Too Righteous

Are we too righteous? 

The obvious answer to that question is, "No stinkin way." But I'm coming at this one from a different angle. By asking, "Are we too righteous?", I'm really asking, "Do we show ourselves in such a light that people perceive us as righteous and good?" In other words, do we pretty ourselves up enough that people can't really see our mistakes? 

Because that, in itself, is a mistake. Doesn't shining up our reputation make us just like the Pharisees? They were always covering up their selfish desires by what appeared to be holiness. But they were just as messed up as the so-called sinners that they were so concerned about. Jesus called them out in Matthew 23:3-4 "For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger..." (Read all of Matthew 23 to get a good sense of what Jesus thought of them!) The Pharisees looked pretty on the outside and followed all the rules, but they desperately fled from the grace Jesus was offering them. They wanted to earn their righteousness, and by placing this unattainable goal on others, they kept people from understanding the grace of God.

As a follower of Christ, I want to help others walk with Him as I learn to walk with Him. In order to do this, I need to be trustworthy. But can I be trustworthy if someone can only come to me when they've done a good deed, but not when they've messed up? If I'm putting on the persona that I have everything figured out, that everything is "right" within my heart, then I can't expect someone to come to me when everything is not right. After all, haven't I just told them that in order to walk with Jesus, you need to be like me: clean, spotless, and pure? 

Jesus didn't do that. He didn't expect others to be perfect before He would speak to them. He said, "Come as you are." He came for the sick, not the healthy (Matthew 9:10-13). People were drawn to Him because of His grace and acceptance. 

Now, I don't have the kind of grace Jesus does, of course. But through His grace, He's given me a way to help people feel free to come to me: by showing them my mistakes. Does this mean that I constantly pour out all the junk in my life so that people can feel comfortable and think that I'm just like them? No. Of course not. But it does mean that I can open my heart to them. It means that I don't have to work so incredibly hard to hide the junk. Because really, people don't need to see that I'm good. They need to see the grace God has given me in my mistakes and failures. So I want to show others that I'm okay with the messiness of life and that they don't have to get it all together before they can come to me or especially Jesus. 

BUT, watch out. This can quickly become a double-edged sword. We want to share our mistakes so others feel the freedom to share theirs. Then we can both turn and repent and receive grace. The flip side to beware of is that often when others do break down and reveal the messed-up places in their lives, pride begins to creep in and we feel just a little better about ourselves and our sin. After all, we're not quite as bad as them...God didn't have to give us quite as much grace as He did them. Then we're right back where we started - covering up the full depth of our sin to make ourselves look better and therefore try to gain our righteousness. We cannot want others open up to us so we can feel better about ourselves. 

Bottom line - we didn't earn grace, so let's not act like we did. Let's be real with people so they can be real with us. Then we'll both turn to the Father in repentance, finding acceptance. 

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Grace never ignores the awful truth of our depravity; in fact, it emphasizes it. The worse we realize we are, the greater we realize God's grace. ~Randy Alcorn