Dear conqueror in Christ
I feel highly blessed to come to you today with a reminder to beware of self-righteousness. As the quality of believing that your ideas and behavior are morally better than those of other people, self-righteousness causes a lot of divisions in society, the church and families. Once upon a time, a few self-righteous scribes and Pharisees brought before Jesus a woman whom they claimed was caught in the very act of adultery. They called for punishment arguing: “In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.” (John 8:5). Jesus handled the issue with lessons for both the woman and her accusers that are relevant to us today. Let’s consider the Lord’s action.
Jesus challenged the accusers to carry out the sentence with one condition: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”” (John 8:7). By doing this, he forced them into an exercise of self-awareness which Ann Landers defines “as the ability to make an accurate assessment of your own personality, strengths and weaknesses.” Through self-awareness, the accusers became convicted by their own conscience and discovered that they, too, were as guilty as the woman. For “all have had sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Ro.3:23). And with compassion, Jesus urged the woman to change her lifestyle: “Go now and leave your life of sin.”” (John 8:11). This call for change applies to all of us. Let us then every effort to live a lifestyle worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Excelsior
Bishop Leon