2 Corinthians 13:5
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
The above verse applies to you as a pastor as much as it does to those under your care.
As spiritual leaders of a flock and a home, we would be wise to take a daily inventory of our life, walk and faith. This is not done to cast doubt on your salvation. It is done to find the areas in your life that need refining and maturing.
Richard Baxter said…
“See that the work of saving grace be thoroughly wrought in your own souls. Take heed to yourselves, lest you be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach.”
How much more can you encourage and equip the flock when you daily “first take the log out of your own eye”? If you truly care and are humble enough, this will not only help you, but as Jesus says “then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” And isn’t that something we should be doing? I certainly think so!
Look at what Baxter says the consequences can be for those who do not examine themselves…
“…many a preacher is now in hell, who has a hundred times called upon his hearers to use the utmost care and diligence to escape it.”
Baxter then admonishes us…
“Take heed, therefore, to yourselves first, that you be that which you persuade your hearers to be, and believe that which you persuade them to believe, and heartily entertain that Savior whom you offer to them.”
When you preach, admonish and exhort the flock to follow Christ and instruct them to “deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” and you don’t follow your own admonition, then you really do not trust Christ and are not truly being a disciple of Him.
Solution?
- Repent to God and your flock
- Ask forgiveness to God and your flock
- Take daily inventory of your life, walk, faith and ministry