SELF JUDGMENT
Rom. 12:3
Morning Meditation 1/6/2014
Verse 3 says, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”
Self judgment is necessary even though it can be damaging if it is done to the extreme. There is a sense in which we are not to judge others (Matt. 7:1-5), and in which we should not even try to judge ourselves (1 Cor. 4:3). However, there is a need for proper self judgment as is brought out in 1 Cor. 11:31-32: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”
Our text says that the Christian is not to “think more highly than he ought to think.” It does not say that he should not think of himself at all. He should not swell with pride when he thinks of himself. That is taking an Unscriptural look at self. He should not think of his accomplishments in his work for the Lord as grounds for personal pride. This would be to violate the words of Paul, “Therefore judge nothing before the time . . .” Jesus gave us instructions here: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10).
Some will say, “This is putting yourself down. It is not wrong for you to get recognition for your accomplishments.” I don’t want to argue the point. I simply ask you, “What did Jesus mean in Luke 17:10?” I am afraid any resistance at this point reveals that we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. I think all of us have a struggle with this. The struggle is not the problem. It is the outcome of the struggle that is important.
Jesus said something in John 5:44: “How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” I believe I can correctly say that we are living in a time when there is a greed for honor. It seems that we hunger for recognition from one another. Jesus said this is a hindrance to faith. To walk by faith is one of the most important things in our Christian lives: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6). I have a hard enough time walking by faith without tolerating something in my life that Jesus says will make it impossible to believe. If that is not what Jesus is telling the Jews, what is He saying?
I read a chapter this morning in Tozer’s book, That Incredible Christian, and he gives in that chapter called “The importance of Self-judgment” seven ways of knowing yourself that I want to share with you.
1. “What we want most. We have but to get quiet, recollect our thoughts, wait for the mild excitement within to subside, and then listen closely for the faint cry of desire. Ask your heart, what you would rather have than anything else in the world? Reject the conventional answer. Insist on the true one, and when you have heard it you will know the kind of person you are.”
2. “What we think about most. The necessities of life compel us to think about many things, but the true test is what we think about voluntarily. It is more than likely that our thoughts will cluster about our secret heart treasure, and whatever that is will reveal what we are. ‘Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’”
3. “How we use our money. Again we must ignore those matters about which we are not altogether free. We must pay taxes and provide the necessities of life for ourselves and family, if any. That is routine, merely, and tells us little about ourselves. But whatever money is left to do with as we please—that will tell us a great deal indeed. Better listen to it.”
4. What we do with our leisure time. A large share of our time is already spoken for by the exigencies of civilized living, but we do have some free time. What we do with it is vital. Most people waste it staring at the television, listening to the radio, reading the cheap output of the press or engaging in idle chatter. What I do with mine reveals the kind of person I am.
5. “The company we enjoy. There is a law of moral attraction that draws every man to the society most like himself. ‘Being let go, they went to their own company.’ Where we go when we are free to go where we will is a near-infallible index of character.”
6. “Whom and what we admire. I have long suspected that the great majority of evangelical Christians, while kept somewhat in line by the pressure of group opinion, nevertheless have a boundless, if perforce secret, admiration for the world. We can learn the true state of our minds by examining our unexpressed admirations. Israel often admired, even envied, the pagan nations around them, and so forgot the adoption of the glory and the covenants and the law and the promises and the fathers. Instead of blaming Israel let us look to ourselves.”
7. “What we laugh at. No one with a due regard for the wisdom of God would argue that there is anything wrong with laughter, since humor is a legitimate component of our complex nature. Lacking a sense of humor we fall that much short of healthy humanity. But the test we are running here is not whether we laugh or not, but what we laugh at. Some things lie outside the field of pure humor. No reverent Christian, for instance, finds death funny, nor birth nor love. No Spirit-filled man can bring himself to laugh at the Holy Scriptures, or the Church which Christ purchased with His own blood, or prayer, or righteousness or human grief or pain. And surely no one who has been even for a brief moment in the presence of God could ever laugh at a story involving Deity.”
You may not agree with Tozer on some of the things he says. He is not inspired like the Word of God. But he does make some very wise observations.
