Breakfast With Christ - Self Righteousness

BREAKFAST WITH CHRIST

TOPIC: SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS

SCRIPTURE: LUKE 18:11-12

"The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get".

Welcome to BWC. Today we look at a topic that is so cardinal to our Christian walk. Self righteousness is a sin that most of us Christians are guilty of without even being aware. To be self righteous is it to feel superior to others because of your self acclaimed spirituality or morality.

Self righteousness is a sin most of us ignore because it is so easy to be self righteous without even knowing it. Let us look at some characteristics of a self righteous person.

1. Self righteous people boast about their good deeds.

In today's scripture, the Pharisee went before God to remind God of how good he was. He listed all his good religious deeds before God and Jesus condemned such attitude. The truth is none of us by virtue of our deeds deserves to even come before God. We are only justified because of Jesus Christ. We need to understand that our good deeds don't make us righteous. We are never good enough for God without Jesus Christ. Boasting about our spirituality is self righteousness.

2. Self righteous people easily condemn others.

There is always that temptation for us to feel more righteous than others. So we easily condemn others who are caught in sinful acts. This is also one attitude of the Pharisees that Jesus condemned. We need to understand that we are only saved by Grace. Without Jesus Christ, we would be helpless chronic sinners. Any time we look down upon someone because the person has committed a sin, we are being self righteous. If Jesus Himself loves sinners, who are we to condemn anyone?

3. Self righteous people feel superior to others.

The Pharisees in Jesus' time felt they were superior to others because they fulfilled their religious obligations. The fact that you can pray for 24 hours on your feet or fast for forty days or sing for people to cry or you pay your tithe regularly shouldn't make you feel superior to those who don't fulfil such religious duties. Religious duties don't make us righteous, we are only justified through Jesus Christ. Our religious deeds don't please God, only faith through Jesus Christ pleases God.

4. Self righteous people always question God's Will.

There is always that tendency of us to ask God why certain negative things happen to us. We feel we don't deserve those things because we have been good Christians. That is self righteousness. We sometimes even compare ourselves to others who we feel are not being good Christians and ask God why they are not the ones passing through those troubles. We cannot question God's Will. Questioning God's Will is telling God that we know better. That is self righteousness.

5. Self Righteous people resist correction.

One of the easiest indicator of self righteousness in our lives is when we find it difficult to accept our mistakes and accept corrections from others. Some of us feel we are too good to be corrected. The whole parable of the Pharisee's prayer is about humility. We need to be humble enough to admit our mistakes and let God lead us to repentance.

Friends, let's a look deep within ourselves and see if we are guilty of being self righteous and repent. Our righteousness only comes from God. Self righteousness is a sin we need to avoid at all cost. Let's be humble and depend only on the Grace of God. Stay blessed.

PRAYER LINE:

Lord, please forgive me for my self righteousness. Thank you for making me righteous through Jesus Christ. Amen.