The Evidence of Self-Examination

When I wrote about examining my motives a couple of days ago, I knew (or assumed) that my wife would be reading the post, and I paused before writing it. I could probably deceive any of you fairly easily about that sort of thing, just by telling you that I examine my motives daily but not really doing so. However, my wife will always be able to tell if I'm really doing this. If I examine my motives and actions and there is no change for the better -- no evidence that I'm allowing the Word of Christ dwell in me richly (Colossians 3:16) -- then I'm just full of hot air. That's every bit as valuable as if I didn't even bother to examine my motives and actions at all.

We can deceive ourselves into believing that we're being imitators of Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2, James 1:22-25), and we can often deceive others (I believe many church-goers probably give this deception top priority on Sunday mornings). It's rare that we can deceive our spouse, though. I've come to realize that in my case (and this probably applies to you, if you're married), whatever it is that my spouse knows as the real me is probably the real me.

To blogger Amanda, it's odd that the post ended up with those words; there must be something to that song... :)

Posted in: Christianity, Interaction, Life, Relationships