Over the last few days, winter-like weather has set in over much of the nation. Even in my hometown of Henderson, Kentucky, we had low temperatures in the teens and low twenties for much of the week. Personally, I enjoy cold weather there are some people I know in the area simply do not like the changes that winter brings. For some, aches and pains are more prevalent in the winter months; for others, it’s the inability to enjoy the outdoor activities associated with those warm summer evenings. For me, winter brings about a time of reflection about the year that’s almost done. It’s a chance to examine myself – did I meet the goals I set for myself and what do I need to do to prepare myself for the things that the next year may bring.
I love winter for several reasons and there is even a biblical reason for it. The first mention of winter actually occurs as Noah offers a sacrifice to God: And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:21-22). The last time that winter is mentioned in the Bible is mentioned is during Paul’s travels as he writes to Titus: When I shall send Artemas unto thee, or Tychicus, be diligent to come unto me to Nicopolis: for I have determined there to winter (Titus 3:12). What else is interesting is that the word, “winter,” is mentioned fourteen times in the Bible and according to Edward F. Vallowe, the author of Biblical Mathematics: Keys to Scripture Numbers, fourteen is the number that represents deliverance or salvation.
Our faith is a growing faith and until the day we depart this world for the next, the apostle Paul wrote, Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13). I honestly believe that part of our working on our own salvation does involve an honest personal assessment – or examination – of our faith. Our faith is to be a living faith and is to be a personal faith tailored to our spiritual needs, our spiritual level of growth, and the personal calling that God has placed on our lives. Paul wrote to the Christians at the church of Corinth: But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup (I Corinthians 11:28) and Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? (II Corinthians 13:5).
In the verse in I Corinthians, Paul is writing about the proper way the Lord’s Supper – or Communion as some call it – is to be observed. He was reminding the Christians that they need to look at themselves – the condition of their hearts, the thoughts of their minds – before they took their part in the observance of the Lord’s Supper. This examination was to assure themselves that not only were they prepared mentally for the observance, but that they were spiritually ready to take part in something that symbolizes the literal price of our salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ paid. The second reminder for Christians to examine themselves, as found in II Corinthians 13:5, has no set schedule but the simple reasoning of the need to examine ourselves – we need to see that Christ is dwelling within us. We do not measure ourselves according to our own measurements, but we are to measure ourselves to the standards set in the Bible. I believe that the need to examine our lives for the purpose of reminding ourselves that it is not anything we have done for our salvation, but as in the words of the apostle Paul, 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 (Romans 12:3).
