I gobbled up more calories than my body needed during the holidays and thought I could get away with it.
Yes, my clothes were suddenly more snug and my cheeks fuller, but that didn’t unnerve me much.
After the holidays, a few friends arched their brows at me, enquiring whether a baby shower was in the offing.
Only then did I get a tad bothered and decided to check my weight.
I gingerly stepped on a weighing scale, and the number shot all the way to Timbuktu.
“The weighing scale must be faulty”, I haggled.
A few days later, I tiptoed onto a different scale, but it broke my heart in equal measure.
It spat back at me the same overzealous reading.
It dawned on me that all the greasy, calorie-dense food I had merrily chowed down on was not vapor.
It had left a “weighty” mark on my body.
Perhaps if I had kept an eye on my weight much earlier, intermittently stepping on the scale, I would have tapered down on my calorie intake.
Perhaps.
Examine Yourselves
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test.” (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Paul is downright frustrated with the Corinthian church.
After expending himself to teach and ground them in the truth, he is appalled at the things they are dabbling in.
They were entertaining false teachers, bending over backwards to appease them.
Paul was mortified, seeing that they were teetering on the edge of the chains that once bound them.
What’s more, they had the nerve to despise Paul’s authority.
They trashed the price he had paid in ministry and poked holes in his apostleship.
It didn’t matter that he had been stripped, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, predisposed to robbery, and disdained for the gospel’s sake.
His physical weariness from going without sleep, food, water, and warmth meant nothing to them (2 Corinthians 11:25-27).
Their indifference and gullibility were nauseating.
Paul would be traveling to meet them, and he intended to crack the whip.
But before his trip, he advised them to examine themselves.
To scrutinise their lives and judge for themselves if they were still in the faith.
Hold Up The Mirror
Ever stepped out in a huff without peering at yourself in the mirror, only to have someone point out the toothpaste smudge on your cheek?
It is costly to gloss over physical appearance.
Likewise, we constantly need to examine our spiritual lives.
We need to keep an eye on our relationship with God.
The word of God is the mirror against which we scrutinise our lives.
It points out the areas we have fallen off the rails.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:22-25)
If we are to enjoy blessed and fruitful lives, lives that knock it out of the park, we cannot ignore the call to examine ourselves against the mirror of God’s word.
When our failings and sins come to the fore, we need to repent and obey the word.
We need to allow the word of God to transform and renew our minds.
Only then will we be able to test and approve God’s will for our lives (Romans 12:2).
Inspect Your Fruit
“Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” (Mathew 7:20)
Examining ourselves against the word of God will include checking the fruit we are bearing.
- Are our lives a reflection of the fruit of the Spirit?
- Are we exuding love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? (Galatians 5: 22-23)
- Are we seeking the Kingdom of God first and its righteousness (Mathew 6:33)?
- Are we committed to prayer, reading the word, and fellowshiping with other believers? (Acts 2:42)
- Do we claim to be wise yet lack humility? (James 3:13-15)
Our fruit will reveal whether we are still in the faith.
Nobody Gets a Free Pass
None of us is exempt from this scrutiny, regardless of our spiritual or earthly ranking.
In fact, those who are overconfident about their stability ought to be the first to step on the scale.
“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12)
“For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.” (Galatians 6:3-4)
Paul, too, the greatest apostle of all time, subjected himself to scrutiny and discipline.
“But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:27).
To avoid missing the mark, Paul didn’t sit on his laurels.
He intentionally disciplined his body, taming his appetites and exercising self-control.
His apostleship did not exempt him from cultivating discipline.
Grandiose Resumes
Jesus talks of people who will flaunt grandiose resumes on judgment day.
They will fluff their peacock feathers and report how they prophesied, cast out demons, and performed many wonders in the name of Jesus.
To their horror, Jesus will inform them that He never knew them.
Not one bit.
They will be denied entry into the kingdom of heaven (Mathew 7:21-23).
These are people who will have lived unexamined lives.
They will have waltzed around on God’s green earth, popping blind eyes open and raising the dead, yet totally deluded.
They never bothered to peer at their images in the mirror of God’s word, and when they did, they did not turn away from their sin.
They ignored the glaring toothpaste smudge on their cheek.
Don’t be like them, friend, examine your ways, repent, and realign!
“Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord’. (Lamentations 3:40)
“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”(Revelation 2:5)
Reflection
- Do you constantly examine your life against God’s infallible word?
- When you do, do you note the areas you have fallen off?
- Do you repent and turn back to God?
- Are you bearing fruit that is consistent with the fruit of the Holy Spirit?
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