An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living
The Greek philosopher Socrates had a strong sense of the value of a virtuous life. In his old age, he was tried and judged worthy of death for his deeply held convictions, and for expressing them publicly. Socrates accepted the judgment of the court and willingly drank the cup of deadly hemlock. He believed himself to be a good man, and that a good man would have a good eternal destiny. As the story goes, he received the judgment of those who condemned him, and entrusted himself into the hands of the Almighty.
Man Will Live Forever…
So, why did Socrates think and teach that for a man’s life to be worth living it should be examined? Examined by whom? And what does a man do with the examination? Socrates knew that Man is more than the short life he has on this earth. Each of us has an eternal soul, and we determine our own eternal destiny by the choices we make in this life. For our thoughts become our deeds, our deeds form our habits, and our habits result in our fixed character, and it is the character we formed in this life that we bring into eternity.
Without the judgment of one’s life, without the knowledge you gain by this examination of the deeds you did in this life, what are you living for anyway? Without knowing that there are consequences of every choice one makes or deed one does, then what is life? Even the most worthless person actually knows there are consequences, but he goes against that knowledge!
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil…” (Genesis 3:22a)
The knowledge of good and evil is inborn in all men. It is the way in which men and women are “made in the image of God” and are different from the animals, who have no such awareness in themselves of good and evil. Only the fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” He is deceiving himself when he says that he has no accountability for any action he does.
The one who continues to harden his heart and justify his wrong-doing will eventually become depraved, and no longer be able to hear from his conscience. He has effectively silenced God’s emissary in his heart. This one is “over the waterfall.” He cannot recover from the loss of his humanity — the image of God all men are born with. Having lost all human worth, he will spend eternity with all of the other worthless ones in the Sea of Fire, also called “the Second Death.” There could be nothing more tragic than the waste of a human soul.
God expects His highest creation (man who knows right from wrong) to do the good he knows, according to the natural law, which is innate in every man. We humans only have a short lifetime here on earth to choose to either defy God or to obey Him. He is not speaking to us directly with a voice from the sky, but through our conscience, which we all have. The conscience speaks with authority as God’s vice-regent. A vice-regent is a person who acts in the place of a ruler, governor, or sovereign.
Our Creator has said that one hundred and twenty years is enough to determine where man will spend eternity, according to the path each man chooses in this life.
So why did Socrates say, “The unexamined life is not worth living”? Examine means to inspect closely, to carry out a thorough examination or investigation. Do you have anything to hide? Are you living in guilt and denial? If so, then your life is not worth living because it will end in futility.
What is Death?
Every man is born with an appointment with death. As the Scriptures say, it is appointed for all men to die once, and then face the judgment of our Creator. Physical dying is when your soul and spirit depart from your body, going to a place of waiting called Death. In Death there are no distractions to keep you from considering your life — your motives and choices, your deeds and the consequences of those deeds. You may not have taken the time to consider your deeds while you were alive, but in Death, there is nothing else to do but wait for the judgment, when your life will be examined by the One who created you and gave you the knowledge of good and evil.
Though you may hope for oblivion or annihilation when you die, there is no escape from this place of agonizing awareness called Death. In this agony, if a person can receive the truth of his conscience condemning him, perhaps he will “pay the just wages of his sin.” But, in this agony, a worthless person will only rail against the voice of truth about himself. Both will stand before God on the day when God will judge the secrets of men’s hearts and the deeds in their lives, and determine who is worthy of a second life or a second death, both of which will never end.
How Can God Condemn People For Eternity?
Many struggle to understand why God, who is love, could judge someone as worthy of eternal torment in the Sea of Fire. The fact that the consequences are so dramatic indicates the seriousness of honoring or dishonoring our Creator.
Then He will also say to those on the left hand, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41)
The Sea of Fire was created for Satan and the angels who followed him in his rebellion. He is the author of rebellion and becomes the father of all the rebellious people on the earth. Rebellion is act of resisting or opposing authority. Iniquity was found in Satan when he reasoned that he could be like God, desiring to actually be greater than God, thus dishonoring the One who created him.
Being an eternal spirit, Satan will have to spend eternity somewhere. Presently he is loose on the earth, seeking to deceive mankind away from God’s righteous standard, just as he did in the beginning with Adam and Eve. Two thousand years ago, the Apostle John wrote that the whole world lies under the sway of the evil one. How much more today? All who are led astray from following their conscience by Satan, and continue to deny God and follow Satan’s rebellion, will be with him in that place that was created for his eternal destiny.
In His great kindness, God put a conscience into all people to save them from eternal death and torment. That is the reason eternal consequences are in store for all who refuse the Creator. Those who go against the natural law of conscience are aligning themselves with the Evil One.
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)
