The Four Men: Make Your Choice
The other day I took an old dusty book from the shelf, which I probably got for free in someone’s throw away books. It was titled “The Four Men”. I did not expect much from the book, though, but nevertheless I opened it up and dived right in. The results were tear-inspiring and I realized that I need to examine every aspect of my life and determine where I stand with my life. It’s my desire to share a summary of the content with you.
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?
We have a responsibility, in Christ, to constantly examine our lives and actions and to thereby determine if it brings glory to God or not.
That being said, let’s start the “Four Men” discussion.
Before we tackle this topic, think figuratively, please. Otherwise it will be difficult to explain. So within every person there are 4 different people or rather faces.
The Four Men explained
The First Man is the man the world sees when looking at that person. It usually sounds like the following:
- He/she is a good/bad person
- He/she is excellent, able and generous
- Narrow-minded
- Good-hearted
- Clever, but he/she knows it
Most of the time the person does not even know that people say this about them.
The Second Man is the man as seen by the people who knows him best. in this instance you will hear phrases saying “The man I know is much different than the man the world knows”, or “People think they know him, but they have no idea”.
These are typical of the descriptions of people close by. Now just imagine if the second man can be described in a more brilliant way than the first man. That will definitely raise an higher standard on a certain aspect of that man’s integrity. Just quickly pause and think how heartbreaking it must be if there is thought more highly of you in public than at home
The Third Man is the man seen by himself. Immediately, we will all agree that this man will be much different than the first two. The man himself knows his own history much better than anyone else.
Oddly enough this man can be much better or worse than the first two, it’s all a matter of perspective. The reason being, many people regard themselves better and more worthy than they actually are. Take humility for instance, if you claim yourself as a humble person, I beg your pardon, humility spoken of is humility no more. The other side of the coin is that you know your motives to the core, but many times people mistake them for ill motives when in essence you only meant well, or vice versa. Then many times we see ourselves in a dire condition compared to the first two men, because there are a lot of external factors at play, like the deception of the devil and the lies of the world.
Every man or woman is subjective about themselves whether positively or negatively.
The Fourth Man is the man God sees. God’s knowledge of us succeeds our own by miles. Think about your life and history, how much have you not forgotten? God remembers everything. He knows our hearts into the deepest corners, even further than we ourselves.
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
God knows all the good and bad, as well as everything that is within our capabilities. it’s important to realize that your circumstances like trouble at home, habits of society in general etc. produces certain characteristics in your life that have not even rooted yet, which no one, but God knows about. Do you realize that many a man does not realize the shallowness of his character until he is granted the freedom and the temptation is strong? It’s those times when goodness rots in times of difficulty, then those roots ,as mentioned above, shoot and start spreading.
Three ways to react towards The Four Men
The Shallow Way
Mark 7:6
He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Galatians 1:10
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.
The Shallow Man is only concerned about the quality of his appearance in front of others.
The Manly Way
This way is when a person is extremely sensitive about his judgements about himself. This person usually has a strong character and an honourable life.
The Godly Way
1 Corinthians 4:3-4
But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.
John 4:24
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Let me ask you this question: Are you a Christian in actions and in truth? Regarding this question there will be 4 opinions:
- The world’s
- Your friends
- Your own
- God’s
With which of these opinions are you satisfied?
If you look at all the Kings in the Old Testament, they were always referred to as either “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord (2 Kings 14:3, 2 Kings15:3 etc.)” or as “He did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord (2 Kings 13:2 2 Kings 14:24 etc.). These two phrases summarized their lives throughout history.
What phrase summarizes your life today?
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