Self Righteousness

Oh, look ... I'm missing a hyphen there, aren't I? No. I'm not writing about self-righteousness. I'm writing about a righteousness we determine on our own. This week a sufficient number of Republican senators voted to devalue and undefine marriage in order to include "same-sex" in that category. Not merely to include it, but to give it legal protections. Mind you, it was less than 15 years ago that California was fighting tooth and nail against it. On two occasions, Californians sought to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman and twice the courts shot it down. But here, 14 years later, it isn't merely a question anymore; it is (or very soon will be) law. The Democrats and those Republicans have removed what the court recognized back in 2008 as "the longstanding, traditional definition of marriage" and replaced it with ... well, nothing at all. That is, "We decide what is right and no one else." That is the self righteousness I'm talking about. But I'm not writing to unbelieving, pharisaical types. I'm writing to genuine Christians. So let's consider this for a moment.

We are "people of the Book," so to speak. Our beliefs and our doctrines and our rules are laid out in God's Word. We're not supposed to be making them up. We have a written manual. Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth" (John 17:17), a glorious, single-sentence sermon. We are sanctified -- set apart and made more like Christ -- in the truth which is found in God's Word. Simple stuff. Straightforward. Not complicated. So why is it so hard?

When the serpent in the garden asked Eve what God commanded, she answered correctly -- "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden" (Gen 3:3) -- and then added to it -- "neither shall you touch it." We've been adding and subtracting ever since. A generation prior to mine, for instance, was quite certain that smoking, drinking, dancing, playing cards, and going to movies were all sinful behaviors and all good Christians avoided them. I can't find them in my Bible. On the other hand, commands like, "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord" (Eph 5:22) and the "male counterpart" -- husbands are to love their wives like Christ loved the church, giving up self (Eph 5:25) -- are not obscure, unclear, unknown, or hard to grasp, but they are rarely obeyed. Lots of Christian wives believe they should submit to their husbands ... just not in everyday practice when he is wrong and she is right. Lots of good Christian husbands embrace the command to love their wives ... except, of course, for that "gave Himself up for her" part. But those same people will likely take you to task for, oh, I don't know, using the Lord's name in vain, for instance, without a twitch of shame that they are ... self righteous. They are practicing a righteousness that they themselves make up and adhere to ... when it's convenient.

Just a couple of examples here. I'm sure if you thought about it you could come up with your own list. I'm also sure that if you did, it would not be a list of things that you are being self righteous about, because the essence of this kind of self righteousness is that it is primarily defined by what we think is right and that is essentially how we choose to live. Brothers and sisters, these things ought not be. Paul told the Philippian jailer, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" and we'd prefer to leave off that "Lord" part. We live the classical oxymoronic cry from Peter -- "No, Lord." And then we bemoan those naughty homosexuals or liberals or whatever other group of sinners (the broader group to which we all belong). We need repentance. We need to submit. Jesus said we were to make disciples and teach them to "observe all that I have commanded you" (Matt 28:19-20). We need to learn that, too, rather than pick and choose our own version of "righteousness" and be satisfied.