"Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves." (2 Corinthians 13:5a) The Bible tells us to examine ourselves. Does anyone really do that anymore, or am I just weird? When I screw up, I always try to determine whether it was a result of wrong desires or just accidental. Or whether I really meant what I said or if it just came out wrong. Whatever seems to be sinful is what I confess to God.
And yet my friends and my husband have all said to me at one time or another that I am too hard on myself. Do I examine myself too harshly? Am I giving myself all essay questions when it would be fairer to throw in some multiple choice? Hmm . . .
The Bible also says we are to be perfect: "Be perfect, therefore, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) But we're only human, so we'll never be perfect. That's just a fact I think we can all agree to, whether we're Christian or not. FYI, that's why Jesus Christ had to come and be perfection for us. He is the only one who lived a perfect life.
So, yes, it's good to examine our lives in order to make sure we're living as Christ would have us live. But when we use our examinations to keep ourselves in a hopeless cycle of negative thoughts-- beating ourselves up, as it were-- then we've gone overboard.
Where is the middle ground? I believe it's found in Romans 8:3. "The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins."
So yes, we should examine ourselves. But we do it with the knowledge that in the end, we cannot save ourselves. Instead, we look to Jesus and ask Him to clean us up. And then rest in His grace.
Happy Thanksgiving, my friends.
