Becoming Self-righteous about the Self-righteous

It is not new for the younger generation (e.g., college age students) to be critical of the older, especially in the church, and especially of style issues. And you could apply/use “style” here in many different contexts: dress, hair, music, worship, building, etc. Pastor Tullian Tchividjian (New City Church, Miami, FL area) has offered some excellent perspective for all of us to think about, no matter our age, or preferred “styles.”

He says, for example:

“Now, it’s very interesting that in the Bible it’s always the immoral person that gets the Gospel before the moral person. It’s the prostitute who understands grace; it’s the Pharisee who doesn’t. It’s the unrighteous younger brother who gets it before the self-righteous older brother.”

And . . .

“It’s simple: we can become self-righteous against those who are self-righteous. Many younger evangelicals today are reacting to their parents’ conservative, buttoned-down, rule-keeping flavor of “older brother religion” with a type of liberal, untucked, rule-breaking flavor of “younger brother irreligion” which screams, ”That’s right, I know I don’t have it all together and you think you do; I know I’m not good and you think you are. That makes me better than you.” See the irony?”

I highly encourage you to read the entire article

Are You Self-Righteous?
Posted October 29th, 2008 by Tullian Tchividjian

One thing the Bible makes clear is that self-righteousness is the premier enemy of the Gospel and no group of people better embodies the sin of self-righteousness in the Bible than the Pharisees. In fact, Jesus reserved his harshest criticisms for them, calling them whitewashed tombs and hypocrites.

Read the entire article.

Blessings
Bill H