Self Examination (1 Corinthians 11:31-32)

"But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world."

Paul had to address multiple issues in the Corinthian church (not that churches today ever have any issues that need addressing). One such problem was about how they were observing the Lord's Supper or communion. They were completely missing the whole point and were only worried about themselves. Some were eating too much leaving nothing for the late-comers (poor slaves who were required to work longer hours) so by the time they arrived everyone else had already eaten and were enjoying themselves while everyone else couldn't even participate. This was causing some serious divisions among the members, not to mention that God was not pleased with it. Paul out right tells them that the reason they are experiencing an unusual amount of negative consequences (sickness, death, etc.) was a direct result of their abuse of The Lord's Supper. The real purpose of observing communion was to "commune" with God and fellow believers, neither of which was happening successfully. But all these selfish actions were really just the expression of their selfish motives, which could all have been avoided if they had followed Paul's instructions to "examine yourselves".

The biggest reason we should examine ourselves is because obviously we all have flaws. Our job as believers is to recognize those things in us or about us that do not reflect Christ and surrender them to God. When we fail to examine ourselves, God has to come along and do it for us, and His inspection is always more thorough and more painful than if we just did it ourselves. Not that God is looking for reasons to get on our case, He's not. More than anything He just wants a free, unhindered relationship with us. Whenever we allow sin to go unchecked in our lives it always hinders our fellowship with God and with other believers. God loves us too much to allow anything to keep us from Him. So He gives us two options: do examine ourselves and get the sin out, or do nothing about it and wait for God's discipline to come and motivate us to do it ourselves. Either way, repentance will always be a voluntary surrender on our part. But God in His grace always gives us the choice to do it the easy way or the hard way. Take your pick.

Father, help us to honestly examine ourselves today. We ask You to come and shine the search light of Your truth on our hearts and reveal to us anything that may be hindering our relationship with you in any way. Bring it out and let us deal with it. Let the fire of Your Spirit burn away anything in us that is not pleasing to You. We fully surrender all to You. Amen.

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