THE DANGER OF BECOMING SELF RIGHTEOUS
All Christians war with their carnal nature daily and anyone who has been a Christian for a while, comes up against the strong and subtle enemy of self-righteousness.
Life and its trials are not easy, but it is the trials of life, that teach, mold, and shape us, as God uses everything in our lives for His purposes. This was true in the life of Job, as it is for all of us. Like Job, whenever we realize how holy and glorious God is, we become in awe of Him, and cannot help but be humbly aware of just how sinful and human we are. When we first become believers, we are intensely aware of our need of a Savior and His grace, but as time passes, we tend to forget how much we need the Lord and take Him for granted. Also, as we sin less, we have a tendency to become self-righteous. If we are not careful, self-righteousness will creep in and set up residence.
Let us consider the life of Job. The Lord considered Job perfect. This does not mean he was sinless. This means he lived as holy a life as he could, and when he sinned, he quickly repented and kept himself in right-standing with the Lord. None of us ever know what lies beneath the surface in our hearts, until circumstances happen in such a way, that something gets exposed. Job was doing great until things when tremendously awry. He held on through much great hardship without his faith wavering. But in time, after so much agony and when he felt that his prayers for help were not being answered, he began to crack. He had three friends who told him that he obviously must have committed a secret sin and that he better figure out what it was. In the course of Job’s review of himself, he decided that “he actually had lived very righteously” and could find no unrepented sin. He also came to feel that God was not being fair to him, for allowing everything to go wrong and “not help him,” after, according to Job, all of his “very righteous living.” Finally, a young friend named Elihu came to help Job realize what he was doing and defend God’s character.
Elihu's plea and the Lord's Reaction to Job
Elihu came to Job when he could not hold his heart back any longer. Elihu defended God's character. When the Lord rebuked Job’s three older "friends" - Elihu was not one of the three in trouble with God. (Job 42:7-9). Unlike Job's three older friends, Elihu had something to say that could actually help Job. Elihu’s stance was to defend God’s character and urge Job to realize what he was now doing. When the Lord came to Job, it is important to note that God did not point out any past hidden flaws in Job's life, as his three friends had alleged of him. God only brought up Job's recent self-righteousness.
Job had worked hard, to keep his life clean before the Lord. Job had not committed any sin that caused the terrible predicament he found himself in, as his three friends had accused him of. In reality, only after so much pain and stress, did he start to err. While most of us are pale in Job’s shadow, are we not like him in some manner also? We often see ourselves doing our best to serve the Lord and feel like we are doing pretty good and then things start to go awry that “test our patience,” or the “frustrations of life” start to come in bigger waves. The pressure starts to get to us, and we find ourselves falling into sin.
Back to Job, he had worked so hard to live right, but He did not give the Lord the glory for it when the pressures came on. Job said, in essence, “I" did right, "I" gave to the poor, "I" helped widows and strangers, "I" kept my eyes to my wife, "I" did not even lust in my heart... and this is what I get? And now God refuses to heal me or answer my cries. Prior to these times, Job was sailing along through life as it would seem, living a very godly and successful life... (Job chapters 29,30,31).
Have you ever caught yourself saying to God that something in life is not fair? “I have been good, I have done right and this is what I get? Where is my healing? Why did my prayers not get answered as I asked?” It is a dangerous thing to put our righteousness before God as a reason for Him to do as we demand. Or to think He owes us something. It is much better to fall on Him and call on His mercy and grace and then stand on His promises. To stand on our supposed righteousness is really, really not wise…
Elihu had humbly declared to Job how he should pay closer attention to his motives and give the honor to God as He deserves. Elihu also said,
And Elihu continued to remind Job, that if “anyone” was in “error,” that it was not God. When the Lord shows up in the whirlwind, He asks Job a great number of questions to humble and correct Job’s perspective. Notice how God begins.
The Lord continued to speak His heart to Job and show him, and all the future readers of this story, some of how awesome He is.
And the Lord said much, much more…
God was speaking and Job for the most part, was unable to respond. Twice, however, Job was able to utter a meek response. The first time in Job 40, Job answers by stating that what could he say?
The Self-Righteousness of Job
After Job's first response, the Lord got to the heart of Job's error. This verse in Job chapter 40, seems to be the closest we get to understanding Job’s new-found self-righteousness. The Lord said to Job,
Any true righteousness we can ever have, can only come from God’s nature, which came when the Holy Spirit came to live in us, after we became born-again Christians. Apart from the Lord, we could never have pure righteousness. Who are we to think that we could ever know better than God? And yet it happens to us all. When we disagree with the Lord, thinking He should answer our prayers our way, and persist at Him in a fashion that we believe that we know better than Him, we are in error not Him. And if we go so far as to justify ourselves and condemn Him, we are making a huge and terrible mistake.
