Is "know thyself" or "know yourself" a biblical concept?

Let us now, in the second place, look at the Christian's object. Here again Christianity shuts us up to Christ. "That I may know him" is the breathing of the true Christian. If to be "found in him" constitutes the Christian's standing, then "to know him" is the Christian's proper object. The ancient philosophy had a motto it was continually sounding in the ears of its votaries, and that motto was, "Know yourself." Christianity, on the contrary, has a loftier motto, pointing to a nobler object. It tells us to know Christ — to make Him our object — to fix our earnest gaze on Him.

We must begin here, for the great I AM of this declaration, is the beginning and source of all fruit for God. He was not a fruitful branch of a vine that already existed, nor the choicest shoot of a struggling and fallen humanity, but He was Himself the Vine from whom all fruit must come. The Jews under the law had been tested and found wanting and their religion was now rejected as a worthless thing, for it produced only bitter grapes. In the philosophy of the Greeks there never had been life or fruit for God—“Man, know thyself” was its highest aim—but Christ had come and all fruit for God is henceforth from Him and no man ever will or can bear fruit except he abides in Him. To use another figure from another Scripture, we are married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God” ( Rom. 7:4).

We must begin here, for the great I AM of this declaration, is the beginning and source of all fruit for God. He was not a fruitful branch of a vine that already existed, nor the choicest shoot of a struggling and fallen humanity, but He was Himself the Vine from whom all fruit must come. The Jews under the law had been tested and found wanting and their religion was now rejected as a worthless thing, for it produced only bitter grapes. In the philosophy of the Greeks there never had been life or fruit for God — "Man, know thyself" was its highest aim — but Christ had come and all fruit for God is henceforth from Him and no man ever will or can bear fruit except he abides in Him. To use another figure from another Scripture, we are married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God" (Rom. 7:4).

The brazen laver of the tabernacle differs somewhat from the brazen sea of the temple. We have just seen that this latter was the manifestation of divine righteousness breaking the power of the enemy in order to make possible the daily purification of the priests. This victory was not gained in the wilderness. The laver was not cast of brass taken from the enemy, but from "the mirrors of the crowds of women who crowded before the entrance of the tent of meeting" (Ex. 38:8). This passage alludes to that which followed the sin of the golden calf. Moses had set up a tent outside the camp and had called it the "tent of meeting." All the people, as a sign of humiliation, were to strip themselves of their ornaments, and those who sought the Lord went forth to the tent of meeting outside the camp (Ex. 33:4-7). The mirrors of the repentant women of Israel served to make the brazen laver. They acknowledged their sin and humbled themselves; they stripped themselves of that which until then had served their vanity. How could they still delight to consider their natural faces? They did not wish, nor could they any longer behold themselves. They truly judged themselves, their selfishness, their lightness, all that had contributed to make them forsake God for an idol. That which presented them in their state of sin must be destroyed. Thus the brazen laver is the righteousness of God pronouncing judgment upon the old man, but in order that the believer might obtain practical, daily purification by the Word. In order to deliver us, this righteousness has been brought upon Christ. It is in Him that we now realize that "Know thyself" so impossible to sinful man.

“Man, know thyself,” is a human proposition; but, “Man, abhor thyself,” is, I may say, a divine command. Anyhow, it comes in the line of true self-knowledge. Ah! how abhorrent must that nature be which said of the blessed Son of God, “Away with Him, crucify Him!” Never speak in praise of such a self!

God loves man in this lost and guilty condition. He sent His beloved Son from the throne of glory; and with burning love for the poor, guilty sinner. He died on the cross — "the Just for the unjust." Oh look at that dying Lamb of God. See from that pierced side the blood of atonement. He bowed His head and died. All was finished. God has raised him from the dead; and now God can meet thee through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He does meet thee. He does love thee, poor broken-hearted sinner. God meets thee in love! Thou thoughtest He could only meet thee in deserved wrath. He commands thee in the gospel to change thy mind. What is that? To believe what is true. That thou hast nothing but sin in which to meet Him. Give up, only give up all pretensions to righteousness, and as a lost sinner I point thee to the cross; and I tell thee, as surely as thou art brought to know thyself as a lost sinner, feeling thy utter need of Christ, God meets thee through the finished work of Christ, and pointing to the cross on which all thy sins were borne, He says, There sinner! now I have nothing against thee. It is not thy meeting God with the works of thy repentance; but God meeting thee through the death of Christ.

