Checklists, rules, laws - they are meant to be our servants, not our masters.  As servants, they can greatly aid us in our walk with Jesus.  As masters, they lead us astray, for they can never save or sanctify us.

Matthew 23:29-31, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, "If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets." Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

It is so easy to look at others as the Pharisees did (in their case, those who came before them), and say, "Well, I would never . . . !"  That is smugness, isn't it?  When we proclaim such nonsense we forget, as it has been said, that "there but for the grace of God go I."  When we evaluate ourselves according to how well we measure up to our checklist, rules, and laws, we fall into two huge traps.  One, we tend to measure ourselves by the items we add to the list, not necessarily the items God would write on our lists.  And two, we tend to compare ourselves to others, and not to God.  Both lead to self-righteousness.  One cannot be much further from Christ than when one is smug.

Quiet Reflections: We Christians never think of ourselves as smug, do we?  When you see someone doing stupid, do you think, "well, I would never . . . !" or does your heart break just knowing that the person is doing violence to his soul?  The more we care about what is right, and we should care immensely about it, the easier it is to be smug without even knowing it.  Of course, when we say, "well, I would never . . . !" we are often right.  We forget, however, that in a different set of circumstances, we do our own version of stupid.

Thoughts or comments?

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