The Problem With Being Righteous

Be not righteous over much… —Ecclesiastes 7:16

Is it possible to be overly righteous?  Evidently so. This was a problem in Job’s life.  There is no question that he was a righteous man. God said he was righteous (Job 1:8).  It’s OK to be righteous.  But the problem with being righteous is when you start believing in your own righteousness or proclaiming your righteousness.  Proverbs 20:6 says, “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness…” “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes” (Prov. 30:12).  In other words, having a self-righteous attitude.  This was Job’s problem (see Job 29:14; 32:1; 34:5).

Being “righteous over much” means you think you are more righteous than you really are (Rom. 11:25; 12:3; Gal. 6:3).  Job made this mistake by constantly affirming his own righteousness (see Job 6:29; 13:15; 29:14; 31:6; 32:1; 33:9; 34:5; 35:2).  God finally shut Job’s mouth when He confronted Job saying, “Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?” (see Job 40:3-8).  God finally brought Job to an end of himself and his self-righteousness… his self-vindication… his self-confidence… his self-everything, so Job might find his all in God alone.

The right attitude is not the promotion of your righteousness, but the admission of your unrighteousness.  Listen to the self-abasement of these saints of God:

• Isaiah— Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips (Isa. 6:5).
• John the Baptist— There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose… He must increase, but I must decrease. (Mk. 1:7; John 3:30).
• Peter— Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. (Luke 5:8)
• Paul— O wretched man that I am! … I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle… Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints… Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (Rom. 7:24; 1 Cor. 15:9; Eph. 3:8; 1 Tim. 1:15).

Statements like these are not heard from the pulpits of most large ministries today.  Beware of the person who is always talking about how much time he spends in prayer… how many chapters he reads in the Bible… how many souls he has won to Christ… or how often he fasts (cf. Luke 18:11-12).

Spurgeon once remarked about a man he knew, “I always believed he was perfect, until he told me so.”  Amen! You do not need to “toot your own horn” for it to be tooted. “Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips” (Prov. 27:2).

“Do you wish people to think well of you? Don’t speak well of yourself.” —Pascal