2 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?
If a person endeavors to improve in any area of life, self-examination
must be done. No chess player will become great unless they examine their own
play and see their flaws. The greatest ones painstakingly study every single
mistake they’ve made. Along the same lines, the baseball player looks at the
mechanics of his swing, the figure skater looks at the problems in her
triple-spin, the student studies hardest in the areas of his or her greatest
weaknesses. The Christian must do the same.
There are some important things to note when examining one’s self:
- The Christian life is a life of balance. Be neither too easy nor too
hard.
- If you find nothing wrong with yourself, there’s something wrong with
you.
- Self-examination must result in action. No man looks in the mirror,
sees food in his beard and leaves it there.
- “The best time to do it is at the end of the day. I have a hard time
remembering what I did on June 7, 1978-or even last week! But, with a little
thought, I can think over the last sixteen hours-repent of my wrongs and give
thanks for what I did right.” - Michael Phillips
Nothing gives more bang for your buck than self-examination. It can greatly help
you to improve as a Christian in every area of life, and it doesn’t cost a dime.
Even the old philosophers knew the value of the exercise.
“Zeng Shen was young enough to be Confucius's grandson, yet he won high praise
from the old sage. One of the sayings for which Zeng Shen is famous goes
something like this. "Every day I ask myself three questions. The first is,
'Have I sinned in my thoughts and actions toward others?' The second is, 'Have I
broken faith in any of my friendships?' The third is, 'Have I tried to teach
anything to others I have not fully learned and understood myself?' If Zeng Shen
asked himself these three questions every day, resolving to make no mistakes,
then, young as he was, we can well understand why Confucius praised him. Not
only is each of the three questions extremely important in itself, but the
practice of examining one's own behavior every day is a habit that every leader
should cultivate.” - Konosuke Matsushita
Now the unsaved person does this merely for self-improvement. The Christian has
much higher stakes in mind. The Christian practices self-examination in order to
be sure he or she is really in the faith. “Where there is no fruit, there is no
Christian.” Other reasons are to lay up treasure in Heaven, form into the image
of Christ, and above all to honor God. Although the modern believer rarely
thinks about it and it is hardly talked about today, the faithful Christians of
old made self-examination top priority and knew the value of spending time in
strict analysis, confession and repentance.
In the 1700’s, Jonathan Edwards put together a list of 70 strict rules he would
try to live by. The list is known today as “The resolutions of Jonathan
Edwards.” A great number of them were essentially reminders of self-examination.
Here are just a few examples:
24. Resolved, whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back,
till I come to the original cause; and then, both carefully endeavor to do so no
more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.
25. Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me
is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and to direct all
my forces against it.
27. Resolved, never willfully to omit any thing, except the omission be for the
glory of God; and frequently to examine my omissions.
30. Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in
religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.
37. Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been
negligent,- what sin I have committed,-and wherein I have denied myself;-also at
the end of every week, month and year.
47. Resolved, to endeavor, to my utmost, to deny whatever is not most agreeable
to a good, and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peaceable, contented and
easy, compassionate and generous, humble and meek, submissive and obliging,
diligent and industrious, charitable and even, patient, moderate, forgiving and
sincere temper; and to do at all times, what such a temper would lead me to; and
to examine strictly, at the end of every week, whether I have done so.
60. Resolved, whenever my feelings begin to appear in the least out of order,
when I am conscious of the least uneasiness within, or the least irregularity
without, I will then subject myself to the strictest examination. |
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