MISTAKING MORALITY FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS [Theme: *IMMORTALITY*]
Many people today, mistake morality for righteousness. That's the reason there has been a recent emphasis, particularly among our "rev" guys (and there's nothing wrong with being a "rev" guy), but there has been an emphasis among them, on a "physical" kind of righteousness - - an outward behavioural pattern, to show that you're NOW in Christ, different from when you were NOT in Christ.
I will say it for the umpteenth time (endlessly), and will never stop saying it, that I grew up in an aristocratic home. For those who don't know what that means, it means growing up in NOBILITY. Some people associate "aristocracy" or "nobility" with having lots of money, but it's not all about money. It's all about a sublime nature and mentality, for which you're "graced" by God and/or born into. So, I say that there are 3 ways (that I personally KNOW) by which you can be an aristocrat. First, you're BORN INTO IT - - you just find yourself in it and having that spirit, nature, heart and mindset of aristocratic grace, custom, culture and mindset of nobility and it's just YOU and not even you can do anything to change it. Isaac and Jacob (descendants of Abraham) are examples of people, Biblically, who were born into nobility. Similarly Ishmael - - so that tells you that nobility (or aristocracy) has nothing to do with being a "christian." Secondly, you're given "grace" for it, regardless of where you're born into in the natural. Such people abound - - I've met them. Third, you can 'become' an aristocrat (a man of, and in, nobility) by some "specialised" association. An example of this in recent times in Nigeria, is the late Alhaji Maitama Sule, a man who comes from a family of slaves. His father was a slave in an aristocratic family in Northern Nigeria (you know, those "servants" that you have come to "identify" with a particular family; serving there, bearing their own children there, from generation to generation, and, with God's grace, such offspring of "slaves" in an aristocratic home can end up, practically, as aristocrats themselves.
Like I've said, aristocracy (nobility) has nothing to do with having lots of money. Money only helps to "manifest" aristocracy, the more, if you're already an aristocrat by nature or upbringing.
So, like I said, I grew up in an aristocratic home. I'm an aristocrat by nature.
In our home, while I was growing up, and apart from the "wealth" or "money" aspect of it (we grew up, practically, in OPULENCE) - - by the Grace of God - - but there was also another side to it - - another side to being an aristocrat, by nature and by upbringing. That other side you may not like. Forget now about the Western idea of "child abuse" (I hope you can handle "forgetting" it). We grew up ON THE ROD. When I. hear people say that they "chop cane" from their parents while growing up, I laugh! because if you knew the type of "cane," and the type of "caning," which I "chopped," as well as the "regularity" of it, you'd SCREAM! I dare say, with all gratitude to my father, the late Chief Olukayode Akinnola, that if the "totality" of all the "cane" and the "caning" which I "chopped" were to be "distributed" over 200 children (yes, two hundred children), each of them would still turn out morally good, excellent, well-behaved, having sublime etiquette, manners and mannerisms! It had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with "christianity." My father never said, "Don't you know that a christian should not do such a thing?" He never, never, attached the way he was bringing us up in, to "being a christian." If he said a thing was NOT RIGHT, it was NOT RIGHT; it had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with being a christian, a muslim, an atheist, or whatever. It was simply NOT RIGHT; it's NOT A NOBLE THING TO DO; IT DOES NOT BELONG IN THE LIFESTYLE OF AN ARISTOCRAT (A SUBLIMELY NOBLE NATURE) - - that's all! It's not about your religious faith, or lack of it; it's about NOBILITY!
Some people did not grow up in nobility, of course. Many people. Most people. People all over Akure (where we lived) in the 1960's, used to wonder, highly surprised, almost terrified, at the way Olu Akinnola (my father) handled his children with UTMOST DISCIPLINE. In school, we (the Akinnolas) were known as the cleanest, most gentle, yet lively, pupils. So, it wasn't a discipline that rendered you humourless! It wasn't a discipline that made you sub-human! Rather, it was a discipline that made you, among your peers, a "god"!
The first thing you noticed in the premises of the Akinnola household (back then) was the perfect serenity! (By the way, somebody, recently, described my "meticulousness" as "cherubic." I got it from my father, through the processes of aristocratic upbringing and training). No rowdy noisemaking! (It's a home in which you could easily feel embarrassed, without anybody seeking to embarrass you, if you're the noisy/rowdy type. You would feel intimidated.) There could be happy chatter - - and there was plenty of it; in fact, that was the 'common' thing, but not anything that my father would consider 'unruly.' In fact, but for the fact that it was a very very happy home, we spoke, virtually, almost in whispers! No, not the 'monastery' kind of thing; it was still 'normal' conversation, but there was something so 'responsible' about it that it was a far cry from what obtained "out there"!
