The Seed Blog:

Let’s open today simply by reading a couple of Passages of Scripture: Luke 18:9-14. This is one of the most well-known little Parables of the Bible. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most quickly disregarded parables of Scripture. Disregarded because to us the Pharisees, represent those people—the Bible-thumping, hard-nosed legalists. The mean, narcissistic fuddy-duddies who have long sleeves, proper hair, and no fun; those who preach fire and brimstone and judge everyone else by their standards. Most Christians today live their spiritual lives with a self-centered approach as the very basis for their faith, constantly driven by guilt, fear and performance to act better, do more, avoid the ways of the world—which are all good things in themselves but it is still obsessed with self over the desire for a real relationship with Christ.

We are seeing our own worth and relationship with God in constant performance-based thinking, placing God’s love for us and our love for others on our current success in adhering to commandments. And just like the Pharisees, some commands are from God, some commands are from men’s traditions. This has made many of us miss the very heart of God’s desire for saving us. And unfortunately, for most of us, we unwittingly miss the very heart of God for others as well. And rather than seeing everything through His eyes of Jesus’ love, grace and mercy, we see everyone in comparison to our own goodness or failures. Yet, we still don’t think this Parable is ever about us because just like this Pharisee in the parable, most truly self-righteous people are completely oblivious to their own state. Sometimes it creeps into our hearts as a defense against our own low self-esteem to feel better about ourselves by seeing the faults in others. Sometimes it is because we have been hurt or abused and we obsess on the negatives of others in our mistrust now. Sometimes it’s because of our own guilt over sin and we alleviate that guilt by finding every fault in others. Sometimes, it’s just pride in how well we are doing compared to others.
Rather than debate yourself, or flat deny the possibility that you may be infected with this mindset, just surrender yourself to Christ and let your own heart be tested today: Psalms 139:23-24. 1) You are always convinced in your mind
that your way is best and people need to listen to you. You don’t feel others have a lot they can teach you; you do not take lightly to being told you made a mistake or you are wrong in your view or opinion, or you may not be the most righteous person. You are very defensive when called out on sin. You are very slow to admit you may have learned something new: Proverbs 29:1. You are often slow to help in lesser work which you consider is not for your caliber of skill or knowledge. 2) You even hold God in contempt in hard times, feeling righteous and intelligent enough to question even the very motives and fairness of our Creator—as though God somehow missed your exceptional worthiness. Trials bring much self-pity and anger because you deserve better, and you rarely look deep within for sinful ways to change Because you are living right: Job 40:8. 3) You go beyond seeing the obvious or blatant sin of another to looking for the sins, suspecting the sins of another; questioning the heart of another person, assuming they probably aren’t where you are, based on mistakes, habits, outward appearance, looking for reasons to hold them in spiritual contempt. It is right and good to judge outright, purposeful rebellion. It is wrong to judge the heart of another person; to look down on them, condemn them, based on assumptions or mistakes—leaving churches, relationships (separate from blatant rebellion) because they are not where you are spiritually. If that is true, maybe they need you in their lives: 1 Samuel 16:7; Jeremiah 17:10. One of Satan’s favorite tools is ‘Holy Division,’ destroying and separating with self-righteousness. 4) You find yourself making open and frequent remarks about everything in other people’s lives you don’t agree with, without a single thought of first showing any love, acceptance or interest in who they are as a person. Jesus showed genuine love and concern, first for the sinner, and then addressed their sins. To find that non-Christians are often intimidated or not wanting to be around you does not always portray your great holiness. Sometimes it portrays your self-righteousness over love because even the worst of sinners desired to be near Jesus. Not because He was accepting of their sins, but because He was genuinely interested in them: Matthew 9:10-13. 5) You have to be sure people know when you have done something sacrificial or good for another, or you need to feel special and central in God’s work like you can do what no one else can do for God. Social media is full humble acts of goodness. Many ‘righteous’ Christians have been offended or offended others because men didn’t make over their efforts enough: Matthew 6:1. 6) You show little or no empathy for sinful people in pain or trouble. Sometimes gloating in your heart without even thinking of their anguish or suffering; often selective in who you help based on their worthiness: Matthew 5:46-48. 7) You are quick to turn on friendships, church family, or pastor based upon a disagreement, an offense, even an assumption, often not looking at the whole of the person—their heart, their history, their beliefs—simply their one mistake or their one offense, or their one disagreement—focusing more on your injustice or perceived righteousness than forgiveness, restoration, or even the whole truth. Many even left Jesus because of this same attitude: John 6:60-67. 8) You will spend more thought and effort thinking about what might give the right appearance to others than you give to actually wanting or trying to do the right thing; letting others’ opinion or acceptance dictate your actions rather than a desire to just please God: Ephesians 6:6-7.
 
