It’s be
en a while…so I’m back. With a semester break coming I find that I am
able to turn to some shareable thoughts.
It seems that the theme that continues to pop up for me in
these last few months has to do with the centrality of the issue of
self-vindication in so much of the sin of the contemporary church and its
leaders. I define self-vindication simply
as the effort to prove one’s own righteousness. In believers it shows up as a powerful urge to
defend sinful strategies as justifiable. I have been thinking about this a great deal because the impact of
self-vindication seems to loom large throughout evangelicalism. It is a tragic irony that the New Testament
authors are clear about the danger of this not only for those of those who
refuse God’s offer of good news in Christ, but in those who are
Christ-followers and who attempt to live the Christian life by proving their
own importance, all the while feigning humility.
I am not merely pointing fingers. I see this awful strategy in my own life. My first reaction to critique is almost always
defensiveness. My personal history of
self-vindication is filled with incidents where I pushed people away,
especially the people who meant the most to me. It will continue to be a struggle for me, but
I don’t always have to choose to defend the indefensible. Paul’s words in Philippians about leaving that
which lies behind and reaching forward to the “upward” call of extension of the
Gospel in love are a great encouragement, because he urges us to abandon not
painful memories but sinful strategies of self-vindication. One reason to do this is that he says self-vindication
distracts us from loving, encouraging connection to other believers and from
our high calling to offer the words of life and love to all those who, often
unlovingly, oppose the message of Good News in Jesus. In short, I think it distracts from
Trinitarian relating to all our communities.
I long for change. I
pray it will begin in me.