Right Or Righteous?

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.

Matthew 23:23

Theologian Jack Deere wrote about a period in his life when he was more concerned about being right than anything else. He was a scholarly professor at a well-known seminary, and he prided himself on knowledge and biblical correctness more than anything—until God did a work in his heart.

If anyone scored an A+ on being right in Jesus’ day, it was the Pharisees. They knew the Law backward and forward. They tithed their herbs and made up laws about what was allowed on the Sabbath. And one of the things that was most certainly not allowed was the “work” of healing. So when Jesus healed a man born blind from birth, and did it on the Sabbath . . . well, that just wasn’t right.

The Pharisees were too busy being right to rejoice with the man who could see for the first time in his life. They didn’t have time for the righteousness, peace, and joy of the kingdom of God (Romans 14:17). Which is the greater priority in your life: rightness or righteousness?

Righteousness means being right in the eyes of God, not men.