“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” 1 Corinthians 11:31-32
It is very hard to undertake the task of being our own judge. I said undertake, not do. For the doing of it, if we undertake it, will have God’s blessings. Plus, we know more about ourselves, thus we have the greatest ability to undertake this noble effort.
Good character is the product of being objective minded about ourselves. For it is through wanting to see ourselves as we really are, versus what we should be, that we become able to recognize needed changes on our part. To care not to prove ourselves, leaves us lopsided, one-sided, and blinded to what we really are.
God’s challenge to judge ourselves is not to shame us, but to perfect us. A good navigator is constantly checking his instruments to make sure he is on course. A good builder checks everything he puts together to assure the measurements are correct. Steering wheels are put on cars so as to constantly correct the course of the vehicle. Should a navigator, builder, or driver resent and resist the “check and correct” process because they see it as an affront to them personally, they are headed for disaster.
God’s challenge is to judge ourselves when things are going good, as well as when things are bad. For the most part, when we are comfortable with ourselves the way we are, that is when we are most likely to be distracted from where we should be. It is easier to build a wall to separate ourselves from our problem than it is to resolve our problem, but then to solve the problem, we have to tear the wall down again.
In judging ourselves, we take everything, whether we are comfortable with it or not, and say, “Is this really the way it should be?” The church at Ephesus, in Revelation 2:1-7, was very comfortable in their unconcerned state. Human nature is very comfortable with the state of having sinned and come short of the glory of God. But we must address the issue, “Is this the way it is supposed to be?”
God wants us to accept the responsibility for “what should be”. He will judge us if we fail to do this. Our testimony, and thus our over all life, is measured by what should be. Simply put, to ignore what should be, testifies that what we are doing is not the way it should be.
SHARING
