Being Self-Righteous is not Righteous

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:8

The scripture above reminds me every time I read it that it’s really hard not to sin. But it’s hard for anyone to be around persons who think that they are better than others and that they have a right to be critical . Being righteous means being morally right, good or excellent. I know that when I rank students profile for their report card everyone wants to get As for excellent, but its always a question of do they deserve the rank. Then there is self-righteous which means, seeing yourself as superior to others, being holier-than-though or even hypocritical. No one therefore wants the title of self-righteousness based on those descriptors…

Sorry… We are all Guilty!

Even as I write this post I am being critical of others. The good thing is that I know this, I acknowledge it as a fault and I am committed to working on being less so.

The shocking thing is that we are all guilty of being self-righteous. When we take credit for doing something, then we forget the words Jesus spoke in St. Luke chapter 17, especially verse 10 where Jesus instructed his disciples:
So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”

It’s hard for many of us not to take the credit when things go well and everyone is telling us how wonderful, or how great we are. When things are not going so well then it must be someone else’s fault. We are the innocent victim of this person or that person. We had absolutely positively definitely nothing whatsoever wrong. I am sure by now you get the sarcasm but just in case you missed it, I’m pointing it out. Sometimes we go too far. We begin to think that we are in a battle with God and he has allowed us to be in the terrible position. Often times it is easier to blame others when things do not work out in our favour.

then there are those who casually sit in judgement of others. We all have done this, so please do not try to remember that one friend who does this nor should you look at the person close by. We can judge others because:

1. We have never lied
2. we have never done a thing, a day in our lives that we are NOT proud of.
3. we have never killed, stolen anything
4. to avoid this list getting longer, in essence we are good through and through.

As a result, we have earned the right in all or in some situations to be judgemental, to tell everyone else when they are not doing the right things. But woe unto the one who tries to tell us that we also fall into that category.

Passing Judgment is not being righteous, it simply proves that we are not perfect that we have flaws that we hide behind when we judge other. While we can be intelligent, generous, kind, patient and forgiving. We are also, vacuous, mean, unkind, impatient and very unforgiving. It’s just that we often times refuse to acknowledge our imperfection. Though making wise judgements can be good when we need to be critical of certain situation, we are often times too quick to cancel people we feel in some way are lacking based on our finite assessment. For all of us who are quick to cancel others, is that always the only choice we have?

I recently came across a [blog] that listed 13 signs you are a judgemental person and sadly friends I am terribly judgmental. SoI want you to look at the list below and see if you are. If you are, don’t worry, we all have the opportunity to grow and change and just keep in mind what Romans 3 verse 23 says:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

13 Signs You’re a Judgemental person

1. You believe that everyone is out to get you.
2. You expect other people to be consistent all the time.
3. You struggle to see beyond a person’s flaws.
4. You easily skip to conclusions.
5. You struggle to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty.
6. You’re intolerant of people unlike you.
7. You’re generally pessimistic about life.
8. You tend to believe people are either ‘good’ or ‘bad.’
9. You struggle to truly appreciate or see the beauty in others.
10. You have low self-worth.
11. You feel anxious around other people.
12. You’re suspicious and untrusting.
13. You have a strong inner critic who judges you.

Don’t be caught on the wrong side of right:

“There’s never been a true war that wasn’t fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous.”

― Neil Gaiman, American Gods