“We” are Right because We Said So!

Arrogance rears its ugly head in many ways. One way is found in the open boasts that one might make about his own religious actions and convictions. The parable of the Pharisee and Publican illustrates this well (Luke 18:9-14). The Pharisee was convinced that he was right: “God, I thank You that I am not like other people...” He was high on his own works: “I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.” How could he possibly be wrong? Yet, it was the tax-collector who went home justified. Why? Because God pronounced him justified. This is a good illustration of how the humble are exalted and the exalted are humbled. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5-6). God indeed resists the proud, even (or especially) when the proud think that there is no way they can be wrong. I wonder how many Pharisees would have admitted to the possibility that they could be wrong.

The Pharisee was “right,” but only in his own eyes. He was “right” because he pronounced himself right. Yet, God was not so impressed. The Pharisee knew he was right because he couldn’t possibly do or believe anything that is wrong. He was full of himself, unquestioning of his own abilities to make such self-evaluations. Something tells me, however, that if someone pointed that out to him, the Pharisee would quickly respond with a rebuke about how the other man does not love the truth. “‘Are you teaching us?’ So they put him out” (John 9:34). It is easier to chide the other as incompetent or compromising rather than to reevaluate our own situation.

This disturbing mentality can be found among those professing truth. “We are right because we say we are right. If you oppose us in any way then that just proves that you don’t love the truth and are probably trying to justify sin. We can’t be wrong because we wouldn’t take a wrong position, so whatever we believe is obviously the truth. If you can’t see that, then you are weak, liberal, slow-minded, and compromising.” We can insult others with pejorative terms because they don’t see it “our” way (it must be ridiculous if I don’t believe it; otherwise I would believe it); but when we’ve done that we have only succeeded in proclaming ourselves right. We have demonstrated nothing from the Bible itself. What we may interpret as a strong defense of truth might be, in reality, nothing more than arrogant, self-defensive posturing. “But what we do can’t be that, because we don’t do that.” Exactly!

I realize that no one would dare say it in those exact words. But the attitude can still be there, even if unwittingly. With such an attitude, one can preach his opinions – even if he can’t exactly find book, chapter, and verse for them – and chide those who disagree as being opposed to truth or ashamed of the church. With this mentality, there is no distinction to be made between what the Bible actually says and what the interpretation of a passage is or what a man’s preferences might be. “Our interpretation is right because we don’t take wrong positions. How dare anyone suggest otherwise! Obviously we have the true interpretation. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be taking this position.” The circularity of such thinking should be painfully clear. The problem is that we may not even recognize this pattern of thinking in ourselves. Even now, one may think, “I am not guilty of this because I wouldn’t think that way.”

None of this is to say that we should not think that positions we take are right. Of course we wouldn’t take a position that we believe to be wrong – and neither would anyone else! (Give others some credit here for being able to think!) We take the positions we do precisely because we believe that they are correct; and we believe the Scriptures support these beliefs. We should preach and teach with conviction and confidence. I am not saying that we live in a wishy-washy world of never being able to know if we have the truth (may it never be!). But the danger I am discussing is the failure to be introspective and humble about what we believe. It is the danger of confidence turning into arrogance. “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Rev. 3:17). Do we not think this can happen? Or do we think that this applies only to others who do not share our exact beliefs? We need to realize that our thinking can indeed be off, that an interpretation may be wrong, that we do have room for improvement in our understanding and service toward God. I must always be open to change, open to being taught, lest I prove myself to follow the pattern of the hard-hearted killers of Stephen (Acts 7). Perhaps I have missed something. Perhaps I might learn something else that would modify an idea I have. Perhaps I might learn how to better serve, though I thought I was doing well before. Imagine if Paul had maintained his stubbornness in the face of Christ Himself.

Further, we must always remember that God’s word itself is the standard. One problem with the above mentality is that it makes “what we believe” the standard, and if something doesn’t match “what we believe,” then it must be wrong. This begs the question. What if “what we believe” is itself wrong to begin with? (To which the above mentality replies, “Of course it’s not wrong; otherwise we wouldn’t believe it! We speak where the Bible speaks, so what we believe obviously agrees with the Bible.”) What we believe must itself be measured against the Bible; indeed it should come from the Bible. When evaluating a concept, a teaching, or belief, it really doesn’t matter if it matches what I think or “what we have always believed.” The only thing that matters is whether or not it matches with what the Bible actually teaches (not just what someone else says it teaches). If it does, and if such a discovery proves us to be wrong, then we must change to conform to Scripture rather than prooftexting from the Bible to back up what we already believe, or in order to support a tradition of the past. Measuring ourselves by ourselves is foolish. “For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends” (2 Cor. 10:12, 18). The spirit that thinks, “we have arrived and there is nothing else to improve on” is born of arrogance, not of humble submission to God’s word. We are not right simply because we think or say we are right. We are right based only upon the Lord’s judgment, not our own. And this needs to drive us right back to His word for everything that we do and think, with humble submission and constant reevaluation. “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” (2 Cor. 13:5)

Doy Moyer