Being human and fallible, we need ways to evaluate where we are spiritually in our relationship with God. This sort of personal evaluation is not easy. It takes humility and honesty to be open to such a process. It is not unlike open-heart surgery. You must realize that you need such surgery or else you would never submit to such an operation. Man does not like being vulnerable. We do not like being embarrassed or put down. To avoid these things, we put up mental and psychological defenses. But listen to David,

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24.) "For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me." (Psalm 51:3.) "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." (51:10.) David invited the Lord to search his heart and guide him.

One man brought his son to Jesus to be healed. Jesus responded that all things are possible to him that believes. The father cried to the Lord, "I believe, but help thou mine unbelief." (Mark 9:24.) Jesus did not heal people just for the sake of healing them. He wanted to reach their hearts. This father was open to Jesus’ questions about his own faith, even though he had come out of concern for his son.

Paul said that he counted all things loss that he might win Christ. What he wanted was to "be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." (Phil. 3:8-9.) Saul of Tarsus had to make some drastic changes from his childhood faith as a Jew trained among the Pharisees to becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. Few have had to humble themselves as much as Saul. If pride ever raised its ugly head, Saul would not have been able to make such necessary changes.

I want to use primarily the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount to search for some specific statements that define man’s spiritual well being. Probably more than any time that I can remember, many are confused about what constitutes true spirituality. Some people, by their very nature, are more devotional and reflective than others. Others have a greater difficulty appearing "religious and devotional." Some people pray more than others. Some sit in dark rooms and chant and pray all day. The New Age Movement with its emphasis upon meditation is popular. Others feel more spiritual after reading a good book on religion, like The Prayer of Jabez, and talking about its meaning to others in a sharing session. Some at Colossae felt more spiritual when they neglected the physical needs of their body. (Col. 2:23.) Some teach that if you abstain from marriage, you are more spiritual than those who marry. (1 Tim. 4:3.)

The common failure of man in religion is to emphasize the outward aspects of religion without ever getting to the heart. The Pharisee typified that error more than any other in Scripture. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7.) Jesus preached about the pure in heart, the poor in spirit, and where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

The following six questions do not cover everything that is important in Christianity, but they do reveal much about the spiritual condition of the human heart before God.

This question is not addressed directly, but it underlies everything else that Jesus taught. All of Christianity and true religion rests upon this foundation. If our view of God is wrong, then our practice of Christianity will be wrong. How we think about ourselves will be incorrect. We will fail to honor and praise God in worship if our view of God is less than God.

Listen to Jesus. The first time he mentions God, he says that the pure in heart will see God. (Matt. 5:8.) Peacemakers will be called the children of God. (5:9.) "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (5:16.) He taught the disciples to pray, "Our Father which is in heaven, Hallowed be thy name." (6:9.) "You cannot serve God and mammon." (6:24.) "If God so clothed the grass of the field, shall he not much more clothe ye?" (6:30.) "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." (6:33.)

"Father" occurs 16 times in Jesus’ sermon. "God" is referred to 5 times. Jesus referred to God 21 times in this 18-minute sermon. What also is significant behind his words is His own nature. As they listened to him, they were coming to the right conclusion that He was different from the other teachers that they had heard. They were astonished at his doctrine because he taught as One with having authority. (7:28-29.)

There are many wrong views of God that affect us in our lives. The view of the idolaters was that there were many gods. They were much like men who made mistakes, had offspring, and were limited in their domain. Worshippers often laughed at these gods. We would not dare do such with God the Father. The view of the Deists in America by our founding fathers was incorrect. They envisioned a god who has not done anything since the creation of the world. He wound up the world and back away from it. This god did not come to earth to redeem man. He did not work any miracles. Thomas Jefferson’s Bible penknifed all the miracles of the Bible and left only the moral teachings of Jesus. Deism is a nature religion, not a revealed religion. Its god is very different from the true God of the Bible. People often ask if the gods of the world religions is not the same as the God of Christianity. The answer is a resounding, No! Even the Jews in Jesus’ day did not know God. If they did, said Jesus, they would not have rejected Him. He was God in the flesh. (John 1:14.) Jesus said, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24.)

When we properly preach God, we will conclude with Paul, "Let God be true and every man a liar." (Rom. 3:4.)

In chapter six, Jesus repeatedly referred to the Pharisees who did religious things to be seen of men. He said that they had their reward. They sought the favor and praise of men, not the favor of God. They were acting as if God did not exist. In praying, giving alms to the poor, and in fasting, we should do so before God and in our closets. (Matt. 6:1-18.)

Paul once asked, "For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." (Gal. 1:10.) This Paul said in defense of his preaching the Gospel of redemption in Christ Jesus. His desire was to please God and Him alone. Paul added, "Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" (Gal. 4:16.) Jesus also said, "He that sent me is with me; the Father hath not left me alone. For I do always those things that please him." (John 8:29.) Near the end of Jesus’ sermon on the mount, he said, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 7:21.)

