Extreme Righteousness

I'm just about finished with this excellent book by Tom Hovestol. As I said in a previous blog entry, I started this book hoping to further justify my frustration with the fundamentalist movement. That frustration in itself puzzles me, because I've been away from it for almost ten years now, yet I still feel a need to understand how it affected my thinking. Anyways, what I found in Hovestol's book has been little more than a mirror that reflects my own sense of prideful self-righteousness.

These religious leaders were some of the most spiritual men alive in that day, yet Christ directed some of the most deprecating judgments towards them. Who can find fault with their motives: to uphold and preserve the law of God? Yet in their efforts to live righteously, they lost sight of the righteous One. And their motives blurred their perspective. So enamored were they with their adherence to the law, they failed to see the condition of their hearts.

Before reading this book, I approached the Gospel accounts with an assumption that the Pharisees and I had little in common. This book has convinced me of two things: 1) a need to keep my eyes on Christ and 2) an awareness of my own sinful condition.

It's so easy for me to think I'm always right, and worse, to not consider how I come across to others. Perhaps the greatest thing Christ did for the Pharisees was give them a picture of themselves as they really were.

I highly recommend this book; it will revolutionize the way you read the Gospels as well as give you a greater understanding into the life of the apostle Paul. Just don't be surprised if you bump into yourself in its pages!