Sincerely Wrong...

 "For I can testify that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not in line with the truth. For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness." - Romans 10:2-3 NET

I will never forget a saying one of my favorite Bible teachers shared concerning doing what is right according to God's perfect definition of righteousness. It goes like this;

"It's never right to do the wrong thing...even for the right reason." 

I use to believe if my motives were right...that even if my actions were slightly wrong...the right results made my actions right as well. Yikes! 

Just imagine with me that I'm in the presence of our Powerful and Righteous God and I say to Him... 

"Father, I did a little something wrong, but...I thought I was doing the right thing and I did it with the right motive!"

Our Father replies..."Child, I gave you my righteous guidelines to follow in My Word, did you not read them? Or perhaps you read them without effect because you didn't understand them. Even still...you did wrong. So,now you are defending the decisions you make because you think if you have a right motive...that I should accept it as good because you believe your motive is pure.

"Yes...my motive was pure!" I reply with a great sense of relief...thinking God "gets it!"
If my motives are pure and right than God will not mind me changing a few of His laws and guidelines around...after all..."times are a changing!"

A quiet stillness follows these thoughts and I can see in my Father's face an expression of great patience and love for me. But I also see He is not swayed by my new theology! 

In 1 Chronicles 13 we read of David's sincere desire to bring the Ark of God back to Jerusalem. David even seemed to have the right motive for doing this. Along with David and several others, is Uzzah. Like David...Uzzah chooses to do this in a way that seems right to David and to himself...and does not seek to know and follow God's laws and guidelines in how it should be done. 

On the way to Jerusalem...the oxen carrying the Ark stumbled and Urzzah who was walking along side the cart did what seemed the rightest thing in the world to do...he put his hand on the Ark to prevent it from falling! Who can blame the man? 

But God had commanded that no hand other than a Priest should ever touch the Ark. Even though Uzzah had the "right" motive...he did the wrong thing...and so Uzzah paid the ultimate price because God will not have men rewrite His laws and guidelines to suit their own ways of doing what they feel is right. 

It seems prevalent in todays world for God's Word to be disregarded not only by unbelievers but by believers as well. Some perhaps have decided it is too old-fashioned or difficult to follow. How often like Uzzah do we dare to place ourselves in a dangerous situation by altering or toning done God's Word to suit our ideas of righteousness and than say boldly to God...that we were sincere in our motives to do the right thing? 

Who are we to even dare touch a single letter of God’s Book? Sincerity needs to be allied to truth...for it is possible to be sincerely wrong! 


"Father..." I humbly spoke. "Forgive me. I realize now that no matter how sincere I think my motives are...that it's never right to do the wrong thing. May my sincerity always be aligned to Truth for I understand that it is possible to be sincerely wrong!" 
(John 16:2, Acts 26:9, Romans 10:2). 

 “Now respect the Lord and serve him fully and sincerely." - Joshua 24:14 NCV

Glory! 

Kathy