Self-Righteousness vs Humility

by Mike Ratliff

23 “ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law:justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! (Matthew 23:23-24 NASB)

A huge trap that Christians can fall into is self-righteousness. It is a form of idolatry and that always causes spiritual blindness (Romans 1:24-25). Self-righteousness puts all effort towards godliness in the wrong place. It creates a form of piety that is all about outward appearances while putting little or no priority on matters of the heart. It is all about being concerned about appearances and what others think rather than being totally committed to abiding in Christ from within first. The self-righteous are consciously holy. However, that is not what we are called to be. Christians must be consciously repentant and unconsciously holy. The difference is huge for these are totally opposite walks.

The self-righteous view their sanctification from as what they do through works in order to be worthy. The humble Christian, on the other hand, views his or her sanctification as God’s work in them as they walk in repentance by His grace. Their works are simply acts of obedience while their worth is all wrapped up in who their Saviour is instead of what they have done.

23 Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι ὑποκριταί, ὅτι ἀποδεκατοῦτε τὸ ἡδύοσμον καὶ τὸ ἄνηθον καὶ τὸ κύμινον καὶ ἀφήκατε τὰ βαρύτερα τοῦ νόμου, τὴν κρίσιν καὶ τὸ ἔλεος καὶ τὴν πίστιν· ταῦτα [δὲ] ἔδει ποιῆσαι κἀκεῖνα μὴ ἀφιέναι. 24 ὁδηγοὶ τυφλοί, οἱ διϋλίζοντες τὸν κώνωπα, τὴν δὲ κάμηλον καταπίνοντες. (Matthew 23:23-24 NA28)

Those being rebuked by our Lord were so blind in their self-righteousness that most of them could not comprehend what He was saying. They only perceived that His message did not match their expectations so it could not be right. Our Lord called them ὑποκριταί or hypokritai (hypocrites) the plural of ὑποκριτής or hupokritēs. This is the word that the Greeks used for actors who performed on stage wearing a mask impersonating a character. Therefore, when our Lord called the scribes and Pharisees ὑποκριταί he was accusing them of pretending to be one thing when they were something else. These fellows went so far as to count out their mint, dill and cumin in order to precisely tithe from them. They were zealous for the forms and ceremonies of the Law, but neglected the weightier matters of it, which are justice and mercy and faithfulness.

The Greek word for “neglected” here is the verb ἀφήκατε or aphēkate the Finite, 2nd Person, Plural, Aorist, Indicative, Active case of ἀφίημι or aphiēmi. This is the same word used in Matthew 27:50 describing our Lord voluntarily giving up His spirit, but it is also used to describe forsaking or leaving such as in Matthew 4:20 when Andrew and Peter “left” their nets to follow Jesus. It also means to omit or neglect as in these scribes and Pharisees not adhering to the weightier matters of the law while pursuing only the outer appearance of righteousness. The word picture our Lord gives us here is it as if they jettisoned walking in repentance for the much easier dedication to religiosity. These men forsook walking before the Lord in repentance for their man-made religiosity in which they convinced themselves they were actually keeping the Law, but, of course, they were not.

The gnat was the smallest unclean animal in Israel while the camel was the largest. Our Lord used hyperbole to make His point about the hypocrisy of these men. He compared their dedication to religiosity while they ἀφίημι the weightier matters of the Law to their insistence on straining their liquids through a cloth in order to make sure no gnats would make their drink unclean. It was their hypocrisy that compounded their guilt to the point that it was as if they made sure they drank no gnats, but in their spiritual blindness, they swallowed a camel.

What does this mean for us my brethren? The sins of the heart are fully known by God who searches there continually. Therefore, we must be conscientiously abstaining from them. This is living intentionally to seek inner cleanness before God above all. How do we do this? We obey Him in our helplessness. We recognize that we are incapable of doing good outside of His grace. Then we obey God as His living sacrifices (Romans 12:1,2) in His power with our Lord’s Joy strengthening us. If we seek to walk before the face of God in our own strength and abilities then we will become self-righteous. This will cause us to lose the joy of the Lord and then we will soon find ourselves on a slippery slope of self-righteousness that is void of any ability to fulfill. Self-righteousness causes a form of spiritual blindness that keeps us focused on self while viciously putting down others who threaten our comfort zones.

Let us examine ourselves my brethren. Let us first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside may also be clean.

Soli Deo Gloria!