The next thing you noticed was the very cleanliness of the entire home environment, including the grass lawns, and the always neatly-cut fence of flowers! The 'neatness' and 'cleanliness' of our 'spirit,' our 'heart' (the Akinnola 'heart' and 'spirit') manifested, thoroughly, in our environment.
After that you noticed the cleanliness of the persons! Not even the household staffers were allowed to be dirty and unkempt! My father loathed dirt of any and every kind (whether in 'character' or in 'environment'). You couldn't go around barefoot! We weren't even allowed to pick up food items, like biscuits, for instance, that had fallen on the floor! They had become 'waste' and were so treated!
No child could crawl around in the dust outside! (Remember this was the 1960's. The society wasn't as sophisticated as today's; yet the Akinnola household, uniquely, had a sophistication greater and higher than today's society). And, inside the house (before the days of the kind of floor tiles that we now have), our floors were gloss-painted (the only house I knew at that time that was like that), and mopped clean continually, so children could safely crawl around! There was nothing like a child's nappies (I think they call it 'pampers' these days?) being sandy brown because the child had been crawling or sitting just anywhere! (Not in the Akinnola household).
My father believed that everyone of his children must be able to do things for themselves! So, despite having a household Laundryman who did the bulk of the laundry, we (the children) were regularly made to wash some of our school uniforms! The same thing he did with cutting of grass in the compound. Although at any point in time we would have at least one Gardener, Dad sometimes made us to do a little bit of cutting grass to keep the environment tidy. It was the "cleanliness" in our heart, the tidiness, the 'orderliness,' the 'character' (instilled and engrained in us through Dad's strict discipline) that was simply manifesting on the outside. You had to be truthful; you had to be straightforward (at ALL times!) No lying; (of course, no stealing); no abuses (I don't know how to abuse); (of course, no cursing); no 'street language,' not to talk of "gutter language"!
We were taught to go out of our way to do good; to be philanthropic. And my father, himself, was the best example of that. I wouldn't know how many children and relations of his friends/acquaintances, or perhaps people he didn't really know, that he sponsored in school or cared for, one way or another. You might say, well, he had the money! But, what about those around you, today, who have it, but wouldn't as much as allow you to fetch water in their house/compound if you were kind of having problems with your source of water?
And, talk of etiquette! The Akinnola household, and members thereof, were excellent, wherever we found ourselves. My cousin, Clifford Adeduro, who grew up as a part of the family, used to say no child could grow up in our house and be spoilt!
Your shoes had to be freshly polished for each new day that you would use that particular pair! From childhood, I was taught that if a lady didn't have a seat, and I had one, I should give up my seat for the lady!
I didn't learn all (or any) of these things in a church seminar! I learnt them at HOME! And, it was NOT "labelled" "christian." It was simply the "NOBLE" thing to do!
In our house, you didn't lean on walls, making them dirty; no; you didn't drag furniture on the floor, making unpleasant sound and ruining the furniture; no! And, it was in the same way that we were never allowed to use bad, corrupt, corrosive, vitriolic language towards anybody! Never! You had to be pleasant - - in and out! You couldn't even be rude or violent, physically or otherwise, towards the household servants! My father would discipline you SEVERELY!
We had CHARACTER! Because my father put it in us! It had nothing to do with FAITH! No! It had to do with NOBILITY!
So, when, at 19 years of age, I decided, by God's Grace, to start my own personal walk with Jesus, it wasn't so that I could be MORALLY GOOD! No! NEVER! It was simply, to LAY HOLD ON LIFE ETERNAL!
I didn't come into Christ so as to be morally good. If you had a good upbringing, the type that I had, you'll be morally good - - IN and OUT!
Jesus gives LIFE ETERNAL, and the God-kind of RIGHTEOUSNESS that can only come with that LIFE-ETERNAL. But, a good upbringing, like mine, gives you MORALITY!
So, when people grow up, from their childhood, being allowed to "grow up wild," because some parent somewhere didn't do their job well, they now come into Christ, thinking that it's Christ's job (or, the job of THE CHURCH) to make you 'good,' it's wrong theology! The LAW makes you "GOOD" (even the "LAW" of parental upbringing), but Christ gives LIFE-ETERNAL! He gives the kind of "HEART OF LOVE" which all the morality in the world couldn't give (not that morality doesn't give you love, it does - - I've said enough about that, already; but this LIFE ETERNAL is another dimension to it).
