Honesty is a divine criterion for the Christian. The Bible says,
“Let us walk honestly, as in the day…” (Romans 13:13). To be honest is to be free from fraud or deception and marked by integrity (Webster). The opposite of being honest would be to be a liar, something that will be punished by eternal damnation (Revelation 21:8). It behooves all of us, then, to be honest.

While we may be honest with others that we encounter, the easiest person to be dishonest with is ourselves. This kind of dishonesty probably would not cast us into the category of being a liar, but the consequences of such can be very severe, nevertheless. Being dishonest with ourselves will stop us from improving in areas of weakness and keep us from reaching our full potential in Christ. Even worse, if we sin, it can keep us from repenting of that sin and put the salvation of our souls in jeopardy.

Can you improve as a Christian? If you say no, you might want to listen to Paul.

Galatians 6:3 (ESV)

3  For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Thinking that you cannot be a better Christian, that is, concluding upon your examination of self, that you have reached the height of Christianity, is, according to Paul, a form of lying to yourself. And it is something that will prevent you from growing in Christ. We grow spiritually when we look at our lives honestly to improve in areas where we might not be all that God wants us to be. Then, when we put forth the effort to change for the better in those areas, we become better Christians and more useful to the Lord.

It does not do any good to fool ourselves into thinking that we are better than we are. In fact, it does us a great deal of harm. Do you remember the parable of the Pharisee and the publican or tax collector man? In the parable, the rich man took inventory of his life and concluded that he was better than others such as the publican (Luke 18:9-12). According to Luke, Jesus was speaking of those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. The Pharisee started out with an arrogant attitude by saying, “I thank God that I am not like other men.” Now, it is possible to say such a thing in a humble fashion, sincerely thankful to God that, by His grace and providential care, you have been able to escape certain sins that others have fallen into, realizing that you could have very easily done so (1 Corinthians 15:10; Galatians 6:1). That was not the case with this Pharisee. We know this because he was too busy trusting in himself to worry about the possibility that he could be a sinner. Now, the point I really want us to get is this—this man examined himself, but he did so with blinders on. He really was not honest with himself when he took inventory of his life, and the result was a false conclusion that kept him from being right with God. At the end of the parable, we see that he missed justification. Why? Because he never sought it. He thought he was already okay based on his personal performance; thus, he did not need the mercy of God. The person who lies to himself about his spiritual condition, thinking that he is better than he is, will never correct anything in his life that is amiss. As a result, when he needs forgiveness from God he will not receive it because he doesn’t ask for it.

We must be honest with ourselves. We are all sinners (Romans3:23). If we deny this, John said that we are guilty of self-deception (1 John 1:8). It is important to take inventory of our lives from time to time, but not like the Pharisee did, that is, with blinders on. We need to be more like the publican. He started at a place of humility. “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” This way, if there is any unrepented sin in our lives, we will detect it and do the right thing in repenting and asking God to forgive us (Acts 8:22).

This will also allow us to see our weaknesses clearly. We all have them. Maybe our attendance is not what it should be. Some come to worship service every week, but not to all worship services. Maybe we have been guilty of gossip, convincing ourselves that what we are really doing is just giving others some necessary information that they just have to know. Maybe our overall commitment to Christ is not at the level it should be. Instead seeking first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33), we have allowed the things of this world to nudge ahead of God on our priority list. Some conditions can develop in our lives that we do not even notice until we stop and examine ourselves to see where we really are spiritually. However, for that self-examination to effective, we must be honest with ourselves. If we are not, we will just end up either being deeper in sin, or at the very least, further away from reaching our full potential in Christ by strengthening our weaknesses.