Just some loose thoughts on the subject: Types of Self-Righteous People
1.
The libertine that thinks he will be go to heaven in spite of his love for sin.
2.
The non-church-going that are decent or at least semi-decent neighbors and citizens that think they're "good enough" to go to heaven.
3.
The no-or-very-little-bible religious crowd that thinks they're not only good enough, but even think are very righteouss (this would be the Pharisee that prayed I thank thee that I am not as this publican).
4.
The very religious - Legalist zealots - they think righteousness is a question of form, not heart.
Did I miss anything?
Now, what do you think is the underlying cause of self-righteousness?
I've been thinking lately that it's self-righteous to call someone self-righteous. Don't you have to be righteous yourself to label someone else self-righteous?
I am not sure that I follow your reasoning.
A person does not have to be righteous to recognize other sins like gossiping or being a busybody, so why would a person have to be righteous to recognize self-righteousness?
Because the self-righteous who judges others to be self-reighteous often tend to think of themselves as not self-righteous which is in itself self-righteousness.
When we feel we are humble and do not fall under the label of self-righteousness, then we should be very, very aware that we may be committing a presumptous sin.
Our righteousness is imputed upon us and comes to us in Christ because our own righteousnesses are as filty rags before God.
Best to keep our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
It's easy to recognize self-righteousness in others because we all know what it looks like.
We know what it looks like because we have mirrors. :flower:
Self-righteousness is when a person declares himself or herself as "righteous" based in their own set of rules.
"All I have to do is love everybody."
"All I have to do is be good."
"All I have to do is give to the poor."
"All I have to do is go to church."
"All I have to do is avoid sin."
"All I have to do is keep the law."
"All I have to do is be better than the average christian."
"All I have to do is avoid drinking, swearing, and dancing."
"All I have to do is maintain what I determine is righteousness in my own sight."
Scarlette, thank you, and that's pretty much my understanding of what self righteousness is too.
Notice how many times the pronoun "I" is used to describe it.
No doubt that's true, and it is certainly possible that one who considers another to be self-righteous is himself self-righteous instead, but the argument (as I understood it) was that no one could ever see another's self-righteousness without first being righteous himself.
I don't see why that has to be true.
A gossip may know when someone else is gossipping without necessarily recognizing his own gossipping, so why can the same not be true of the self-righteous?
And Scarlette has captured the "jist" of my point.
It seems to me that most people imagine a "self-righteous" person to be the fighten fundy that strictly follows a set of man-made rules and condemns everyone that does not do the same.
As Scarlette said "Self-righteousness is when a person declares himself or herself as "righteous" based in their own set of rules."
And that's exactly what most of the world says about their own ability to be saved.
Don't you see that in the people you witness to?
Ask them "how do you know if you're going to heaven?", and they'll say "I think I'm good enough", or, in the case of the libertine, "I think God is liberal enough and therefore I'm good enough".
So if all of these people (and I'll include myself if it will make some of you feel better) are self-righteous, from the fundy to the libertine, what is the common root that they all share?
Someone said "Pride".
I agree.
So how can we preach the Gospel in a way that excludes pride altogether?
It may be one thing to recognize self-righteousness and another thing to label people that way. What is the point of that? If we call others self-righteous and give lists of what traits make self-righteous people, what is the point of that? Are we being edified? Have we become better than the self-righteous in doing this? Have we become less self-righteous?
My point was that starting a thread and posting all the traits of self-righteous people strikes me as a very self-righteous thing to do.
I know what your point was, but 1) I am not sure that your logic holds, and 2) do you see what you are necessarily saying about yourself if your logic does hold?