"Have You Met Mr. Right""

Have you met Mr. and Mrs. Right?  Chances are you have, but just in case you haven't  Proverbs 21:2 introduces them to us. 

“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes…”

Yes, I’m sure you’ve seen them around, (The Rights)  but now you have been formally introduced.  It is that person looking back at you when you stare into the mirror every morning.   I’m Mr Right, or at least I think I am.   We all think we are right, right?  I do what I do because I think it is right.   The problem is that what I am using as my standard of right is one I have conveniently drawn up myself.  The standard is basically this - if I’m doing it, then it’s right.  If I am accused of doing something that is not right I have a set of excuses to explain why what I did, though it may appear wrong, was in fact right after all.  We may do wrong but we do it for the right reason so it all works out for the best.  “Yes I lied but it was to protect their feelings.”   We are masters of the spin cycle, everything always comes out “right”. 

We all masters of self-justification.  If our only standard of right and wrong is one we have established it’s not all that hard to do.  Judges says “that in those days every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”  Judges 17:6  Judges 21:25.  If you read that book you’ll see it was not a great time to be alive.  

Think about it,  if every man’s way is right in his own eyes, if there is no standard of right and wrong other than our own opinions, if there is no absolute truth, who’s safe?  “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes…”  sounds like the anthem of absolute freedom, but in reality it is a journey to bondage, fear and anarchy.   Maybe you’re married to Mr. Iam Right or Mrs. Neva Wong, how do you like them so far?   

No matter where they are fought, wars are ultimatley a fight over who’s right and who's wrong. 

 “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes…”      

However Proverbs 21:2 doesn’t end there , it goes on 

“but the Lord weighs the heart.”  

 The Lord is not all that interested in our opinion of right and wrong.  The Lord goes beyond the actions of a person to the heart, the seat of our will and motives. The heart is the “real” you.   God knows what is in our heart. God knows who you  really are.  Romans 3:10-19.   God has a standard, It is a standard we have all fallen short of.  The things we do that seem right to us fall short of God’s standard. The sinner’s motivation or reason for doing  even “right things”, is for the wrong reasons.  He does them not to glorify God but to satisfy self.  So his motivation is wrong, but that is not all that is wrong. Mankind does not have a heart that longs to keep the law of God. He mocks God’s law, he thinks it is irrelevant, they have no intention, desire or ability to keep God’s law.  So man can be right in his own eyes yet wrong in God’s eyes.    

The man who is right tin his own eyes is a hard man to reach with a gospel that says  “there is none righteous no not one.”  It doesn’t say sometimes you’re not right , it says you’re NEVER right.  Everything man does falls short of God’s law.  This is why the gospel is attacked, Mr. Right does’t’ like what it says, it contradicts how he thinks about himself.   But to those who will humble themselves and confess they are sinners, broken God’s law and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23, there is real forgiveness and freedom like they have never know before.  

The gospel is a glorious exchange.  Jesus Christ taking all my sin and bearing the wrath of God for my sin in his body on the cross, and giving to me His righteousness, so that in God’s eyes I am perfectly righteous but it is not my righteousness but Christ’s.  That is why we can sing “Blessed Assurance” because my acceptance with God is based not on my life’s work but upon Christ’s life work.  It becomes mine by grace through faith, not of works lest any man (Mr. Right) should boast.   Ephesians 2:8-10   Romans 3:20-26   Romans 10:1-5  

Is your home a constant battle ground over who is right?  Who is the man or woman looking back at you in the mirror?  Mr. or Mrs Right are not very good listeners.  Do you listen.? Do you want to listen?  Are the conversations in your home, your marriage all one sided?  We all need to listen to what James tells us.   James 1:22-25  Remember “The LORD weighs the heart.”