A central theme of the Bible is the admonition from God to examine ourselves in light of His Word and change accordingly.
When Judah was in captivity because of their sins, the prophet urged “let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD” (Lam. 3:40).
When the Jews failed to rebuild the temple, God through Haggai urged, “Consider your ways” (Hag. 1:5, 7).
The Holy Spirit through Paul exhorts Christians to “Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves” (2 Cor. 13:5).
A key question that should be asked by all is, “what can I do better?”
What is far easier to do is to examine others and complain about faults in their lives. The speck in someone else’s eye can be easier to see than the beam in one’s own eye (cf. Matt. 7:5).
It can also be tempting to compare ourselves to others (2 Cor. 10:12), which is a recipe for self-righteous deception (John 7:47-49). The standard we ought to compare ourselves to is God’s Word.
This is not to say that we should never examine others, or that we should ignore others’ sins. Jesus sharply rebuked sin on occasions (cf. John 2:15-16), as did the apostle Paul (cf. 1 Cor. 11:22).
But their focus was on speaking the truth in love to lead others in the way of righteousness. When Jesus looked at sin, He thought about what He could do to help. When Paul was mistreated, he prayed that those who mistreated him would be forgiven (2 Tim. 4:16).
The examples of Jesus and those who walked in His steps are examples of disgust toward sin but love toward sinners. They are examples of asking, “How can I help?”
Consider some questions we might ask when someone we know is living in sin:
Do they see in me a life given wholly to God? Or do they see a hypocrite who holds some commandments in high regard but doesn’t submit wholly to God?
Do I show others the patience God has shown me? Or do I give up on others when I don’t see immediate results?
Do I pray for those in sin? Or am I spending more time talking about them to others than praying for them to God?
To help others like Jesus, we must have faith in the power of a godly influence, and ask “how can I be more like what God desire me to be?”
This is a key aspect of our need for self-examination. Even when examining others, we should look at self first, and strive to influence others like Christ.
– Michael Hickox