In my recent studies I really hit upon the awareness of just how righteous a person can be. Of course we probably want to associate that with people in two ways. (1) Being that unsaved people are quick to point out where others are doing wrong or are inferior to certain people types. (2) Being someone that goes to church regularly, is Christian, and prays a lot.
The dictionary defines it as:
righteous |r? ch es|
adjective
- (of a person or conduct) morally right or justifiable; virtuous : he is a good, righteous man, I am sure | feelings of righteous indignation about pay and conditions. See note at moral .
- informal perfectly wonderful; fine and genuine : righteous bread pudding.
So then what happens when you ad the word “self” in front of righteous? Obviously you end up with “self-righteousness. A term that most christians will say certainly is not them. Well… I hate to bust anyones bubble, but I think that just about any christian and non-christian alike has several varieties of self righteousness.
One of the most obvious examples can be seen in our recent Presidential election. I personally made it a point to not express my views of who I was going to vote for, due to the fact that it is a great tool for satan to use to cause division among God’s people without them realizing it. I find that in just about everyone who was old enough to vote, that if you were not for the person they were voting for, then inside, you felt they were wrong just as they thought you were wrong.
But this simple variety of “I am right and they are wrong” goes much deeper than just political views. If you start to examine your own self, you will find it creeping into almost every corner of your view of the world and others. Some mild examples may be…
Have you noticed a friend having a diet coke for breakfast every day, and you tell yourself “there is no way “I” would have a diet coke for breakfast. That stuff is just so bad to drink as the first thing of the day“.
Or observed a fellow friends wardrobe, and told yourself “there is no way “I” would ever wear something like that to work“.
Have you heard a friend tell you about a show on TV they watched the night before, and you thought to yourself just how much you would never watch that type of show because it is garbage?
Before I continue down this path. lets stew on this line of scripture. Of course you can read the whole chapter, but Romans 1:22 reads Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And I think in this particular passage this is pointing to an outwardly spoken criticism of people. So do we for some reason think that if we don’t speak it out loud that the person didn’t hear it. Maybe not… but does that mean God didn’t hear it either and that he doesn’t really know our silent heart but just our verbal heart.
My best friend has told me that I am an “opinionated person” and to the point I will speak out my opinions and not just keep them to myself. So here I am speaking out that our silent bits of self-righteousness are just as equal as our verbal ones. And don’t think I am trying to put myself on a pedestal and claim I am above that. Just like YOU… yes I said YOU, I have my degrees and varieties of self-righteousness. And I guess since I am so vocal about my opinions, that gives the silent ones a chance to point me out as being self-righteous.
So do you want more to chew on… because since I am so “opinionated” (which my friend said wasn’t actually a “bad thing”) I will just give you some more food for thought.
Do you get up every morning and jog 2 miles to stay in good health and condition. If so, when you are in line at the store and the person in front of you weighs 240 pounds and is taking their sweet time about checking out… Does your silent mind never say a single word about how huge they are. Especially since you are in such great shape.
What about if you are in a group of fellow christians, and one of them lets several cuss words slip out… Oh No! Can you believe they said that, and in front of other christians as well?
What about when you are so in tune with the Pastors morning message, and the child in the seat in front of you is playing with a toy they brought in or just totally being a distraction to you. Are you suddenly the best parent in the world that would never let your child behave that way in church… even if you are not a parent?
In Psalm 64:3 They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows.
Do you think that only applies to spoken words?
And its not just one little passage warning against this. Lets look at James 3:9-10 (9)With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. (10)Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.
So.. do you think that our idle words that are not verbally spoken are exempt from this scripture?
I recall one morning while I was getting my morning sausage and biscuit, that the guy in front of me was getting a twelve pack of beer. Of course silently I was telling myself how right I was by not having beer at 9 in the morning. As a matter of fact, I was so righteous that I told the clerk about how I just couldn’t see how anyone could drink lots of beer that early in the day. Then the slap in the face… The clerk informed me that the guy getting the beer was her boyfriend. (Can you say “open mouth and insert foot”)
I could probably go on and on about the stuff we look at on a daily basis as nothing more than a silent comment to ourselves. And like a lot of mans diseases that are hidden until x-rayed we may not even think about the fact that indeed there is someone who hears those swords flying. “He” may not spank us for that, but just like your earthly father, He does get discouraged that we would say such a thing to our brother even if it was in silence. So then, just think of the pain He feels for us when we say the stuff out loud.
What I think is the best cover up for this self-righteousness is how we justify it by claiming that we are doing it out of love. When all we are really doing is reverting back to the old habit of picking a spec out of someone’s eye when we yet ourselves have a plank protruding from our own. Don’t give me this crap about doing it out of love, or that it is scripture based that we go to our brother when they are wrong. There are guidelines in scripture if we are going to feel that we need to correct someone who we think is doing some sort of sin.
But of course lets not compare this to the plank in ones eye, or the adulterous woman who the people were wanting to stone to death. But if you examine both of those examples alone, you will see that the root of the answer is that if you don’t have any sins in your life then go ahead and speak out about those in mine.
In the end all that really becomes of this is usually hurt feelings or some degree of anger towards the person that was “helping you”. So then, if in your process of helping them see their sin, you ended up causing them to sin by slandering you in their own mind… Did you actually help the situation.
There are a few scriptures that do seem to make one think that it is their place to point out sins of others to them. But I think if you read a little more carefully and also know to whom the scriptures are written to originally, you may find that it’s not really the everyday fellow christian that is the one to be that judge and to point out his brothers thorns.
Even if you have an unsaved friend who has some horrible habit, such as a friend I use to ride my mountain bike with every weekend. He used the cuss words “GD” in about every other sentence. It was so bad that I cringed when I talked to him. And of course if I just told him that it was wrong for him to say that, do you think that would have made him stop. Maybe… but if it did, I guarantee you he will be pointing out all my wrong doings since I was a christian and supposed to live above reproach. (in his mind) I know this for I have had most of my secular friends always point out to me anything I said or did that they felt was not what a christian should do.
So anyway, back to my friend’s story. I decided to take my issue up with God instead. I mean if he is doing something against God, then why not talk to God about it myself. With in a month or so of riding every weekend with him and praying that he not use those words when I am with him, miraculously he stopped. And as time went on, he met a christian girl, married her and began attending church. I can only hope that one day he met Christ and lives in eternity. But I moved away and lost contact before I found that out.
OK…. so this has been quite a long entry and if you are still with me… which I hope, then you will by now begin to examine your own silent self-righteousness before you start imposing your own ideas of right and wrong upon the people you come in contact with. And before you go getting out your bible trying to justify a way that you should confront your brother on his sin… make sure that you have prayed about and talked to God about the issue first. You may just find that He can speak to them a lot better about it than you could ever try to.
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