Are you one of those people who give great emphasis to living a perfect life? Are you obsessed with your image - wanting people to admire your morality and values in life? Do you observe your religious duties meticulously - giving great emphasis to saying the right prayers, hoping that God would be pleased? How about charity - do you feel necessary to be recognized by others for your generosity, want to be counted as a righteous and upright one? Then Jesus got news for you: "Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you" (Matthew 21:31)!It is normal and common for people to feel that they have a definite understanding of how to live in order to be totally correct and morally superior. They believe in behaving better than everybody else to the point of being obsessed with perfection. They feel that if they can just get their lives in order and properly organized, then everything will be perfect and they will be perfect. Now in today's society, most people would consider such a way of thinking - the urge to be perfect- as a good thing. It is people being responsible for themselves, one would say. The problem with people correcting themselves in order to be morally right and pleasing to God is that, often times, they think that they don't need any help doing it, they feel that they have the ability and self-control to guide their actions and thoughts. Such an attitude eventually pave the way to the feelings of self-sufficient and self-made, making us feel good about ourselves for achieving a greater good without anybody's help. These are the building blocks of becoming the kind of insufferable and obnoxious people that Jesus condemns - the self righteous Pharisees of the Bible!
The Pharisees had rules about every aspects of life. To live a morally superior life and thus to please God, they were also very strict in following those rules. But, beneath their perfectly organized lives, they were full of pride and self righteousness. They used rituals, rules and regulations to hide their true feelings: rage, lust, jealousy, greed and need for power. They bent rules to satisfy their needs, and they kept re-interpreting and re-creating rules to fit them. "For in their unawareness of the righteousness that comes from God and their attempt to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:3). It is important for us to remember that Jesus wasn't killed by people of Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Confucianism or Shintoism; He wasn't killed by the atheists or the nomads or the barbarians of the ancient Europe; He was killed by God fearing people of the Bible. The self righteous sect of the Jews wanted Him dead because He was exposing too much of their true inner motive. This is the danger of being self righteous, people would go any distance to keep their cover of perfection.
No human can ever be perfect, hence the biggest worry for a self righteous person. What they would realize in their quest for perfection is that it is impossible to live in this world and actively participate in its activities without making mistakes. Sin is all around us and no human being is ever immune from it. When a self righteous person try to become a better person, often he only succeed to become a even more self righteous and obnoxious person. Instead of escaping sin, a self centered person find a way to make the sin appear to be morally right. They tend to hide their weaknesses and addictions without addressing them, fearing that bringing such imperfections to light might cause them the good name. To give the appearance of a good family oriented person with high moral values, they go into a deception mode. In their struggle to live a double life of perfection through deception, a self righteous person forgets, "do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing" (Galatians 2:21).
Sin is like a serpent, if you hit it, it will wriggle and find a rock to hide under, giving us a false sense of joy that it is dead. Self cure is not God's plan, He wants us to be saved through His mercy. The problem with self-curing self-righteous people is that they will never be able to identify themselves as the sinners. A self righteous person, after using the services of a prostitute, would also buy her a gallon of milk in addition to paying her, to feed her hungry baby, and then walk away with the justification that, though through sin, he was able to help her and the baby. Every sin is justified for them for the sake of perfection. Knowing the mentality of the Pharisees too well, Jesus made it very clear: "I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners" (Luke 5:32). Jesus didn't die to save the righteous, His blood was shed for those who admit themselves to be the fallen ones, the ones who cry out for the saving grace.
"So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48), but none of us know what that Perfection is. In order for us to be perfect like God, we need God to reveal His perfection to us. And for such a revelation from God, we need to establish a relationship with God - a relationship filled with humility and obedience. We have to first see who we really are, and then show God who we really are. We need to ask God's forgiveness for paying too much attention to our outside appearance, and completely ignoring our inside which is filled with wickedness. Self righteousness stands in the way of such a relationship with God, preventing us from thinking straight and responding honestly. Self righteousness denies us the kingdom of God.
"Seek good and not evil,
that you may live;
Then truly the LORD, the God of hosts,
will be with you as you claim." (Amos 5:14)
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