Do you spend much time in front of the mirror ... examining your spiritual life? 1 Corinthians 11

1 Corinthians 11:28 (NASBStr)

But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

We are all familiar with the concept of an exam.   It starts early in our lives when our mothers or fathers tell us that she is going to come in to check if we actually cleaned our room.   That first mindset about what an examination looks like is crucial for our lives.   If we view the exam as positive or negative is so important to how we view future examinations.   For instance, the next person in our lives to exam us would be teachers.  If we view the exam as stressful and unnecessary, we may miss the beauty about the context of exam.  Later in life we will come to a state of maturity to realize that self-examination is vital to personal growth.     So, too, in the above text.  Paul is not trying to place us in a negative environment and make the Lord's supper an event that comes with self-inflicted angst.  Paul wants us to realize that the beauty of self-examination.   Note the following texts from Paul's pen as written to this same church later and to other churches:

2 Corinthians 13:5 (NASBStr)

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?

Galatians 6:4 (NASBStr)

But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.

Paul wants us each to know the value of self-examination in view of God's salvation, giving to us by grace.   We have a Biblical responsibility to know where our walk with God is and what needs to be corrected.  We have the Biblical responsibility to, by faith, allow God to work in our lives so that we can correct those areas we have since examined.   We don't spend much time in our lives doing this "mirror" work.  We would rather do "window" work and look at the problems of others.   But, if we can yield to the Spirit's examination in our lives we will discover where we lack in regard to our walk with Christ and what areas need to be shaped and molded by the Spirit of God so that we are walking in the image of Christ.   Do do that work we must step back and examine ourselves.   We do it each morning as we look in the mirror to see if we look alright to others.  Shouldn't we do the same thing spiritually in regard to how we look to Christ?