One of the reasons that there are divisions within society or church is self righteousness. It is not necessarily lack of zeal: perhaps it is overmuch, but it is a lack of self reflection and humility. I’ve said many times that on the last day every theologian will be corrected and we will all realize just how little we know about God and our salvation.
We will all be corrected.
Not so the politically correct. For the driving force behind their entire neo-feudal strategy is that society is oppressing minorities, who are too stupid to survive without guidance and representation from an elite. A very priggish and self righteous elite, who make the Judiazers look like pikers.
1Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. 2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, 3saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” 4Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, 5“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. 6As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 10This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. 11At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. 12The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; 14he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ 15And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. 16And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” 18When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”
I feel that I am repeating myself this morning But the aim of those who are mature is to be in control, not to be self righteous but to influence for righteousness.
Something that might surprise you is that a lady is forthright and outspoken. She will generally appear meek and/or pleasant, and she doesn’t proselytize everywhere she goes. But if you ask her a direct question, she’ll answer it honestly and give her true opinion unapologetically. Caginess and political correctness are for the devious and dishonest, and she’ll take pride in holding principled and informed opinions that she’ll be eager to share and willing to debate. If she is ignorant of something, she will simply state that, rather than making up an opinion on the fly
Self reflection leads to an honest appraisal of our strengths and weaknesses. It stops us from praising ourselves to the sky or just acting on impulse. And the awareness that we are all ignorant, all hold evil in our hearts, all daily need the works of grace leads to us losing our priggishness and trying to work together, accepting that we will disagree on many things. If we hold too tightly to our self righteousness we encourage schism (regardless of what we call it) within our congregations and between them. Instead we should remain local, work in our local congregations, and hold firm to the faith. For the leaven of liberalism and post modern relativism has infected everywhere and every church, and it is our duty to live in a way that bears witness against it.
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