THE UNEXAMINED LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN (socratic dictum)

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"As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built".
Luke 6:47-48

In this parable, Jesus describes one who hears His words and does them as a man who, when building his house, digs his foundation deeply and upon rock. When a flood threatens it, the house remains intact on its secure base.

Jesus' metaphor in the parable is apt: A man's character is like a house. Every thought is like a piece of timber in that house, every habit a beam, every imagination a window, well or badly placed. They all gather into a unity, handsome or grotesque. We decide how that house is constructed.

Unless one builds his character on the rock-solid foundation of God's Word, he will surely be swept away by the flood now inundating the world. As I Corinthians 3:11 says, "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."

Of the two builders in the story, one is a keen man who purposely designs his home with an eye to the future; the other isn't an awful man, however negligent, coolly working in the least demanding way. The one is sincere; the other is content with a thoughtless and unexamined life.

The last appears to need to maintain a strategic distance from the diligent work of burrowing profound to guarantee a solid establishment, and furthermore takes a short-extend see, never figuring what life will resemble a half year into what's to come. He exchanges away future useful for introduce pleasure and ease.

The flood obviously represents the trials of life. Frequently, the trials of life descend upon us either through our own lack of character or because of events in the world around us. Is our house strong enough to withstand the onslaught of the horrendous events of the end time? Can it even withstand our own weaknesses?

Socrates was teaching the need to live a life where everything is parsed for their significance. A life lived on auto-pilot, following the colossal mass of humankind, underestimates a large portion of life. It is a life lived without reflection, absent much contemplation, and therefore, absent really any understanding. Life is diminished to an arrangement of errands to be finished – 'the monotonous routine'. As reflection and examination shrivel, unavoidably ponder, stunningness and adore endure also. On one level, analyzing life for its significance separates us from creatures, who additionally eat, rest, mate, get nourishment, assemble protect. Creatures don't take a gander at the sky and basically ask, "Why?"

Since Christians believe we live in a requested universe that was outlined and made by an Intelligent Being, it just takes after that we ought to examine all of life for importance.

Be that as it may, the Examined Life isn't prevalent among present day Christians. For sure, start asking Christians to examine the significance of their music, or the appropriateness of theatrical show, or the effect of dress on our mind-sets and behavior, or the employments of innovation, or the estimations of popular culture, or the triviality of excitement based living and they will experience a scope of feelings.

First, entertainment. "You're joking, isn't that so? You don't truly anticipate that me will believe that God has a supposition on my [fill in the esteemed idol], isn't that right?"

Second, doubt. "You should be some kind of cult. I stay aware of the enormous names – Piper, MacArthur, Sproul, Mahaney – and I've neverheard anything like this. You're going crazy."

Third, outrage. "I can't stand such an excess of nitpicking about how I live my life. Why should you say that my [fill in the treasured activity] is inconsistent with Christianity? Demonstrate to me a part and verse!"

Strange, as Kevin Bauder has called attention to, how a few people are exceptionally attached to, and extremely protective of, the things they guarantee convey no significance.

"This was never said at my last church, and they were moderate, believe me!" Well, as a rule what such people mean is at their last church a by and large scriptural philosophy was instructed, interpretive lecturing was maybe the backbone, and corporate love was manageable in contrast with the stone fests going for Christianity wherever else. This is 'preservationist' to most Christians today.

Nonetheless, what is clear about such churches, in light of the individuals that come to us, is that no attempt was made to demand an examined life outside of the Sunday sermon. The minister was excessively nauseous, making it impossible to touch the 'intriguing issues' that get Christians all cautious, so he never did. Or then again, he was educated in a situation which helpfully completed a bounce, skip and hop over such things, for fear that they be marked asfundamentalists. So, it doesn't amaze me when people are bewildered by the Examined Life. Hardly any Christian leaders seem to hone it; the odds of the normal Christian knowing it are thin in fact.

Obviously, to many, the Examined Life is 'legalistic'.

Legalism is the least demanding and most prominent smear-word in current Christianity. Very few people who utilize it to repudiate their adversaries would have the capacity to characterize it on the off chance that they were squeezed. In the vast majority's brains, it implies something like, "I'm being guided in particular aspects of my life, and it feels constrictive!" By that definition, basic acquiescence is legalistic.

True legalism, or better, Pharisaism, is abandoning a Spirit-engaged stroll in adoring compliance to Christ's Word, to an externalized, tissue enabled adjustment to please man. Regardless of what evangelicals will reveal to you today, it isn't the specificity of the decide that makes it legalistic, it is the intention and the methods through which it is performed. In the event that you think legalism is getting down to the stray pieces of regular daily existence, I'd urge you to peruse church covenants and principles of church membership from the seventeenth and 18th century. You will mark the entire Christian church of the time as legalistic.

The Examined Life isn't legalism or Pharisaism. Be that as it may, it is probably true to state the Examined Life can feel constrictive at first. We are not, when in doubt, a reflective culture. More regrettable, people of the sum total of what ages have been sheep-like. Addressing long-held practices and perspectives resembles flipping around people's universes. Constraining people to consider things that are underestimated appears to be oppressive and grave.

However, Socrates' comment is intended to have the contrary impact. The Christian who sets out upon the Examined Life discovers he or she was feeling the loss of the ponder of living when carrying on with an unexamined life. The puzzle of the world, the shrewdness and energy of workmanship, the delicacy of the still, small voice, the value and poise of the human soul, the impactful energy of nature, the progressing analogies of confidence surrounding us, the value of living as the picture of God in a universe made by God and for God – these wake up to the one willing to just examine the importance of all things.

So when approached to examine yourself or the implications of things in your life in all everyday issues – don't consider it to be the intrusion of thin-necked Pharisees into your own opportunity. Acknowledge it is the passage point into the Christian life worth living.

"For in Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28 )