It’s rare for anyone to be willing to take external criticism of their motives

The easiest and fastest way to see your own motives beyond any limits in your perception or honesty is through another person who sees enough about you to correctly describe them. It is indeed possible for someone to see you better than you see yourself. The scriptures are full of accounts of when Jesus and his servants knew more about other people than the people knew about themselves. Consider the following Psalm, where a discerning observer describes the hidden qualities of a generic wicked man:

1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.
3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.
4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil. (Psalm 36)

One reason so few people see so little of the motives of themselves and others is because awareness of motive, like all awareness, only grows with continuous honesty, and fades away with repeated deceit.

The fact that it is possible for someone else to see more about you than you see about yourself does not make it probable that you would listen, no matter how true their perspective was or how much evidence they presented.¹ In the event you find someone with the wisdom necessary to see beyond what you do, it is highly likely that you will strongly disagree with what they describe about you because it will be so much worse than how you see yourself. How would you feel if someone told you that you flatter yourself so much in your own eyes that you are constantly bringing upon yourself terrible but fully avoidable suffering? What if they said that everything you say and do is a lie? What if they said you are not nearly as wise as you could be, and you don’t do as much good as you could? What if they said you are constantly scheming about how to get more than you deserve, that you incorrectly think you are better than everyone else, and that you love to sin?

Do you know anyone who would take such a chain of criticism well? Do you know anyone who would believe such criticisms, no matter who made them? Would they believe it, even if told by Jesus Christ himself ? How much less if told this by one of his servants? How much less if told this by an otherwise normal person who happened to be right?