How To Examine You Without Condemning You

It’s Monday!

It’s the beginning of a new blogging week and yes, it’s time for our post under the Faith & Spirituality category.

Today I’m talking about examining ourselves. Last week, as I was studying the Bible, one of the verses I read was 2 Corinthians 13:5 in the Amplified Version. It says,

“Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ]. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you – unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected?”

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As man, humans, flesh and blood, we tend to make little mistakes here and there, pick up an unnecessary argument, fall into temptation, do all sorts of stuff, yet still claim to be good people. I totally understand, but more importantly, as Christians, we have been told over and again to practice what we preach. This is because our lives ought to represent Christ; our words should speak life and our dispositions should communicate peace. Someone once said, ‘I like your Christ but I don’t like your Christians.’ I was quite heartbroken the first time I heard that. I’m like, “What??” That’s why when Paul was speaking to the church at Corinth, he said, “Test and prove yourselves [not Christ].”

It’s easy to get carried away – thinking everything is alright and that we are growing when everything is not alright and we are actually not growing. Sit down to think and examine. Ask yourself, What would Jesus do in this situation I’m faced with right now? What would prove the faith that I have been confessing for years now in this crisis moment? Can people vouch that your presence in a place is for peace and not for trouble, as a Christian? Or is it the other way round?

Paul further makes us understand that we actually know and realize if Jesus is in us or not. I remember reading A. W. Tozer’s Living As A Christian in 2016. He mentioned that a Christian is not being true when he says, “How can I cleanse myself?” or something of the sort. He gave an illustration of a young boy who is told by his mother to go wash his hands. The boy doesn’t say, “Mum, how do I wash my hands?” He knows that he ought to get some soap and some water and rub one hand against the other till it is clean. In the same vein, as Christians, we cannot live true to our faith without God’s help but we also have the responsibility to examine, evaluate ourselves and be honest with ourselves when we miss it.

Joyce Meyer says, “Examination shows us what is wrong in our behaviour so we can admit it, ask for forgiveness and go in a new direction.”

I must sound a note of warning therefore that examination is not condemnation. Exams are written in schools to evaluate the academic capacity of that student in a particular discipline, and not to condemn that student. The Bible says in Romans 8:1 that there is no condemnation to you who is in Christ Jesus. Hence we only become better and more clear-eyed after any examination. A bad result is not the end of the world. A bad result is a stepping stone to a good one if you tell yourself the truth.

Please take time out before the month ends and examine yourself in the faith. Make necessary adjustments and keep basking in the glory of God.

Goodbye Royalty,

With Overflowing Love,

Alexandra Zion.

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About the author
Christocentric. Academic. Writer. Poet

3 Comments

  1. I would like to say that when we ask ourselves and others “what would Jesus do?”, we should not forget that, we dont have the grace He had while on earth. It’s just best to please God instead. I hope you get.

  2. “For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching has become a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong. – Bill W.”
    the only way to make a spoilt machine work again is to break it down, work on its inner system and fix it again. Screw out the bolts of your life, examine and work on yourself, fix your life again and get going.

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