There is a hidden danger in “living righteously,” in that it can easily become, “living self-righteously.” We live righteous lives when we live by God’s ways, but if we begin to look down upon others for not living up to our standards, then we have become self-righteous. Sometimes we think ourselves to be so right and that if only everyone else would just do as we say or think, all the world would be perfect. This is the equivalent (in our hearts and minds) of taking on the role of God and is a place we should never go. If we find ourselves there, we need to have an immediate reality-check and repent!
How easy it is for us, to “think well of ourselves.”
The Lord, in Job 40:8, revealed Job's sin by identifying how he condemned God. Job had come to think of himself to be right and that God had to be wrong. Job's self-righteousness depended upon God's error. Although we might think bad of Job for doing this, this slip into self-righteousness is quite common. It can be easily done by one who has forgotten their own humanity and is in desperate need of repentance and grace.
God showed Job, that he should not have been making statements about God which insisted upon Him to be a certain way or 'demanded' Him to perform ultimatums or commands. God is God. We are human and we do the adjusting, not God. After Lord helped “Job understand his humanity” and “realize the Lord's omnipotence and wisdom,” Job was desperate to state his humble apology.
God's revelation to Job, is a reminder to us all, of who God is and how human we are. This should result in a much better perspective for us. Not only did Job fall, but we have all fallen short of God's glory.
Even as Job failed in this area, so do each of us. We are human and must battle a fallen nature while living in this human house.
What humbled Job? When God allowed Job's tragedies, it brought out that Job had come to the place where he thought that he had the right to judge God and had found fault in the Lord. As God spoke, Job finally started to know God for who He really is and not as who he had thought. It seems as though Job switched from having a form of religion and worship (previously, he had only “heard” about God and brought sacrifices for himself and even for his children, even just in case they had sinned) to having real knowledge about God, where he bowed down in true worship and repentance. His eyes were opened to the clear truth of who God is. In Job’s previous relationship with the Lord, it seems that while he did not really know God yet, he was sincerely willing to live to please Him. Job wanted to do whatever it took to be saved, and even for his family. In reality, we know that Job could not really repent for his adult children, even though he had brought sacrifices on their behalf, because salvation is personal for each of us! The bottom line is that real relationship with God changes everything and it comes from us each knowing Him. When we are truly humbled before the Lord, our pride has to go and we find our true identity and incredible value in Him alone.
Guarding our Hearts and Daily Walk
We must take great care to not become self-righteous and keep “right hearts” to stay humble. It is a huge mistake to feel free to condemn God or others, by making “ourselves the standard.” Self-righteousness really is “pride in disguise.” When under the influence of pride, we can walk around looking down on others, including God Himself. If we start seeing a critical or condemning attitude in ourselves or one where we think that if everyone would listen to us - and all would be perfect, warning bells should be sounding. Pride and self-righteousness alert! In order to find healing, we need to re-examine ourselves in the light of God and His holy ways.
Let me ask a question. Who did Adam blame for his sin?
Many often consider this “the first blame game” - Adam blamed Eve, she blamed the serpent, etc. In reality, Adam told the Lord that it was “His fault” as “He had given him the woman that He did to be with him,” as she gave the fruit to him. And inferred that it was Eve’s fault for she was “the one who gave it to him.” But the truth is that Adam willfully sinned. He listened to his wife instead of God.
In the end, it was not that Eve caused Adam to fall or Adam did not help Eve not to fall or even that the devil got both of them to fall. It was that all three individually disobeyed God and were individually and directly responsible to God. In God's presence, excuses fall way short. When the naked truth is exposed in the presence of the Lord, then it is time to get serious.
When we get to the point that we decide that we “know better than God” - like He is late, sleeping, or “allowing and disallowing” things that we think “should or should not be happening” or that we know what is best for ourselves better than the Lord or worse; “we know better than Him for others too” according to our dictates... Warning alarms should be sounding.
Jesus quoted the Word of God to the devil during His time of testing. He could have said, “Bow to me now devil” but He did not. Jesus met every temptation in the same fashion that we should. We should stand on the Word of God and the Word of God should stand in us.
All our hope, all that is good, all that we need is found in God. Apart from the Lord, we are dust. Even “our best righteousness” is as “filthy rags before Him.” In the days that verse was written, old garments were shredded and used for rags... there were no such things as toilet paper or feminine products as we have today. This explains just how righteous we really are in relation to a Holy God. We have no righteousness of our own to stand on before a holy Lord.
