Beware of Self Righteousness

               Beware of Self Righteousness

If we have any righteousness at all in us it comes from God.  It is not from anything we have done or accomplished.  I had a comment on one of my posts that I would like to share with others.  As the person who wrote the post did not have the courage of their convictions I am going to use it as an example. The person chose to be anonymous.  That was probably a good decision.  As no one claimed the quote I am going to use it to make a point.

Hello: I am in the process of reading your book. The comments about Muslims, Jews and Christians being "family"--well there are only two kinds of people--you are either lost or redeemed. The lost belong to their father, the devil.. The redeemed have been ransomed by the Blood of Christ and they belong to the LORD. As a Redeemed believer, I am not family to the lost. I am family in the Kingdome of God. I pray you have a blessed day. on Is America's Cup Half Empty or Half Full?

First I want to thank the person for reading my blog and hope I do not make them to angry writing this.  The second point I want to make is that any and all of our righteousness, if we have any comes from God.  I got that from Isaiah 54:16-17

   “16Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. 17No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.”

If you take the time to read it you will notice the waster(Satan) was created to serve God’s purposes.  Those who believe the once saved, always saved idea might take into account that at one point Satan lived in heaven, but he does not anymore.  

As for his concern with the family issue and our relationship to others he might take note.  We are all descended from Adam and Eve.  Genesis 25:9 says that Issac and Ishmael came together to bury their father.  So the Bible even says we are related.  That funeral may be the last time we were united, but we are related whether we like it or not.

Jesus said in Matthew 19:19 “we are to love our neighbor’s as our selves.  He also said in Matthew 5:20 that if our righteousness did not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees we would not enter into the kingdom of heaven.  The main shortcoming of the scribes and the Pharisees was that they thought they had it all together.  Jesus seemed to think otherwise.  The verse that changed my life was Matthew 6:15.  It is not enough to say the Lord’s Prayer.  We have to live it and verse 15 makes that very clear.

We are not called to condemn the lost.  They know they are lost in most cases and are not willing to change from their chosen life style.  We are called to reach out to the lost.  That is something I am not seeing in the commenter’s statement.

It is good to keep in mind Matthew 7:21, where Jesus said that not all that call on his name will be saved.  Those who are not walking in his light and doing what he did and commanded are coming up short.  They are going through the ritual, but they are not obeying the Word.

The point of my writing , ‘Is America’s Cup Half Empty or Half Full?” was to make the point that we are not going to change the world and make it the kind of place God meant for it to be unless we change how we relate to each other. Jumping up on our soapbox and spewing self-righteous views is not going to help a thing.  In fact all it does is increase the hatred and discontent.

When I was in the Army we had a saying, “Your either part of the solution, or your part of the problem.”  The comment from my reader says he is part of the problem, not part of the solution.  It does not mean he does not care.  It just means he needs to look at all his actions. 

I learned this the hard way.  I used to whiz around the country hauling produce at 75 and 80 miles per hour with a sign on the back of my trailer that said.  “Know Jesus. Know Peace…No Jesus, No Peace.  One day a person commented that I was not setting a very good example as a Christian.  I hate to say it, but he was right.  All of our actions reflect our walk with the Lord, especially our choice of Words.

So my main comment to the comment on my blog is simply this. Quit hoarding God’s Love to yourself and share it with others it will change your life.