Self Righteousness

Scripture Reading: Luke 18:9-14
Focus Verse: Luke 18:9  “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told a parable.”

Self righteousness is ugly.  God doesn’t like it, and others don’t like it.  The interesting thing is that the people who display self righteousness don’t realize that they are doing this.  Have you ever noticed that when someone smells bad they don’t notice, but everyone around them notices.  This is how self righteousness is.  It’s kind of sad, but if we are honest, we must admit that sometimes we have been the one that smells bad.  We also have all been the self righteous one at some time.  We have been the ones that made unfair judgments of others.  We keep track who’s better, us or them.  It could become a completion of who is the better Christian?  Or who can use the right phrase of words in church so people will think we are more spiritual.  I know that I have been guilty of that.  It’s really sad when those that are self righteous are the ones that have influence, such as the Pharisees in our scripture reading.

Self righteousness is not acceptable to God, and we should humbly examine it's presence in our own lives.  Self righteousness is driven by pride.  And we know what God thinks of pride.  People with this problem when they pray it is a show rather than speaking humbly with God.  I wonder if the Pharisees ever prayed when they were alone, when only God could hear?    It is important for God to root out pride in our lives on a regular basis.  We can keep pride in check by following Christ and obeying Him.  Humble people are quick to confess their sins, and yes pride and self righteousness is a sin.  Let's be quick to confess.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries