Righteousness
“‘For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.’”
Today’s Text: Matthew 5:17-26 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
I don’t want to disrespect anyone who confesses Jesus as Lord and Savior. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ (BASICs). But in the spirit of humility, understanding that I have a million and one shortcomings of my own (and some people may say a million and two), I will say that I have come across people who demonstrate some of the characteristics of “the Pharisees and teachers of the law.”
They are people who seem to establish their relationships and communities around intellectual knowledge and spiritual traditions. In other words, coherence to intellectual knowledge and spiritual traditions is the basis for establishing any relationship. Without that coherence, no relationship can be pursued.
To be sure, in the church, we do need to be vigilant with respect to the theologies that people express and practice. (2 Thessalonians 3:14). But it is a matter of degree, I suppose.
There is a lot of teaching in the Bible that some very smart and godly people disagree on and debate—for example, the appropriateness of praying in tongues. A topic that is very hotly debated nowadays concerns the role of women in vocational ministry. Biblically, can women hold the office of “Pastor?” Can women be lead pastors of a congregation?
People who read the Bible more literalistically (that’s not actually a word, but it should be) tend to say, “Absolutely not.” And there are good biblical reasons that they give. People who read the Bible more spiritualistically (again, should be a word) tend to say, “Of course they can.” And there are good biblical reasons that they give. But I would say, humbly, that people in these camps demonstrate characteristics of “the Pharisees and teachers of the law.”
I certainly do not claim to have all the answers, but I am somewhere in between. I do believe in the inerrancy of the Scriptures. I do believe that the Scriptures were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16-17). But I tend to read and interpret the Bible literarily, which means that I try to understand every statement in the context of the full counsel of Scripture—every proposition, every historical account, every legal code, every poem, every wisdom saying, every prophecy, every revelation.
I have found that people who land in the more extreme camps tend to hang out in certain parts of the Bible but are generally uncomfortable in other parts. There are some who only seem to preach in the letters of Paul, for example.
In the church, there must be coherence on the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Him crucified, resurrected, and returning. Apart from that, room must be made for differences of opinion.
All that to ask (myself), what does it really take to surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, if it’s not just about intellectual knowledge and spiritual traditions? And I would propose (humbly) that true righteousness in reflected in the priority of relationships governed by obedience to the word of God.
And what that means is not just to love people we already naturally like, but to learn and commit to loving those we do not naturally like. That is righteousness, Jesus’s way.
Father, Your love is perfect. Your love is patient, kind, generous, humble, and life giving. My love is not perfect. My love is contingent on things that really don’t matter in the context of eternal life. Forgive me when I distort Your love. Teach me to love the way You love. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
