Article October 25, 1982 Issue

Subtract the "self" from self-righteousness!

BARBARA KINSLEY KOEHLER

You and I may have come a long way from the old theological belief that if evil befalls someone, it is because God is frowning on him and punishing him for his sins. Like Job, we really have only one place to turn to find an answer to our questions when a severe testing time comes, and that is to God Himself. Instead of wondering where to find Him, we can be learning through the study of Christian Science that He is right here. The very fact that we are here is proof that God is here, for man exists only as God's reflection. Where the reflection is, the original must necessarily be. In reality, if God is righteous, must not man, His reflection, also be righteous?

Countless verses in the Bible describe God as righteous and they also point out the need for people to express righteousness. We immediately think of justice, honesty, and virtue as we consider righteousness. But the term also implies obedience to divine law and the perfection of God's nature. What an insight this gives us into the wonderful heritage we have and can claim, as the sons of God: this perfection and holiness of God's nature is the source of the perfection and holiness of man's nature—of our own true being.

Why is it that sometimes the very ones who are striving to express this perfection and holiness, who really desire to be righteous, are the ones who forget to bar the door against an interloper, a counterfeit—self-righteousness?

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