Selfish Righteousness

Dirty Water

Listen to a decent sample of sermons, all from men who agree with the standard confessions, and you will still find a lot of them advocating for a faith that is entirely personal. In our homes and maybe even congregations, we should live as best we can according to God’s principles. We should be a husband of one wife, give charitably, forgive wrongs, etc… However, when confronted by people seeking explicitly to live contrary to that, we should just get out of their way and let them get on with it.

In proverbs, we see the dangerous folly of such a view.

Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.

Proverbs 25:26

It would be easy to read that verse as the wicked being a muddied spring or polluted fountain, but that’s not what it says. Instead, it is a person who is living rightly themselves, but lets the wicked have their way who are a threat to community health.

A person living according to godliness is a fountain or spring, refreshing all who come to them. Holy living is a blessing to a community. People will look to them as they would look to a spring or fountain for life sustaining water. However when they become cowardly, unwilling to confront the wicked, people drink from them only to realize the water has become bad!

A Sinful World

We live in a sinful world. Until Christ returns to destroy all the works of sin, we will have to deal with it in ourselves and our own fleshly desires, in the communities in which we live, and in the whole world of nations warring against nations.

The question is: how do we deal with that? It wouldn’t be difficult to find many in the church who still agree a person should wage war with the sin within themselves (though there are certain pet sins that some would say should just be surrendered to). However, how should we act about the sin in our communities?

In the church, already, some would advocate giving way. After all, we should “judge not” right? I’ve covered this topic more extensively here, but suffice it to say that the purpose of this verse is to warn against laying burdens upon others that you would be unwilling to take up yourself. We ought to judge rightly and seek the sanctification of a brother rather than setting others up to fail with unreasonable standards. Instead, we are called to clear the log out of our eye specifically to better see the speck in our brother’s eye (to save them from even that).

In the broader community of our neighborhoods, we see the first massive fall off, however. The idea of standing up to wickedness in our communities is already extremely uncomfortable for people. After all, not everyone believes the truth. However, reality is not a popularity contest. The truth is still the truth even if nobody believes it.

While God has left a lot of room for liberty, where what may be wrong to some is not wrong for everyone (rich clothing may be vanity for some and just preference for others, hobbies can become an idol when obsessed over but could also be a refreshing way for people to enjoy the fruit of their labor, etc…) there are certain behaviors which are just explicitly wicked and harmful to a community.

There is an awakening happening slowly in the church here in the United States, where we are finally realizing how poisonous we have become to our nation by simply standing aside. We have let insobriety, theft, sexual immorality, etc… define our culture because we made being sober-minded, honest, and chaste something only for those who choose it for themselves.

Because of this we have businesses closing because of mass theft, murder, rampant drug deaths, abortions, etc… destroying the neighborhoods in which we live. Instead of sounding the alarm for how harmful sin is to our community, many say we should sit silently while wickedness runs rampant. What an apathetic, wicked (but easy) thing to do!

Stand Firm in the Faith

We need to purify our waters so that we can again be the salt and light the world needs (Matthew 5:13-16). How many lives need to be ruined or ended because God’s people can’t care enough to oppose the evil in this world outside our own home?

God is a God of justice, and whenever a nation turns from justice his wrath is both right and good. However, nobody desires to be on the receiving end of that wrath. His wrath is a terrifying thing! As much as the wicked may object or claim offense at Christians warning, and as their position of authority requires, standing against their harmful behaviors, even they prefer that to the consequences of you being a poisoned well.

Just don’t expect thanks!

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!

Luke 6:22