Are You Being Self-Righteous?

“‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat…” Luke 15:29 NKJV

At the beginning of the year while at a personal retreat, I was schooled on self-righteousness to the point that I became ashamed. I saw the areas I fell short and couldn’t help but weep. Sometimes it’s so easy to think you’re doing the right thing until you see a new perspective that shakes your entire belief system.

In a society that celebrates performance, it’s easy to disregard those who fall short and use those who excel as the standard. Parents do this to their children. Employers do this to their teams. Friends do this to one another. Even the church isn’t left out.

To be self-righteous is to be convinced of your righteousness (behaviour, moral uprightness), especially in contrast with the actions and beliefs of others (Merriam-Webster dictionary). In other words, you consider yourself better than those who don’t meet up to your standards. You don’t have to be a high performer to be self-righteous. Scoffing at your colleague at work because he’s always falling short of your standards is enough.

When you work better, longer, and faster than others, it’s easy to tell yourself that you’re more qualified. At that point, self-righteousness becomes a yardstick for you to receive the benefits of what you do. To God, that’s wrong. The good son in the focus scripture believed that he ought to be blessed because of how upright he was (just like the Pharisee in Luke 18:11). But the father thought otherwise – regardless of his superior performance or lack of it, he had access to abundance.

It becomes difficult when the leader is self-righteous and believes the team is just a confused bunch. Nothing the team does is worth it. If you’re that leader or team member, it’s time to understand that your abilities did not make you blessed. Instead, you have those abilities because you have been blessed.

Good work should be celebrated. But you as the doer need to be careful not to get puffed up about it. You’re not better than your colleague. You’re only more privileged to be able to produce such results.

It takes discipline to not raise your shoulders and look down on everyone else who can’t act like you. I know because I must continuously remind myself of this fact. But once you understand that your self-righteousness is not even close to God’s standards, you’ll be humbler about your results and pray for those who lack such abilities.