Overmuch Righteous

“Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?” (Eccl. 7:16,17). There’s a mighty lot of folks these days that need to take a long, honest look at this passage of scripture. There is a demonic religious spirit that is influencing a lot of God’s people to condemn one another by means of their sectarian and personal ‘righteousness’ and ‘wisdom’ standards, and at the same time exposing their own blatant hypocrisy. Let me give you just a few examples of what I’m talking about. Sometime ago I reproved some people of their erroneous sectarian doctrines after they had basically tried to impose them on myself and some others who were with me. As a result a week or so later, one of their young people who had been told about this, told me; “We know that we need to keep things basic around you Lary, because we understand that you’re just not there yet.” How nice of him. What he meant was that it had been established to him by others that I am very elementary in my faith, and just not able to see the vastly great and “deep light” of their ridiculous “Jewish fables” that they call truth (Tit. 1:14). Less than a couple of minutes later he went outside for a smoke break. A week or so later the same young man made a really gross, off color remark about something vulgar immediately after my son finished playing a song that brought peace and soberness down from heaven on a number of us sitting there. One of his own brethren rebuked him for that obviously foolish and unholy comment, which incidentally had absolutely nothing to do with the song. It was in fact just a nervous, combative effort to throw off the evident anointing of the song, and the Spirit of holiness that it brought. The point is that the FRUIT of their “deeper light of wisdom” shows very clearly that it is in reality just a religious masquerade, and an obvious hypocrisy that is AGAINST the Spirit of God.

Another individual of yet another Pentecostal sect made an even more outlandish statement to one of my sons, in defense of their sect’s strong stance on water baptism “in Jesus’ name.” This sect believes that anyone who has not been baptized in water in the name of Jesus will certainly go to hell, no exceptions. So my son asks her, “Well, what do you say about someone like Martin Luther who was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost?” I should interject here that anyone who really knows much about the history of the body of Christ and about world history since the 1500’s, should know that Martin Luther was not only one of the greatest men of God since the apostles of Christ; but he may very well be the greatest man PERIOD since the apostles. No time to elaborate on that now, but you can do some homework on that one if you care to. Anyway, this individual’s trained answer to that was simply; “Well Jesus said that there would be many on the day of judgment who will say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Mat. 7:22,23). That has to be one of the most overt examples of “wresting the scriptures” to try to defend a sectarian doctrine that I have ever seen. I can tell you that I would not want to be the person saying that about the great Martin Luther, even in stark ignorance. I need also to note that this same woman several weeks earlier had overheard me expounding the truth to someone that the baptism of the holy Ghost, which Jesus paid for with his death and resurrection, totally fulfilled and eliminated water baptism. While this conversation in fact did not even include her, she saw fit to jump in and try, in vain howbeit, to reprove me for what I was saying about the evident truth. A couple of weeks after the conversation with my son this woman was pregnant out of wedlock. Once again the fruit of that sect and their “over much righteousness,” which includes strict hair and dress codes as well, told on them with blatant hypocrisy.

The most recent example is that I just bought a new wallet after looking for one on and off for several years. The wallet is of a comic book nature and has sentimental value to me because it reminds me of my childhood when I read a lot of comic books. A brother who in fact received the baptism of the Spirit largely by means of my ministry not long ago, but has since fallen off; happened to see the wallet at his place of work where we were eating. The doctrine that he has chosen is one of a more personal nature, but it involves a lot of things about conspiracy theories, aliens, and other fantastic type of stuff. Well, he felt the need to let me know that my wallet was of a demonic nature. How gracious of him. I let him know straightly that he simply did not know what he was talking about, and explained to him by the scriptures; “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled” (Tit. 1:15). I also reminded him that I had told him a while back that if he did not break free from the fantastic religious nonsense that he was observing, he would go nowhere with God. At that he promptly went outside for a smoke break. The point? Hypocrisy of course. In all of these examples [and I have plenty more] these people were guilty of making themselves “over much righteous and wise” while their deeds declared them to be “over much wicked” in the process. It all brings to mind what Jesus told the Pharisees, who were unduly condemning his disciples for plucking corn on the Sabbath, and eating it: “But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless” (Mat. 12:7). Friend, the Bible clearly says that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:5). To add to that, Jesus simply told us, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you” (Jn. 15:12). If we can fulfill that commandment by the overcoming power of the Spirit of God, we are living at the pinnacle of the human existence, and we know that full well by how it feels on the inside. If we are NOT fulfilling that commandment, we will probably be busy finding something else to prove our righteousness by; seeking in vain to cure the lacking that we feel inside. That my friend is always a losing cause because that path can only take us further away from the simplicity that Jesus commanded us, and from the joy that it brings. Amen.