5. I Examine All - Jesus Examines Me
The word I am translating “examine,” anakrino, is also translated to judge. With correct definitions, the word “to judge” is correct, but examine is better. This is not the examination of taking a test, but rather, the examination of an investigator, although administering a test is certainly part of a larger investigation.
We have two further Jesus Secret pages that are drawn out from the whole span of 1 Corinthians Chapters 1-10, this one and then “I Run to Win.” Nonetheless, our statements of faith are drawn specifically from 4:1 to 6:14.
Nothing Against Myself. Now, 1 Corinthians 2:15 is actually where Paul introduces this topic, picking it up again in 4:3. The one who is spiritual, however, examines all things himself, but is examined by no one. – It is inconsequential to me, however, that I be investigated by you or by a human court. In fact, I never investigate or examine myself.
Paul continues. – For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet this fact does not justify me. Rather, the One who examines me is the Lord. For that reason, do not judge anything before the proper time, until the Lord comes, who will make evident the hidden things of darkness as well as make visible and clear the motives of the hearts. Then the praise and approval will be from God to each.
The Problem of Judgment. When we get into the “Body of Christ” section, however, we read this, in 1 Corinthians 11:28-29 (NKJ). But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
Now, this is all a bit confusing, because Paul uses many different forms of the word “krino,” to judge, throughout these chapters. “Discerning” is diakrino, which is the same as anakrino, just more intense, back and forth examination. Don’t examine yourself – examine yourself! – ?
Covenant and Kingdom. Here is how I see God’s meaning. The first is Covenant and the second is Kingdom. When I look at myself in all my relationship with God – Covenant – I see only Jesus as my only rightness. But when I look at myself in my relationship with you – Kingdom – I freely say, “I was wrong, please forgive me.”
We never examine ourselves in our relationship with God; we are quick to examine ourselves in our ongoing relationships with others. Examining myself in how I treat you NEVER threatens my relationship with God, which I judge to be Jesus.
Statements of Faith. I am a servant of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God. I am found faithful in my stewardship. I am filled with salvation; I am wealthy with the riches of Christ. I reign in life. Regardless of how I am treated, I speak good words and bless, I continue with patience, I comfort and encourage others.
Because I am of the Spirit, I examine all things, yet I myself am examined by no one. More then that, I never examine or investigate or pass judgment against myself, in my relationship with God through Jesus, neither do I regard others doing such to me. I hold nothing against myself in my own consciousness, in my own story of self. Yet I know that it is Jesus who examines me. Jesus searches my heart and He finds Himself written there. His presence makes visible my motives and honors me with the approval of God. Then, it is God who raises me up with His power.
I am not subject to law. All things are permitted to me. However, I am not under the power of anything. Neither will I allow anything to place me under its power. For that reason, I do only those things that are beneficial. I am also aware that I will judge all things. Out from that awareness, I work with my brethren to keep the assembly of the Church cleansed from those wicked practices that bring bondage and ruin.
Our Story of Self. Finally I see what this whole topic is about. Paul is continuing to write out from his comparison of humans to God in Chapter 2, that we are a story of words inside of a spirit self-awareness and that the Spirit of God has become part of our own knowing of ourselves as well as of God.
And so the thing we want to develop on this page is the meaning of a story of self. How do we bring the consciousness, the mind, of Christ Jesus into the ongoing fabric of the thoughts of our hearts concerning ourselves? What does it mean that Jesus examines me?
Our Page. And so, after the larger “Statements of Faith” box, we have three more, first “My Story of Self,” followed by an “Ask and Believe,” specifically, “Jesus, I ask You to examine me.” The final box, then, will be our response of faith in return, “Jesus Examines Me.”
When I see individuals who refuse to say, “I was wrong, please forgive me,” I realize that they also refuse to allow Jesus to examine themselves. Why? Because they are afraid of God. Why? Because they do not fear Him at all. God keeps my full attention; that’s why I’m not afraid of Jesus. With all my heart, I want Him to examine me.
A False Story. Dishonesty runs rampant in the human soul. Our ability to deceive ourselves could be our greatest success.
Truth – Honesty – Close your mouth – Forehead on the ground – Jesus examine me.
Most don’t ever stop to realize that they engage in a continual story of themselves, a flow of words by which they identify who and what they are. My own story of self has been a mixture of arguing in my own mind why others are WRONG, together with a continual spin of self-exaltation, why I am right. The thoughts can be complicated, but the impulses are basic. – “I am right; they are wrong.” The tree in the garden.
