Definition · Webster 1828 · Scriptures · Corruption · Roots · Usage · Related
📖 Biblical Definition
Self-examination is the believer’s prayerful searching and testing of his own heart, life, and spiritual state in the light of God’s Word, to discern whether he is truly in the faith, to detect and confess his sins, and to measure his growth in grace. Paul commands it: ‘Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves’; and again, in approaching the Lord’s Table, ‘let a man examine himself, and so let him eat.’ The psalmist makes it a prayer, inviting God’s own searching: ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’ Self-examination serves several ends. It tests the reality of one’s faith, guarding against the self-deception of a false profession, that a man may not build his hope on sand; it uncovers hidden and besetting sins that escape casual notice, bringing them to confession and mortification; it prepares the soul for the Lord’s Supper, that one eat not unworthily; and it measures progress and decline in the spiritual life, prompting renewed diligence. The deceitfulness of the human heart makes this duty necessary, for the heart is desperately wicked and prone to flatter itself; without honest self-scrutiny in the light of Scripture, a man will not know himself truly. Yet self-examination must be rightly conducted, lest it become morbid introspection. Its standard is the Word of God, not mere feeling; its aim is not endless brooding over the self but the discovery of sin unto confession and of grace unto thankfulness; and it must always be joined with a looking away to Christ, lest the soul, finding sin within, sink into despair rather than fleeing afresh to the Savior. Healthy self-examination thus alternates between looking in (to find sin and test the heart) and looking up (to Christ for pardon and grace), and it issues not in self-absorption but in deeper repentance, humility, assurance, and renewed pursuit of holiness.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Webster 1828 defines SELF-EXAMINATION as an examination or scrutiny into one’s own state, conduct and motives, particularly in regard to religious feelings and duties.
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SELF-EXAMINATION, n. — An examination or scrutiny into one’s own state, conduct and motives, particularly in regard to religious feelings and duties; a close inquiry into the state of the soul.
EXAMINE, v.t. — ...To inquire into the state of, by inspection; to scrutinize; to try or assay by the proper tests.
📖 Key Scripture
2 Corinthians 13:5 — "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?"
1 Corinthians 11:28 — "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup."
Psalm 139:23-24 — "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
Lamentations 3:40 — "Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Self-examination is corrupted into morbid, despairing introspection that looks endlessly inward and never to Christ—and oppositely neglected by a careless self-deception that never tests the heart at all.
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Self-examination is corrupted on one side into morbid introspection—an unhealthy, despairing preoccupation with the self that turns the soul endlessly inward, brooding over its sins and doubts, taking its own spiritual pulse obsessively, and never lifting its eyes to Christ. This is the besetting danger of the tender and melancholy conscience, which mistakes constant self-scrutiny for godliness and sinks into despair as it finds, in its own heart, only sin and corruption. But self-examination was never meant to terminate on the self. The soul that looks only inward will always find cause for despair, for the heart is deceitful and corrupt; the looking in must always be joined to a looking up, to Christ, in whom the sin discovered finds its pardon and the weakness its strength. Healthy self-examination drives the believer not into himself but out of himself to the Savior.
The opposite corruption is the careless self-deception that never examines the heart at all—the unexamined religious life that presumes upon its own state, builds its hope on sand, and never asks whether its faith is real. This is the more common danger in a comfortable and superficial age, where men assume their salvation, resent any call to test it, and mistake a profession or a religious heritage for true conversion. Against this, Paul commands, ‘Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.’ The recovery of the duty steers between these errors: self-examination is the honest, prayerful, Scripture-guided testing of the heart and life—to prove the reality of faith, to uncover and confess sin, to prepare for the Lord’s Table, and to gauge growth—always conducted by the standard of the Word rather than mere feeling, always aiming at confession and renewed diligence rather than brooding, and always joined with a fresh fleeing to Christ. So conducted, it yields not self-absorption but deeper repentance, humility, assurance, and holiness.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
The doctrine rests on the call to examine (dokimazō, to test, prove) and prove (peirazō) oneself, inviting God to search (chāqar) the heart.
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Usage
"Self-examination tests the heart in the light of Scripture—to prove one’s faith, uncover sin, and gauge growth."
"Healthy self-examination always joins looking in (to find sin) with looking up (to Christ for pardon)."
"Morbid introspection looks endlessly inward and despairs; careless self-deception never tests the heart at all."