Articles
Self-Approval
Self – Approval
The New Testament is constantly current. It is proven time and again the nature and attitudes of mankind simply have not changed. Consider the account of Luke 10:25-29. A lawyer asked the question, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus turned the question back to the man so the lawyer might be “enlightened”. When the lawyer said man should love God and his neighbor, the Lord answered him, “This do and you shall live”. The insincerity of the man’s question was revealed in the following verse, “But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor?”..
If we would devote as much thought toward spiritual service as we do to self-approval and manufacturing excuses, our potential would be limitless. Rather than recognizing the task before us and getting about the business of accomplishing it, we vainly try to make allowances for our deficit thinking and performance. Often, one spends more time in the attempt to justify himself for failure to perform a task rather than actually doing the work…
“Willing to justify” a lust for prominence, power, and praise, a man may speak of his profound intellect and broad experience, yet be deceived. God Almighty and the spiritually mature have seen this ploy before and are not impressed. The thirst to dominate is a very repulsive thing. Its fruit is dissension. Its end is disappointment, both for the person who wants the “leading role” and their followers, who will become disillusioned, because this type of self-approval creates unending tension and turmoil…
“Willing to justify himself”, a man may claim he would love to aid the work but is just “too busy” to accept any further responsibility. Yes, he is too busy if that is the case. However, people do have a host of secular obligations which must be fulfilled. If our priorities are not properly aligned, Christ has been relegated to the back seat of our lives, and if our influence for good is destroyed by materialistic ambition, then we suffer spiritually as does the church of which we are members…
A family “willing to justify” themselves explained to me they just cannot attend services. They said their children do not seem interested in religion. What is the source of this disinterest? Does it spring from a lethargic, indifferent, and callous attitude observed in their parents? Let us be consistent the matter. A child in the second grade comes home from school and announces he is no longer interested in education. Will the parents take this in stride, announce it to be fine, and permit their children to follow a course of secular ignorance? Surely not! We need to be spared from such self-approval…
A careful analysis discloses one of the fundamental differences between the sincere, loyal child of God and the self-approving. It is the attitude manifested toward faults and shortcomings. The self-approver is always ready to “justify himself”. The sincere Christian recognizes his/her fault, confesses, seeks forgiveness, and makes a change in their life. In which category do you belong?
