How to be too righteous

We are not to be autonomous, whether it is autonomously good or autonomously bad. We are not to be self-willed in evil. It is suicide. But neither are we to be self-willed in doing what we define good. It is self-destruction. We all know about those characters who shake their fists at heaven and how there is then a sharp intake of breath all around the sanctuary. But then we, in the grip of what we feel must be right and true, do precisely the opposite of what the Bible says to do. The examples of this religiosity were plentiful in Christ's day, and their tribe does not appear to have diminished in the intervening time. We say that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and so we must abstain from tobacco. Paul said that he was talking about sexual immorality and went on to add that he was not talking about any other sin whatever. But we still feel like smoking must be ungodly, and so we stick to our guns. Christ said not to pray in order to be seen by men; we organize prayer meetings on the Capitol steps in the hope that CBS will cover it. We that alcohol must be sin say because some frantic women in the nineteenth century decided it was. The Lord made about one hundred and sixty gallons of the best wine in order to help the festivities along. And wisdom is vindicated by her children.

Douglas Wilson, Joy at the End of the Tether