'holier than thou'

Apart from hypocrisy, if there is one thing that gets up people's noses more than anything else it is pride. I must admit that I am often disappointed with people who lose a competition or a challenge and then say, 'Never mind. I'm proud of myself'. Really?I was brought up to think that being proud of oneself was wrong.

Pride can come over in a different way, too. I am thinking of the expression found in Isaiah 65.5. God speaks of His people like this. 'I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that was not food, after their own thoughts; a people that provoke me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifice in gardens and burn incense upon altars of brick; who remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments, who eat swine's flesh (pork) and broth of abominable things in their vessels; who say, 'Stand by yourself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou'. These are a smoke in my nose'.

We haven't space to give a full exposition of the people to whom God was referring, but it is probably Jews who had been in exile and had adopted heathen practices instead of worshipping the one true God in the way He had ordained. But perhaps you have heard someone say of another person, 'O! don't bother with him. He is too holier than thou'. It means that person is self-satisfied, thinking he/she is above everyone else and no-one can touch him/her for piety. That sort of a Christian is neither good company for fellow-believers nor is he a good testimony to unbelievers. He gets up everyone's nose.

Some Pharisees in Jesus' day were 'holier than thou' even to our Lord. Imagine! They would never let a 'sinner' touch them in case they were defiled by them. Such Pharisees, we are told, wore white clothing to symbolise their holiness and held them close to their bodies as 'sinners' passed by in case they defiled them. On one occasion our Lord was entertained by such Pharisee. When a woman-of-the-street came in and was so overcome by the kindness and grace she saw in Jesus that she wept tears over him, dried them from off his feet with her hair and then anointed Jesus' feet with sweet perfume. The Pharisee sneered. 'If this Jesus were a prophet he would have known what sort of woman she was and he would never have allowed her to touch him'. In other words, I know what sort of woman she is, and I am shocked that Jesus allowed her to touch him. I have more discernment and holiness than this Jesus!' And such people sneered at Jesus, calling him a 'friend of publicans and sinners'.

Don't be 'holier than thou'. Our Lord was the most holy man that ever lived, without sin in thought, word and deed. Yet he entered a world of sinners, went into their homes and ate with them, sat down with them, touched them and comforted them. He was never aloof. He loved sinners and had huge compassion for them. He loved them and they loved Him. We can expect people who do not know God, do not know His Word, do not 'go to church' to live lives that are sinful in God's eyes. But there but for the grace of God go I - and you. Let your piety, your holiness. be seen by God and not flaunted before others. Matthew 6.1-16. Learn to love, learn to forgive and learn to forbear. After all, God does.