The last couple of weeks, I’ve been talking about overcoming common fears that plague many people (specifically the Fear of Men and the Fear of Failure).  The more I’ve thought about these topics, and the more I’ve considered other fears that we can overcome, the more I’ve discovered that most (if not all) of these issues (as well as many others) are rooted in self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness is elusive in that it can take on many different forms.  But at its most basic level, self-righteousness is the belief that we have earned or deserve something because of our actions, self-discipline, self-effort, or knowledge/wisdom.  It’s a kind of reaping and sowing.

For example: “I have followed all of the rules; therefore, I won’t get into trouble.”

Another example: “I know the right thing to do; therefore, I won’t face judgment.”

One last example: “I eat healthy; therefore, I deserve to never get cancer.”

It can also go the other way: “I haven’t been reading my Bible and praying recently; therefore, because my righteousness isn’t up to snuff, I don’t deserve to have God give me good things.”

Here are a few fears and pit-falls that are usually rooted in self-righteousness:

Fear of Men: “My self-righteousness isn’t enough to get favor with others.”  Or, “The way I act makes other people dislike me.”  Or, “If I can up my acts of righteousness in their eyes, they’ll like me.”

Fear of Failure: “I’ve worked hard on this, but not hard enough.”  Or, “My righteousness will go down in the eyes of others if I don’t succeed.”  Or, “If I never show it to anyone, they won’t know that I’m not good enough.”

Lack of Confidence: “I don’t deserve to get this good thing.”  Or, “My righteousness isn’t enough, so I don’t want to put myself out there.”  Or, “I’m not sure if I’ve worked hard enough on this.”  Or, “What if it flops?  It will just prove that I don’t have enough righteousness.”

Crippling Shame: “Everything that I’ve done points to the fact that I don’t have enough righteousness.”

I could go into more examples, but you get the idea.  We assign our worth, our success, our perception of ourselves, and our actions based on how righteous we feel.  We even decide how other people should treat us based on how righteous we feel – “That guy was just super rude to my spouse!  S/he doesn’t deserve that!”

So how can we overcome self-righteousness?

1. Recognize self-righteousness in your life.  I don’t want to ignore sowing and reaping (it’s real), but when you see self-righteousness at play, note that it’s there and how it’s working in your life.

2. Know what God says about you.  We can’t replace our own righteousness with God’s perspective until we know what He says.

3. Trade your righteousness for God’s righteousness.  We’ve all sinned and fallen short of righteousness (Romans 3:23).  Nothing that we can do will ever make us righteous (Ephesians 2:8-9); in fact, Isaiah says that our own righteousness is as “filthy rags” (64:6).  Because we are justified and made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:16), our righteousness doesn’t come from how many right things we’ve done, our good choices, or how much knowledge we possess.  In your mind and actions, intentionally trade your own feelings of righteousness for your right standing before God.  This is as much a change in perspective as a theoretical concept.

4. Make God your audience of one.  As you live for Him and Him alone, you’ll be less enticed to live by your own righteousness.

5. Place your own righteousness in perspective.  Yes, if you’re rude to someone, it’s very likely that they will be rude back to you (it’s called sowing and reaping).  But you being rude doesn’t define you as unrighteous.  If we confess our sins, God is faithful to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

6. Value repentance over perfection.  In some ways, self-righteousness is an attempt to circumvent the need for repentance.  And while we should be living holy lives (of course!), following God and His heart is more important than getting everything right (Matthew 5:20).  (This is not an excuse to be intentionally unloving, FYI.)

If you have any other tips on how to overcome self-righteousness, please leave a comment below!