live in you right now, renovating your heart, guiding your decisions, and walking with you every single day.

So What Now?

If you're reading this and thinking, "I'm not sure where I stand with Jesus," that's actually a good place to start. Here are some questions to sit with:

• Have I truly surrendered my life to Jesus, or am I just comfortable with religious labels?

• Is my faith just about words, or is it changing how I actually live?

• Am I trusting Jesus for eternal salvation and for daily living?

These aren't easy questions, and they're not meant to be. But wrestling with them is how faith grows stronger.

If you've never trusted Jesus before, we'd love to talk with you about what that means. It's not about being perfect or having it all together. It's about recognizing that you can't pass the test on your own and letting Jesus take it for you.

And if you've been following Jesus for a while, maybe it's time to examine yourself again. Are there gaps between what you say you believe and how you're actually living? Where is Jesus calling you to trust him more—not just for eternity, but for today?

Our true beliefs are seen in how we live. That's not meant to crush us, but to point us back to Jesus, who is strong in our weakness and who wants nothing more than to be with us.

We'd love to hear from you. If you're wrestling with questions about faith or want to talk more about what it means to follow Jesus, reach out to us. That's what we're here for.