If you have found yourself in these descriptions, bless you for being honest before the Spirit of God. Here is the greatest, yet hidden danger in self-righteousness: Our self-righteousness most often reflects how we really see God, making us see our closeness and worthiness to Christ based upon how well we perform. Therefore, you are probably motivated in your walk with Him by constant pressure and guilt rather than unconditional love and worth and freely given mercy and grace when you fail. You are probably walking at a distance from Him all the time because you cannot accept His desire for fellowship when you have to be perfect to have an audience with Him; you live a life feeling like you never quite measure up and hold everyone else to the same standard. Here is the cure, and it is so simple, yet so sweet: Matthew 11:28-30. This is obviously not talking about the path which following Him will lead us down. It is talking about the peace and rest which our souls will feel when we join as one with Him, even in our difficult walks; even in our mistakes and failures. Why? Because He wants us to feel loved, accepted and secure in His presence and embrace. He wants closeness, intimacy, and trust in His mercy and grace to be the cornerstone of our walk with Him. He wants to come in and sup with us, not condemn us. He wants our knowledge of his love to bring us peace, even in our mistakes: 1 Corinthians 13:7-8; 1 John 4:16-19. Proper perspective will bring clarity, humbleness and worship. This will start out sSounding contradictory to what we just said, but wait for it. Have you ever been so distraught and crushed that you beat on yourself in emotional pain and anguish? Luke 18:13-14. This man was so broken in realization of who he truly was in God’s eyes that it broke and crushed him, and he went home justified. Based on God’s reaction, I’d say we need to start there. You and I are one in billions of God’s masterpieces through time. Many having more skills, education, and ability than us; many having more faith and righteousness than us; everyone having exactly what God saw fit to give to us. We are all selfish, sinful and undeserving to be with Him—a vapor here today and gone tomorrow, and yet He placed such worth and value in every human soul that to Him a chance to share His love with us, a chance to love and be loved by us was worth God hiving His own life, His Kingdom, His reputation, His everything. How can we, fallen, broken, clueless creatures—specks in His Creation, gifted only with what we’ve been given, saved by His Blood alone, having any righteousness because He bought it for us legally and He produced it in us literally—having any real, selfless love, only because His Spirit loves through us, possibly feel more righteous or worthy than another broken but loved and cherished soul? Accept the fact that we are transparent, broken, dirty souls in a righteous Kingdom, but He has made us worthy through His love alone. And then, because it was all Him, because it was such an unimaginable sacrifice, accept His gift with awe; know you can do nothing to add to it—that would be insulting. And then rest in amazement and peace, knowing He did it all to remove your fear and just know you better. Do all you can to follow His wisdom, His Word in trust and gratitude, not in legalism and pride—trusting fully that when you fail He is still right there, bever to leave you or give up on you, but wanting eagerly to restore you to fellowship again: Hebrews 13:5-6; Philippians 1:6. See those around you with that same worth; with that same mercy and grace; with that same removal of fear and condescension; know it is our Jesus’ blood-bought right alone to judge their hearts and souls. We are not in competition with God’s Children; we are not the judge of God’s children. It is simply our calling to show another broken person the way home; to show another empty person their worth in Him; to love them while they are yet sinners; while they still make mistakes; while they may not be walking as close as we do currently; while they are still ignorant and wandering. Even in their mistakes and sinfulness, we are first to show people their worth just as Jesus did with every sinful soul around Him, with every immature disciple who failed Him—even though Jesus was the only soul in the universe who could have been self-righteous: Revelation 5:1-5 [thought to be Seals of Judgment on the Deed to the Earth]. That is the One Who died just so you could feel His incredible love without fear. Now… let Him humbly show it to others through you.