One clear way to know where we stand spiritually is to ask, Do I seek to please God like Jesus did?

Are you critical in your judgment of others? (Matt. 7:1-5.) There are many reasons why we should not judge one another. One major reason is that it keeps us from carefully considering ourselves. Jesus said, "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye." (7:5.)

Another section refers to whether we salute our brothers only or if we include others. (Matt. 5:46-48.) Man tends to divide into groups. Religiously, we do the same thing. The sectarian or party spirit is so destructive to developing the mind of Christ. Paul asked his fellow Jews, "Are we (the Jews) better than they (the Gentiles)?" (Rom. 3:9.) No, both are under sin. It is easy to find someone to condemn in their religious practices. Every man is right in his own eyes. (Prov. 21:2; 12:15; 3:7; 30:12.) These divisions keep us from loving others and from loving even our enemies. Jesus concluded, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Perfect here refers to the way God loves all of mankind. To be like God, we must broaden the circle of people that we love.

Yet another section refers to the command about murder. But Jesus taught that if you are angry with your brother without a cause, you shall be in danger of the judgment. If you say to a brother, Raca (empty one), you shall be in danger of the council. If you say, Thou fool, you shall be in danger of hell fire. (Matt. 5:21-22.)

The apostle John made this same point in his epistles. He plainly wrote, "If a man say, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" (1 John 4:20.)

One penetrating spiritual question is to ask, How do I feel about other people? All people, other religious people, my enemies, non-Christians, my brothers? If I disdain other people made in the image of God, I also disdain God.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:3.) One characteristic of Jesus’ sermon is that it penetrates to the heart of man. It reveals the inner man and what affects his conduct. This message was so different to what the Pharisees practiced. Their outward conduct was very religious, but inwardly they were hypocrites. "Poor in spirit" refers to the attitude that one has about oneself. Do we see our need for God and the Gospel? Do we understand how utterly destitute we are without Christ?

Jesus did not think much of the righteousness of the Pharisees. He said, "Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (5:20.) There is nothing worse spiritually than for one to think that one does not need much help from the Lord, to think that one is such a saint that one can make it from now on without the sacrifice of the cross. The Pharisee prayed thus with himself: "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast. . . I give tithes." (Luke 18:10-11.)

Isaiah described our state with these words: When Jesus came he would "proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. . . to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." (Isaiah 61:3.) In sin, we should be mourning and lamenting in ashes. But God gives to such a person who understands his spiritual need, joy and garments of praise and beauty.

"But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted." (Matt. 23:11-12.) "God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time." (1 Peter 5:5-6.) "Pride goes before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud." (Prov. 16:18.)

Paul wrote, "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.)

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Matt. 6:19-24.)

"Mammon" is a common Aramaic word for riches. The Laodiceans in Revelation 3 were a wealthy group of Christians. Their wealth caused them to think that they did not need God anymore. The Lord said to them, "Because you say, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked." (Rev. 3:17.)

It has always shocked me that Biblical writers and Jesus put riches on one side and God on the other as two bold choices for mankind. Which will it be? Idolatry in the Old Testament is the worship of other gods. Idolatry in the New Testament is covetousness or the worship of money. Twice Paul wrote that covetousness is idolatry. (Eph. 5:5, Col. 3:5.) The love of money cools our zeal for spiritual things. Hard cold cash is very visible and real; spiritual things are unseen, intangible, and more difficult to appreciate to the worldly-minded.

"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." (1 Timothy 6:6-11.) "Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." (1 Tim. 6:17-19.)

Remember the rich young ruler walked away from Jesus. His choice was his riches. On the other hand, remember Job, Abraham, Joseph of Arimathae, Nicodemus, Lydia, Mark’s mother, and other disciples of means who were faithful to God. The problem is not the amount of money one has, but rather his attitude toward. What does it mean to us?

Do you believe Jesus’ words, not only about moral and spiritual values, but also about what lies in the future? At the end of the sermon, Jesus said, "Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. The rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. Everyone that hears these sayings of mine and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. The rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell; and great was the fall of it." (Matt. 7:24-27.)

"Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leads unto life and few there be which find it." (Matt. 7:13-14.)

". . . for great is your reward in heaven." (Matt. 5:12.)

"Many will say to me in that day. . . ." (Matt. 7:22.)

Deists, like Thomas Jefferson, desired only Jesus’ moral instruction for living in this present life. But he did not believe in a future life and resurrection from the dead. Faith sees the unseen. Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible. (Heb. 11:27.)

One penetrating spiritual question surely is, Do I believe what Jesus taught about life and eternity? Those who heard Jesus were astonished at his doctrine because he taught as One having authority. Am I also astonished at His words? Do I accept his message based upon who Jesus is?

"I go my way and you shall seek me and shall die in your sins. Where I go, you cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? Because he said, Where I go, you cannot come. And he said unto them, You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins." (John 8:21-24.)