How, then, has He proved it? Why it goes on to state that in the next verse: "Christ died for the ungodly." Then he says again, "Not only so." What? "But we also joy in God." I have got to know myself, all my waywardness and forgetfulness of God, that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing; but in this way of self-judgment I have learnt to joy in God. It is to bring the heart into this tune with God that He has to break it down and humble it. But this being in tune with God is never reached - that settled consciousness of association with God - until, through these ways and words of God, we have got to the bottom of self. It is not that we shall not always have to contend with it; but its back is broken, and I have henceforward no trust in myself. The natural man says, "Whither shall I flee from Thy presence?" But at the end (Ps. 139) he says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart." Up to the knowledge you have of divine things, is your heart in tune with Him? Could you say, "Search me"? It is a painful process sometimes.

Let us see whereon this is founded. It is on Jesus Christ, who is the Faithful Witness. It is always Christ, on the part of God, who is something. It is the Faithful Witness; and we need Him, for in what way can a sincere soul have knowledge of itself? It is generally occupied with itself. It says, I am this, I am that; it finds some uncertainty as to what it really is, as if God did not know. If it had sufficient wisdom, it would have done with itself; it would know it could find no good in itself; it would refer to the judgment of Christ.

Christ knew well what Peter was, when he said to Him, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man," Luke 5. Did not Jesus know it? Yes: He knew it perfectly. Well, it was Peter who knew it not; it was just simply a remnant of pride; and that soul is precisely in the same case which seeks for these things by searching within itself, and expects not to find itself in the mud. But if a soul recognises itself in this state of utter ruin, God has searched it out: His love is there.

Self, in all the terrible depths of that word, should be judged in the light of the divine presence, and there, too, our souls should grow in the knowledge of God as He unfolds Himself, by the Holy Ghost, in the face of Jesus Christ, and in the precious pages of holy Scripture. This surely is the more excellent way of learning both ourselves and God.

There is a practical difference between oneself and one's sins. The renewed soul is much more pained at the discovery of the root which shoots up after the knowledge of the love of Jesus, than at the remembrance of past sins, the forgiveness of which it much more easily understands. Besides, you put the judgment of self before the judgment of sins, whereas sins committed generally act first on the conscience; after that comes the experience of what the flesh is, and this is so true that often in the early days of conversion one thinks that there is no more sin in one. That of which I have spoken as coming afterwards is not exactly the knowledge of sin in oneself when judging it, but the fact of being in the presence of God - what we are in the presence of the light. To judge the flesh, myself, is a different thing from being in the presence of God in judgment, being such. What you quote from your letter to - is perfectly right. When he says that the knowledge of self is the business of the whole life, I think this a very sad idea. God makes us known to ourselves simply as a means; the object of life is to know Christ. Fathers in Christ have known Him who is from the beginning; and one does not even know oneself except by knowing Him. To be occupied only with evil (and there is nothing but evil in oneself) is a sad life, and it is not the thought of God. His desire is that for our happiness we should be occupied with Him. It is a thought as false as it is sad, and it means nothing but ignorance of the grace of our God. The truth is just the opposite of this, that I ought to be occupied only with Christ, and that this is the grace of God to me. Sometimes, when I have neglected to do this (so much the worse) to bring me back again He is forced to occupy me with myself; but I cannot say that the knowledge of myself is the first element of faith - the knowledge in general that we are sinners, and even that there is no good in us - be it so, but we know ourselves badly, very badly, and God causes us to pass through a spiritual eighth of Deuteronomy in order to understand our dependence on Him and His grace, a very difficult lesson for the heart of man to learn.