We Do Not Know. Weigh this absurd contradiction against John’s claim, in 1 John 3, that we do NOT know what we are. When I think, “I am right; they are wrong,” I am defying Paul and John both. We do not examine ourselves because we do not know what we are. We want Jesus to examine us because He does. This examination, then, is, in fact, our story of self.
And that’s why the knowing of the Spirit of God inside our own human soul is expressed in this way. – We have received the Spirit who is out from God, that we might know the things already freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, in words taught of the Spirit as Spiritual to spiritual communicating together.
I Judge, yet without Power. This is very profound. In Symmorphy VI: Mankind, we laid out five aspects of the human heart with the person, “me,” at the center. Ambition – Understanding – Person – Fellowship – Belonging.
What is the bottom-line meaning of the person at the center? Like God, I judge, I distinguish, I discriminate. From God, I possess all authority, yet with no power at all. This is my story of self. This is my glory – OR my fatal flaw. The crazy thing is that this continual mental examination that is my story of self is couched inside of ME, utterly personal, filled with ambition, and longing to belong. What – is – man?
My Story of Self. I am a living soul, that is, a story of words inside of a spirit self-awareness. Like God, I am a judge. I examine all things, I distinguish, I value one thing above another, I discriminate. In my old mind, my thoughts were always “I am right, and they are wrong,” the mind hostile to God. In my new mind, the mind of Christ, I think out from God’s thoughts concerning me through the gospel. I no longer need to be “right” because it is Jesus who examines me, measuring His own Person in me. I know myself only by Jesus. I never examine my connection with God, except to know that it is always Jesus. I am ready to examine all by Christ, for I am a faithful steward. I speak the good words of Christ into all.
Search Me, Oh God. David said, “Search me, Oh God, and see if there be any wicked way in me.” We always interpreted this as, “I am bad, and God is going to show me the wicked things I do.” Yet that was the mind of the flesh. How does the mind of the Spirit perceive this? The mind of the Spirit says, “I belong to You, Oh God; You are responsible for me.” We know Jesus first, for He alone removes whatever is not Him.
I think we’re getting right at the root of our story of self, standing in the light, silent concerning ourselves, given utterly to God, possessing authority without power, His desire coming now through us.
Ask and Believe. Lord Jesus, You say that You examine me, that You search out my hidden motives and the reasonings of my heart. Lord Jesus, I know that I have been frightened by the thought of being “exposed.” Yet I also know that You alone are my Savior and my Life. I know that You are written as every word God speaks all through the pathways of my heart. I know, Lord Jesus, that it is Your presence with me, made known to me, that alone swallows up all that has been contrary to God. I trust you, Jesus. You know me, for I come always out from You. I ask you, Lord Jesus, to examine me by the penetration of Your Word, to lay bare my soul and the hidden thoughts of my heart. I know that You are good all the time.
Seize Hold of and Refuse. “Jesus examines me,” inside the mind of the Spirit, is a profound way of knowing ourselves. As Paul says later, “Christ is all there is inside of me.” I said it this way, “This is You, Jesus, sharing Yourself with me. I feel this way because You are letting me be part of how You feel about things. Yet we together place ourselves into the Father’s Love for others, regardless of how we feel.”
I never judge myself any other way, and have not since May of 2013. Yet here is another part of judgment that is our story of self. I have the right to receive, and I have the right to refuse. I seize hold of Jesus as me, and I refuse all else. This right is central inside my story of self, and I am adamant.
Jesus Examines Me. If Jesus does not examine me, then He cannot know me. My story of self is not me examining myself, but Jesus examining me, I know that He finds Himself now living as me. I know that He consumes anything that might not be of Him, for He is my only Savior. I am saved by His life. Now I turn, and I examine and judge all things through His eyes alone. As Jesus receives me, so I receive others. As Jesus speaks His good words all through my heart, so I speak Christ into and concerning others. Because I fear God, I am not afraid of Him at all. I am just and innocent, I am approved of God, because Jesus examines me.
The Mind of the Spirit. Let’s return to the deep well out from which Paul is drawing these definitions of our soul, our self identity. The Spirit out from God, now part of the fabric of our own souls, searches the depths of God and gives us the words that are Christ, which we speak, to ourselves and to others. And the mechanism of this process is that we ask and then we believe that we have received, that is, our faith.
The law, the mind, the thinking of the Spirit of Life inside of Christ Jesus has made me free from the law, the thinking of sin and death. – For the mind of the Spirit is Life and peace, that is, knowing the Father, always connected with Him, and sharing all things together (from Romans 8).