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The Upside Down World, Week 3, Day 6

by David Joynt on September 30, 2017


 

LUKE 15:1-2

 

Self-justification and self-righteousness are the besetting sins of religious people. The elder brother represents so many Jewish bible scholars and religious leaders who thought of themselves as righteous followers of God’s law. But in reality, they were strangers to God’s heart because they saw Jesus’ concern for the sick and the lost and counted it against him, even seeing his company as a disqualification for Messiahship. Outward religion is meaningless without inner transformation. The elder brother actually rejects the father for not conforming to his values. Some Christians, too, are tempted to construct their own system of goodness and neglect the values of mercy and love which God actually calls us toward.

 

 

Who needs you to show mercy to them, beyond what they deserve?

  

FAMILY TIME—

What does self-justification look like?

When we break a house rule, what do we tend to do?

 

Tags: self righteousness, self-justification

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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