Luke 18:9-14: Don't Flaunt Your Righteousness

Luke 18:14 "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

According to the Gospel of Luke, nothing is traditionally attributed to happening on the Monday of Passion Week. Thus, we're going to go back in time in Jesus' ministry this morning to examine a very important parable that he gave and learn how we ought not to flaunt our righteousness before others.

The parable goes like this: Two men go to the temple to pray, which was the common custom of the day. The first man, a Pharisee, prayed to God thanking him for all of his own good religious acts. "God," the Pharisee prayed, "I thank you that I am not like other men, extortoiners, unjust, adulterers, prostitutes, thieves, people who speed on the freeway, and that one guy at church who is always on his phone during the service." However, the second man, though he was a tax collector, prayed thus, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." The Bible tells us that the second man, rather than the first, was saved. How can this be so?

Jesus tells us in conclusion to this parable that "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14). The point of the parable is this: those who are truly humble will be saved, but those who are prideful will not be saved. In the parable, the Pharisee was the prideful one. Though he committed many acts of self-righteousness in contrast to the sinful tax collector, he was truly the more sinful one because he had not repented of his sin. The Pharisee thought he had it all figured out, but the tax collector knew that he didn't, so he called upon the Lord for mercy. In the end, the tax collector was saved, and the Pharisee was not.

So, what's the application this morning? A couple things. First, we must realize that in order to be saved, we must call upon the Lord. This is the message of Romans 10:13: "For all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."* Second, we must not flaunt our righteousness before men. So often I do this, and so do you. We raise our hands in church, we pray extravagantly well, and we take notes during every sermon. Don't get me wrong, all of those things are good and you should keep doing them, but check your heart. How many times do we do them so that someone else might see our great spiritual acts and give us praise rather than give God praise? I believe that we often do. So, in summary, check your heart when you commit righteous acts in the presence of others. Do them in order to point to God, not yourself. For "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

*Matthew Standard Version