(THROUGH EVALUATION)

While studying on this subject of coming to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 3:7), I have prepared six sermons on the first three steps of learning: education, meditation, and participation. I also prepared six sermons on the fourth learning step: evaluation. This indicates how important this step is to this process. Not only is the step of evaluation perhaps the most important, but to me it is the hardest.  

Why is it so important and so hard? First consider what evaluation does. It is the mechanism by which we judge ourselves as we see ourselves versus how we want to see ourselves. As Christians, we evaluate our service to God by his standards. By evaluating our thoughts, actions, and intents against the Lord’s will for man, we can determine if we’re doing good or just doing. You could say the fourth step – evaluation – is what proves and improves the third step – participation. But evaluation goes back farther than that. Remember the first step, education? Evaluation was part of the thought process that made us want to begin to improve ourselves through education.  

Then why is it so hard? Because the most difficult person we have to see and judge is ourselves. We can see the worth of others with 20/20 vision, but somehow the face in the mirror is usually a symbol of perfection! Talk about rose-colored glasses! To make it worse, people that study human behavior tell us that certain personality traits (mainly narcissism, a very common trait in varying degrees) carries the characteristic that makes it almost impossible for that person to see and judge themselves of anything short of perfection (NOTE: I’m no psychologist, but I do enjoy reading about human behavior). Why is it even necessary to evaluate ourselves? Because unless we see ourselves as part of our problem with sin, we will never see ourselves as part of our solution!  

Now let’s leave these introductory thoughts and jump right into our study. According to Webster, evaluation means to find the value or the amount of, to fix the value of. But I like the following as a working definition of evaluation: to judge something against a designated standard. This definition seems pretty simple, until we try to decide on the correct designated standard. So what are our choices? Could it be social norms, financial circumstances, the marital environment, the family climate, or God’s standards? Of course, you and I are practicing Christians, so we want to say we always evaluate ourselves against the designated standards in the Bible.  

So if the designated standards are so important, who picks them: the family unit, our peer group, our church family? The truth is that this is something that each and every one of us chooses for ourselves. I cannot choose the designated standards for the people  I love most in the world, as much as I want to. I just can’t. It’s not possible. The only thing I can do is lead them to use the designated standards I’m living and evaluating myself by. And that’s all you can do, too. So it is extremely important to choose wisely!  

Look at it another way. Why is it so important that we each have and claim ownership of our very own designated standards to evaluate against? Because we would go crazy trying to meet someone else’s! Have you ever listened to a disgruntled Christian complain? Either you are hearing someone that is trying to evaluate against someone else’s designated standards and not their own, or their designated standards are not God’s standards. What do you think about an unenthusiastic Christian, or a bored Christian? Rest assured that either the designated standards are wrong, or the evaluation process is broken, or both.  

But what really is the big deal about what designated standards we choose to use to evaluate our life’s work? Because if we are striving as we should to become a better person, then the goal is not the person we already are, but the person that is defined by our chosen goals – our designated standards. This is what sets our personality, attitude, humor, behavior, appearance, intent, the way we think things “ought to be,” etc. In short, the designated standards we choose will determine the kind of person we are, and more importantly the kind of person we will be tomorrow. I will tell you that personally I know few people that I would accept all of their designated standards as my own. But I will also state that I have always tried to copy the best standards of the best people I know. In most instances these designated standards are Bible based, and they come first. But where the Bible is silent, such as in how to drive/maintain a car, then I try to copy others that have proven themselves successful.  

What do you do? Do you see people who are more humble, more forgiving, more content, more industrious, more focused, more disciplined, etc. than you and feel envious of them and criticize them? Or do you thank the Lord for their example and try to copy them? If you’re not the person you want to be in all parts of your life, could it be that you’re evaluating yourself against the wrong designated standards? Could it be that your designated standard is the one talent man instead of the five talent man (Mat. 25:14-30)?  

Let’s leave the idea of our designated standards for awhile and consider the usefulness of the evaluation process. A good evaluation can work through the conscience to be very corrective. Consider Romans 6:21. Paul asked them to evaluate their past fruit, the idea that the fruit now caused them shame, and that the fruit would lead to death. Even though this verse does not contain the word evaluate, without the Romans using the evaluation process the verse is useless as far as touching their conscience. And we know that if the conscience is not touched, there can be no repentance, correction, and conversion.  

Another way to say this is that without evaluation, Romans 6:21 simply becomes an observation of their history. Now consider a couple of illustrations of the difference between an observation and an evaluation. First, consider a man and a woman looking at another woman. The man looks at the woman and sees obvious things, such as her shape, age, hair, looks, etc. He is only making an observation. But the woman may look at the other woman to see if her purse matches her shoes, if her nails and hair are done, if her jewelry looks gaudy or classy. In other words, is she better than me? She’s not making an observation, but an evaluation. On the other hand, if the man and woman are looking at a car, she probably is looking at the obvious things, such as the paint, chrome, interior trim, and seat covers. She is only making an observation. The man is checking the tires for wear, the oil, the air filter, the brake pedal, the mileage, and Consumer Reports for reliability. He’s making an evaluation of the worth of the car for his purpose and his money.  

So why worry about the difference between an observation and an evaluation? Because we will be more effective if we will mainly make observations of others and make evaluations of ourselves. If we get this backwards, I’m afraid we’ll be making no progress in our spiritual life. And our time is too short to not constantly be trying to make the most of ourselves. Jesus deserves nothing less! If we will be what God designed us to be, we must constantly evaluate ourselves and our performance against God’s standards. Please reread and meditate on these thoughts, because they lay the foundation for fully coming to the knowledge of the truth.  

Bill Prince Jr.

(Oxford, AL)

SAM DICK

Cave City, KY

SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES 

1.              What happened to the men who gave false reports concerning the land of Canaan ?

2.              Who told Haman that a seventy-five foot gallows should be built, on which to hang Mordecai?

3.              Who does Hosea say “took his brother by the heel in the womb?”

4.              Jesus told his disciples they were worth more than what?

5.              According to Paul what should wives give their husbands in return for husbands loving their wives?

ANSWERS NEXT MONTH . . .

and remember last month’s questions?  

1. In Deuteronomy what analogy did Moses use to describe the current population of Israel ?   LIKE THE STARS OF HEAVEN (Deut. 1:10)

2.  What was the last group of Israelites to receive their inheritance in the new land?   LEVITES (Josh. 21:3)

3. God compared the power of Job to that of what animal?   A BEHEMOTH (Job 40:15-24)

4. According to Galatians how much time passed between the covenant with Abraham and the Law of Moses?   430 YEARS (Gal. 3:17)

5.  John said who has seen God?   NO ONE (1 John 4:12)