If Righteous, Then… Righteousness

Righteousness is not so much a description of conduct as it is a condition of a proper relationship between God and a person.*
When I read this today, I read the word “condition” and thought of it in the coding sense, probably because I’m a little bit of a nerd.
In coding, things are designed to happen automatically under certain conditions, using if/then-style functions. If a+b=c, then d will happen automatically; if a+b does not equal c, then d will not happen.
Or on a spreadsheet, we might add some conditional formatting where any time the number “100” is calculated, that cell automatically turns green as soon as the 100 appears. That kind of thing.
If righteousness is a condition, and we consider ourselves to be righteous, then our automatic response should be one of righteousness, every time.
But… “as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one.’”
Romans 3:10. That’s a humbling verse.
What actually happens is that we tend to skew toward our own little version of righteous, and then hold everyone else accountable to it instead of pointing them to Jesus’s actual righteousness.
We’re more concerned in reality that things be done our way, or our version of Jesus’s way, than we are about people following Jesus’s way.
This is why we concern ourselves with things like fairness and money.
It’s why we’re so quick to judge others’ problems with budgeting, relationships, or their kids.
I’m just as guilty as anyone else
There, I said it. I am just as guilty of this as the next person. Looking honestly and objectively, I can see it in my interactions with my wife, my thoughts toward other people, even in the way I speak to my daughter at times.
When I’m irritated that my wife didn’t do a household task the way I would have done it, or when my one-and-a-half-year-old daughter doesn’t obey the first time I ask her to do something, I am making them responsible to uphold my version of what’s righteous.
And this is why I am in desperate need of Jesus — because he is the only one who has that kind of authority. I can fool myself into thinking I’m pretty good, but only Christ is truly righteous.
What righteous actually looks like
For me to actually be righteous would be for me to be without sin, and for my response to any and every situation to be perfect. If a friend is sharing their frustration about their job, I’d answer in a perfectly Christ-centered, non-judgmental, positive-yet-constructive kind of way. I would have a similar reaction when I read about someone’s financial situation, or someone shares a sketchy past or beliefs I disagree with. No judgmental thoughts, no meanness or sarcasm or snide comments. Just a wholly righteous defaulting to God’s word, every time.
Instead of holding others to my own version of righteousness, I would do better at leading those around me to Jesus. But my self-righteousness gets in the way too often. I’m betting yours does, too.
In fact, I believe Christian self-righteousness is one of the greatest sins that turns people away from Jesus.
What will it take?
What will it take to get over our self-righteousness? How can it be done?
Self-righteousness, as noted in its prefix, is rooted in selfishness. Let’s see if we can dig into that a little by asking ourselves a few questions.
- Am I self-righteous? If yes, keep going. If no, you just proved that it’s yes; dig deep, be honest with yourself and then keep going.
- What do I get out of being this way? Answers may involve making me feel better about myself, or having control of people or circumstances — having things done my way.
- Why am I so concerned about myself instead of others?
- If I were to change this, how could it lead people to Jesus instead of making them feel bad or elevating myself?
- How can I train myself to point others to Jesus more often as a default rather than holding them to my sinful, self-righteous standard? Answers may include praying without ceasing, being continually in God’s word, seeking another’s counsel, listening to more teachings, etc.
The bottom line is that we’re pretty much all self-righteous, and a lot of the time we don’t even see it. In fact I had a hard time not being self-righteous while writing this post about being self-righteous. So hopefully it isn’t.
But anyway, when we hold others to our own standards of what’s righteous, we pull people away from Jesus. We must do better as a church about standing for God’s truth in a way that is true and God-honoring. Too often we claim God’s truth when in reality it’s just our own version of it and we’re actually claiming our own “personal” truth.
If we want people to see Jesus, then our words, thoughts, and deeds must mirror His love to them — and that’s not possible if the mirror is clouded with judgment and distorted by our own versions of the Gospel.
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*From “Righteousness,” an article featured alongside Romans chapter 10 in The Jesus Bible by Passion Publishing/Zondervan.