Let us consider the life of Job. The Lord considered Job perfect. This does not mean he was sinless. This means he lived as holy a life as he could, and when he sinned, he quickly repented and kept himself in right-standing with the Lord. None of us ever know what lies beneath the surface in our hearts, until circumstances happen in such a way, that something gets exposed. Job was doing great until things when tremendously awry. He held on through much great hardship without his faith wavering. But in time, after so much agony and when he felt that his prayers for help were not being answered, he began to crack. He had three friends who told him that he obviously must have committed a secret sin and that he better figure out what it was. In the course of Job’s review of himself, he decided that “he actually had lived very righteously” and could find no unrepented sin. He also came to feel that God was not being fair to him, for allowing everything to go wrong and “not help him,” after, according to Job, all of his “very righteous living.” Finally, a young friend named Elihu came to help Job realize what he was doing and defend God’s character.
Elihu's plea and the Lord's Reaction to Job
Elihu came to Job when he could not hold his heart back any longer. Elihu defended God's character. When the Lord rebuked Job’s three older "friends" - Elihu was not one of the three in trouble with God. (Job 42:7-9). Unlike Job's three older friends, Elihu had something to say that could actually help Job. Elihu’s stance was to defend God’s character and urge Job to realize what he was now doing. When the Lord came to Job, it is important to note that God did not point out any past hidden flaws in Job's life, as his three friends had alleged of him. God only brought up Job's recent self-righteousness.
Job had worked hard, to keep his life clean before the Lord. Job had not committed any sin that caused the terrible predicament he found himself in, as his three friends had accused him of. In reality, only after so much pain and stress, did he start to err. While most of us are pale in Job’s shadow, are we not like him in some manner also? We often see ourselves doing our best to serve the Lord and feel like we are doing pretty good and then things start to go awry that “test our patience,” or the “frustrations of life” start to come in bigger waves. The pressure starts to get to us, and we find ourselves falling into sin.
Back to Job, he had worked so hard to live right, but He did not give the Lord the glory for it when the pressures came on. Job said, in essence, “I" did right, "I" gave to the poor, "I" helped widows and strangers, "I" kept my eyes to my wife, "I" did not even lust in my heart... and this is what I get? And now God refuses to heal me or answer my cries. Prior to these times, Job was sailing along through life as it would seem, living a very godly and successful life... (Job chapters 29,30,31).
Have you ever caught yourself saying to God that something in life is not fair? “I have been good, I have done right and this is what I get? Where is my healing? Why did my prayers not get answered as I asked?” It is a dangerous thing to put our righteousness before God as a reason for Him to do as we demand. Or to think He owes us something. It is much better to fall on Him and call on His mercy and grace and then stand on His promises. To stand on our supposed righteousness is really, really not wise…
Elihu had humbly declared to Job how he should pay closer attention to his motives and give the honor to God as He deserves. Elihu also said,
- Job 37:14 "Listen to this, O Job, stand and consider the wonders of God.”
And Elihu continued to remind Job, that if “anyone” was in “error,” that it was not God. When the Lord shows up in the whirlwind, He asks Job a great number of questions to humble and correct Job’s perspective. Notice how God begins.
- Job 38:1-4 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me! Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding."
The Lord continued to speak His heart to Job and show him, and all the future readers of this story, some of how awesome He is.
- Job 38:33-34 "Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth? "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that an abundance of water may cover you?"
- Job 40:1-2 Moreover the Lord answered Job, and said: "Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it."
And the Lord said much, much more…
God was speaking and Job for the most part, was unable to respond. Twice, however, Job was able to utter a meek response. The first time in Job 40, Job answers by stating that what could he say?
- Job 40:3-5 Then Job answered the Lord and said: "Behold, I am vile; What shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer; yes, twice, but I will proceed no further."
The Self-Righteousness of Job
After Job's first response, the Lord got to the heart of Job's error. This verse in Job chapter 40, seems to be the closest we get to understanding Job’s new-found self-righteousness. The Lord said to Job,
- Job 40:8 “Will you condemn Me, that you may be justified?”
Any true righteousness we can ever have, can only come from God’s nature, which came when the Holy Spirit came to live in us, after we became born-again Christians. Apart from the Lord, we could never have pure righteousness. Who are we to think that we could ever know better than God? And yet it happens to us all. When we disagree with the Lord, thinking He should answer our prayers our way, and persist at Him in a fashion that we believe that we know better than Him, we are in error not Him. And if we go so far as to justify ourselves and condemn Him, we are making a huge and terrible mistake.
There is a hidden danger in “living righteously,” in that it can easily become, “living self-righteously.” We live righteous lives when we live by God’s ways, but if we begin to look down upon others for not living up to our standards, then we have become self-righteous. Sometimes we think ourselves to be so right and that if only everyone else would just do as we say or think, all the world would be perfect. This is the equivalent (in our hearts and minds) of taking on the role of God and is a place we should never go. If we find ourselves there, we need to have an immediate reality-check and repent!
- Proverbs 16:2 A person thinks all his ways are pure, but the Lord weighs motives.
How easy it is for us, to “think well of ourselves.”
The Lord, in Job 40:8, revealed Job's sin by identifying how he condemned God. Job had come to think of himself to be right and that God had to be wrong. Job's self-righteousness depended upon God's error. Although we might think bad of Job for doing this, this slip into self-righteousness is quite common. It can be easily done by one who has forgotten their own humanity and is in desperate need of repentance and grace.
God showed Job, that he should not have been making statements about God which insisted upon Him to be a certain way or 'demanded' Him to perform ultimatums or commands. God is God. We are human and we do the adjusting, not God. After Lord helped “Job understand his humanity” and “realize the Lord's omnipotence and wisdom,” Job was desperate to state his humble apology.
- Job 42:1-6 Then Job answered the Lord and said: "I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, 'I will question you, and you shall answer Me.' "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
God's revelation to Job, is a reminder to us all, of who God is and how human we are. This should result in a much better perspective for us. Not only did Job fall, but we have all fallen short of God's glory.
- Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Even as Job failed in this area, so do each of us. We are human and must battle a fallen nature while living in this human house.
What humbled Job? When God allowed Job's tragedies, it brought out that Job had come to the place where he thought that he had the right to judge God and had found fault in the Lord. As God spoke, Job finally started to know God for who He really is and not as who he had thought. It seems as though Job switched from having a form of religion and worship (previously, he had only “heard” about God and brought sacrifices for himself and even for his children, even just in case they had sinned) to having real knowledge about God, where he bowed down in true worship and repentance. His eyes were opened to the clear truth of who God is. In Job’s previous relationship with the Lord, it seems that while he did not really know God yet, he was sincerely willing to live to please Him. Job wanted to do whatever it took to be saved, and even for his family. In reality, we know that Job could not really repent for his adult children, even though he had brought sacrifices on their behalf, because salvation is personal for each of us! The bottom line is that real relationship with God changes everything and it comes from us each knowing Him. When we are truly humbled before the Lord, our pride has to go and we find our true identity and incredible value in Him alone.
Guarding our Hearts and Daily Walk
We must take great care to not become self-righteous and keep “right hearts” to stay humble. It is a huge mistake to feel free to condemn God or others, by making “ourselves the standard.” Self-righteousness really is “pride in disguise.” When under the influence of pride, we can walk around looking down on others, including God Himself. If we start seeing a critical or condemning attitude in ourselves or one where we think that if everyone would listen to us - and all would be perfect, warning bells should be sounding. Pride and self-righteousness alert! In order to find healing, we need to re-examine ourselves in the light of God and His holy ways.
Let me ask a question. Who did Adam blame for his sin?
- Genesis 3:11-12 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” And the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat.”
Many often consider this “the first blame game” - Adam blamed Eve, she blamed the serpent, etc. In reality, Adam told the Lord that it was “His fault” as “He had given him the woman that He did to be with him,” as she gave the fruit to him. And inferred that it was Eve’s fault for she was “the one who gave it to him.” But the truth is that Adam willfully sinned. He listened to his wife instead of God.
- Genesis 3:17 And to Adam He said, “Because you have hearkened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you saying, ‘You will not eat of it."
- I Timothy 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but when the wife was deceived she was in transgression.
In the end, it was not that Eve caused Adam to fall or Adam did not help Eve not to fall or even that the devil got both of them to fall. It was that all three individually disobeyed God and were individually and directly responsible to God. In God's presence, excuses fall way short. When the naked truth is exposed in the presence of the Lord, then it is time to get serious.
When we get to the point that we decide that we “know better than God” - like He is late, sleeping, or “allowing and disallowing” things that we think “should or should not be happening” or that we know what is best for ourselves better than the Lord or worse; “we know better than Him for others too” according to our dictates... Warning alarms should be sounding.
Jesus quoted the Word of God to the devil during His time of testing. He could have said, “Bow to me now devil” but He did not. Jesus met every temptation in the same fashion that we should. We should stand on the Word of God and the Word of God should stand in us.
All our hope, all that is good, all that we need is found in God. Apart from the Lord, we are dust. Even “our best righteousness” is as “filthy rags before Him.” In the days that verse was written, old garments were shredded and used for rags... there were no such things as toilet paper or feminine products as we have today. This explains just how righteous we really are in relation to a Holy God. We have no righteousness of our own to stand on before a holy Lord.
Dear LORD, please help us to remember, WHO YOU ARE and who we are not!
Copyright © 2014 E. Cockrell May be used for personal study or instruction but shall not be copied and/or distributed in whole or part without permission or for financial profit.
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