"Falling in Love With Our Own Rectitude"

In an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes (Sunday, October 12, 2014), FBI Director James Comey made it clear that no one is above the rule of law nor should one be beyond the reach of the law regardless of how right they believe their cause is! For the Christian this is so true! Of course, when it comes to civil law, the exception to this for the Christian is Acts 5:29, “we ought to obey God rather than man.” However, this exception is only true because we are subject to a higher rule of law which emanates from God!



There was another observation the Director offered that I really liked and thought was very astute. He was asked what lessons could be learned from the past scandals and abuses of the FBI’s warrantless wire taps on Americans (i.e. Martin Luther King, Jr.)? In part, he replied that he wanted every new agent and analyst to be educated about the past and to be warned about the dangers of “falling in love with their own rectitude.” That observation is impregnated with so much truth and application for our lives!



We would all do well to heed the Director’s warning in our spiritual lives. Simply put, falling in love with our sense of rightness and moral virtue is fraught with many dangers! One cannot be a follower of Christ who is in love with his/her own rectitude. For the one who is in love with his own rectitude, the only direction to go is in the direction of sorrow, which is always in the wrong direction from Jesus when it comes to eternal life! In all of the scriptures, never once do we find one who has come to Jesus, having been made a child of God, who is unhappy about it! To the contrary, we find them rejoicing, having embraced Jesus with their whole heart (Acts 2:41; 8:1-4, 34-39; 16:25-34; etc.). Only those who go away from Jesus are sorrowful -- that is to say, where Jesus is plainly understood, no one is every truly happy who turns his back on doing what He says!

We are at once moved to see this in the life of the rich, young ruler. He is lovable. The gospel writer Mark makes a special notation that Jesus looking at him, loved him (10:21). He is respectful and sincere. He understands commitment to principle and morality. He is urgently earnest in seeking what he must do to inherit eternal life. (See Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-24). Yet, he goes away sad!



His failure? What did he lack? He had not overcome the fact that he had fallen in love with his own rectitude! Eternal life is not about material position, power, or performance! It is even less about material possessions or how good and loveable your character is in comparison to all others. For all of the things wealth can buy, the one thing it cannot buy is eternal life. The truth is, for him to escape the danger of having fallen in love with his own rectitude, he needed to see that selling all of his possessions and giving to the poor was as empty a gesture of earning eternal life as was his trying to earn it by his own sense of rightness and moral virtue! Unfortunately, he was so in love with his own rectitude that he went away sorrowful because Jesus was plainly understood and he refused to submit. 



It is interesting that Luke’s account of the rich, young ruler is prefaced by Jesus’ parable of the two men who went up to the temple to pray. In praying to God, one is so in love with his own rectitude that he needs no forgiveness and God MUST hear him! The other man is so humble and penitent that he can rely on no merit of his own, he has absolutely nothing to offer, and he can only reach upward for the mercy of The Divine One to find forgiveness and to be heard! Jesus makes it clear that the man in love with his own rectitude can NOT be exalted by God! It is impossible! God’s goodness and righteousness cannot fill the life of one who is filled with his own sense of rightness and moral virtue; whereas, the humble, penitent man who comes to God with nothing or no sense of importance CAN be filled (exalted) by God! For he has come to that common ground of his own unworthiness where all men must come who truly seek God to be filled of His goodness and love.

God does not dwell where He cannot fill, be it in our lives, our homes, or our local churches! He only fills where we confess and seek His mercy because we acknowledge our own unworthiness and failures! We would do well to keep this in mind when we discuss our disagreements and differences with each other, especially on FaceBook. “Help us, O Lord, to see ourselves as YOU see us! For only then can we be filled with your goodness and mercy and that you would dwell within us!”