Righteousness
Read John 16:8-11.
The world is an angry place. The online world is an even angrier place. These days, I scroll quickly through Facebook and am reluctant to even get on Twitter because there are so many angry, angry people spouting off about things they may or may not understand. Understanding is not a prerequisite for posting online (anyone can do it, even me!). The source of this anger, it seems to me, is a deep-seated feeling that since I believe something to be true, it must be true. If I can get X number of people to agree with me (indicated by "likes" on Facebook and "retweets" on Twitter), then I am justified and the world must change to suit me. So I keep posting. And when the world doesn't conform to me, I get angrier. So I post some more. And the cycle is never-ending. The thinking goes like this: my way is righteous, my cause is just and everyone else must conform to the way I think.
The problem is this: Jesus says it isn't our job to set a standard of righteousness. He has already done that, and it's the Holy Spirit's work to help us conform to Jesus' standard rather than our own. Once again, the world is proven wrong because the world believes they have figured everything out. "We" no longer need God because we know what is right and what is wrong. "Right" is what we feel is right right now. "Wrong" is everything else. But the world's standards of right and wrong keep changing. What one generation believes is "wrong" might be "right" within twenty years. In my own community right now, gambling was considered "wrong" the last time it was attempted here; now the train of thought seems to be that it's "okay" or even "necessary" because it will bring in tax money.
Jesus' standard does not change. He is the standard and the example of righteousness, of right and wrong. And so, in this "farewell" address, as he is telling the disciples he is going away, he promises the arrival of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will once again prove the world wrong in regard to righteousness as he becomes the one who reminds us what Jesus did, who Jesus was and how Jesus lived. The Spirit lives within us to remind us what true righteousness is in the face of the world's definition of righteousness. The world is wrong. Jesus is our standard. The Spirit helps us conform to that standard, even when everyone and everything around us tells us we are wrong.
The world is an angry place. The online world is an even angrier place. These days, I scroll quickly through Facebook and am reluctant to even get on Twitter because there are so many angry, angry people spouting off about things they may or may not understand. Understanding is not a prerequisite for posting online (anyone can do it, even me!). The source of this anger, it seems to me, is a deep-seated feeling that since I believe something to be true, it must be true. If I can get X number of people to agree with me (indicated by "likes" on Facebook and "retweets" on Twitter), then I am justified and the world must change to suit me. So I keep posting. And when the world doesn't conform to me, I get angrier. So I post some more. And the cycle is never-ending. The thinking goes like this: my way is righteous, my cause is just and everyone else must conform to the way I think.
The problem is this: Jesus says it isn't our job to set a standard of righteousness. He has already done that, and it's the Holy Spirit's work to help us conform to Jesus' standard rather than our own. Once again, the world is proven wrong because the world believes they have figured everything out. "We" no longer need God because we know what is right and what is wrong. "Right" is what we feel is right right now. "Wrong" is everything else. But the world's standards of right and wrong keep changing. What one generation believes is "wrong" might be "right" within twenty years. In my own community right now, gambling was considered "wrong" the last time it was attempted here; now the train of thought seems to be that it's "okay" or even "necessary" because it will bring in tax money.
Jesus' standard does not change. He is the standard and the example of righteousness, of right and wrong. And so, in this "farewell" address, as he is telling the disciples he is going away, he promises the arrival of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will once again prove the world wrong in regard to righteousness as he becomes the one who reminds us what Jesus did, who Jesus was and how Jesus lived. The Spirit lives within us to remind us what true righteousness is in the face of the world's definition of righteousness. The world is wrong. Jesus is our standard. The Spirit helps us conform to that standard, even when everyone and everything around us tells us we are wrong.
I never thought of social media "proving" people they are right. Very true!
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