Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
Do you do what is right only because you know others are watching or do you long and thirst for righteousness?
The Japanese have a saying that a snake lies straight as long as it’s kept inside a bamboo stick. When released, it starts wiggling and acting “snaky” again.
Many people have what I call restrained righteousness. As long as they are forced by external restraints to be, as they ought to be, they appear to be righteous. But when the exterior restraints are removed, their genuine character is revealed. They start acting snaky again.
Physical force is an obvious form of external restraint. When I was a child, my conduct was kept “as it ought to be” by my father’s leather strap. It didn’t make me hunger and thirst after righteousness, but it sure made me desire not to get caught. When I was away from the house, I started acting snaky again.
Legalism is an external restraint. Legalism is a manmade religious system structured around rules and regulations and enforced by peer pressure. But following manmade rules and regulations doesn’t constitute the righteousness of God. “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags,” Isaiah 64:6.
Source: Being Happy in an Unhappy World
Daily Living
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