Good morning everyone,

Philippians 3:9-and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Are you challenging yourself to mature rather than maintain your own "goodness"?

The apostle Paul is in the midst of his defense against people who want to try and add to the sacrifice of Christ. In listing all his religious accolades he could use in competition against even the most self-righteous person, he concludes that depending on that would be to establish his own righteousness. In other words he would be an enemy of the Cross and the Word he preaches.

I believe that many people struggle to study the Word and challenge themselves to live it because we have a different category of righteousness than God has. The Word through the Holy Spirit within us, challenges us to obey out of love to God. This relationship of reading and being challenged to change, or encouraged to persevere only comes through the Word! Yet some many times we can get complacent because we have a way that we measure what is right and wrong, establishing our own righteousness. This makes study of the Word pointless because we have a system of righteousness that is based on "behaving", rather than the faith to read and trust God to replace our self-righteousness.

In His Love, Ld