The Examined Life

"The unexamined life is not worth living." Thus Plato quotes his teacher, Socrates.

Of course Socrates is talking about the need for the moral person to examine his life in light of "virtue" so that he or she can live a good life. The life that seeks to live ethically pure results in the greatest good.

Certainly for the Christian, the concept is also true. Only by looking into our own hearts and examining our own behaviors can we hope to change. Not only is it important that our behavior come under scrutiny, but the motives behind our behavior must also be judged. Thus Jesus says, it is not just sinful to commit adultery, but it is sinful to give in to lustful thoughts. It is not just sinful to murder my brother, it is sinful to live with hatred towards my brother.

But the examination of our hearts is not left solely to our own conscience. In other words, just because I am not feeling convicted, it does not justify my behavior.

For example, a disturbing trend in our digital age is that many young people do not think that sharing pirated copies of music with their friends is wrong. It doesn't feel wrong to share with my friends. And besides, the music industry is rich and can afford it. The idea of piracy being wrong does not intrude on my personal behavior.

And so, we need external and objective standards by which to evaluate our own hearts. That is why the Bible is so important.

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Heb. 4:12).

Paul says that the Word is "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2Tim. 3:16).

But if it was just a matter of changing my mind, Christian transformation would be easy. But as soon as our minds are convinced of God's ethical way and we want to change from walking according to the "flesh," we find that a "war" is going on between the "law of sin in my members" and the "law of my mind." (Read Rom. 7). We need a power greater than ourselves in order to truly change.

It is the Holy Spirit who takes the Word of God and empowers us to apply it so that it has a transformative affect in our lives. The scriptures are "God-breathed." You could say that the Breath-of-God, who is the Holy Spirit, wrote them. And so the Holy Spirit resonates within us when we read His own words in a way that applies to us personally. "You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know the truth...His anointing teaches you about all things..." (1John 2:20, 27).

The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us to be "renewed in the Spirit of our minds" (Eph. 4:23) so that we are "transformed by the renewing of our minds" (Rom. 12:2).

The point of all this? In order to truly change into the people that God intends us to be, we need not only to be students of the Word, but we also must be filled with the Spirit who makes us holy. And so the formula goes: one part Bible + one part self-examination + one part Holy Spirit = transformed life.

How's your journey of transformation going?