The Ugliness of Self-Righteousness

Romans 14:10-13 So why do you judge your brother or sister in Christ? Or why do you think that you are better than they are? We will all stand before God, and he will judge us all. Yes, the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘Everyone will bow before me; everyone will say that I am God.’” So each of us will have to explain to God about the things we do. So we should stop judging each other. Let’s decide not to do anything that will cause a problem for a brother or sister or hurt their faith.

Judgementalism is a cancer in society today. You only have to spend about five minutes on social media to figure that out. And it’s not just in society. Judgementalism is a cancer in our lives as well.

The personal attacks on our leaders and their families by armchair critics who’ve barely, if ever, raised a sweat in serving others is a case in point. Of course, bad behaviour should be called out.

But you know and I know that there’s a world of difference between fair judgement and rampant judgementalism. The latter is something that the Apostle Paul writes about:

Romans 14:10-13 So why do you judge your brother or sister in Christ? Or why do you think that you are better than they are? We will all stand before God, and he will judge us all. Yes, the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘Everyone will bow before me; everyone will say that I am God.’” So each of us will have to explain to God about the things we do. So we should stop judging each other. Let’s decide not to do anything that will cause a problem for a brother or sister or hurt their faith.

Paul’s question is the right one: So why do you judge your brother or sister in Christ? Why do we participate in the self-righteous judgementalism of this age? Why?

As someone else once said: be careful not to dehumanise those with whom you disagree. In our self-righteousness we can become the very thing we criticise in others and not even know it.

Because each of us will have to explain to God about the things we do. So we should stop judging each other.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.

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