Basically, what I'm saying is that, when you've not had a good upbringing, you think (without realising that it's your upbringing that's faulty; you think) that it's normal, outside Christ, to be rough, bad, uncouth, etc., and that it is now that you're in CHRIST that all those things will be taken away! (That's what some people understand as "old things passing away"!) NO! You simply didn't have a good upbringing! If you did, those are not "the old things" that would now have to pass away.
In case you still don't understand what I'm saying, I'm saying that those bad thoughts, ideas, character, mannerisms, lifestyle, etc. that you now claim (or expect) Christ has taken away, or to take away, does not require Christ, my brother! A good, responsible parenting and upbringing should have taken all of that away from you! If you now "overcome" those things (now that, according to you, you're "in CHRIST"), believing/thinking that that's what constitute "the New Creation," I've got BAD NEWS for you! - - I already "overcame" those things "before" the "new creation" - - as a result of GOOD PARENTING! What you're NOW calling "RIGHTEOUSNESS IN CHRIST" is what I call "normal behaviour of a moral/noble man" even if he's not in CHRIST! So, my brother, you're DECEIVED! You've simply become "MORAL" (because you didn't have parents to give it to you before now) and you're calling it RIGHTEOUSNESS IN CHRIST! How pitiable you are!
Many people today, mistake morality for righteousness. That's the reason there has been a recent emphasis, particularly among our "rev" guys (and there's nothing wrong with being a "rev" guy), but there has been an emphasis among them, on a "physical" kind of righteousness - - an outward behavioural pattern, to show that you're NOW in Christ, different from when you were NOT in Christ.
I will say it for the umpteenth time (endlessly), and will never stop saying it, that I grew up in an aristocratic home. For those who don't know what that means, it means growing up in NOBILITY. Some people associate "aristocracy" or "nobility" with having lots of money, but it's not all about money. It's all about a sublime nature and mentality, for which you're "graced" by God and/or born into. So, I say that there are 3 ways (that I personally KNOW) by which you can be an aristocrat. First, you're BORN INTO IT - - you just find yourself in it and having that spirit, nature, heart and mindset of aristocratic grace, custom, culture and mindset of nobility and it's just YOU and not even you can do anything to change it. Isaac and Jacob (descendants of Abraham) are examples of people, Biblically, who were born into nobility. Similarly Ishmael - - so that tells you that nobility (or aristocracy) has nothing to do with being a "christian." Secondly, you're given "grace" for it, regardless of where you're born into in the natural. Such people abound - - I've met them. Third, you can 'become' an aristocrat (a man of, and in, nobility) by some "specialised" association. An example of this in recent times in Nigeria, is the late Alhaji Maitama Sule, a man who comes from a family of slaves. His father was a slave in an aristocratic family in Northern Nigeria (you know, those "servants" that you have come to "identify" with a particular family; serving there, bearing their own children there, from generation to generation, and, with God's grace, such offspring of "slaves" in an aristocratic home can end up, practically, as aristocrats themselves.
Like I've said, aristocracy (nobility) has nothing to do with having lots of money. Money only helps to "manifest" aristocracy, the more, if you're already an aristocrat by nature or upbringing.
So, like I said, I grew up in an aristocratic home. I'm an aristocrat by nature.
In our home, while I was growing up, and apart from the "wealth" or "money" aspect of it (we grew up, practically, in OPULENCE) - - by the Grace of God - - but there was also another side to it - - another side to being an aristocrat, by nature and by upbringing. That other side you may not like. Forget now about the Western idea of "child abuse" (I hope you can handle "forgetting" it). We grew up ON THE ROD. When I. hear people say that they "chop cane" from their parents while growing up, I laugh! because if you knew the type of "cane," and the type of "caning," which I "chopped," as well as the "regularity" of it, you'd SCREAM! I dare say, with all gratitude to my father, the late Chief Olukayode Akinnola, that if the "totality" of all the "cane" and the "caning" which I "chopped" were to be "distributed" over 200 children (yes, two hundred children), each of them would still turn out morally good, excellent, well-behaved, having sublime etiquette, manners and mannerisms! It had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with "christianity." My father never said, "Don't you know that a christian should not do such a thing?" He never, never, attached the way he was bringing us up in, to "being a christian." If he said a thing was NOT RIGHT, it was NOT RIGHT; it had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with being a christian, a muslim, an atheist, or whatever. It was simply NOT RIGHT; it's NOT A NOBLE THING TO DO; IT DOES NOT BELONG IN THE LIFESTYLE OF AN ARISTOCRAT (A SUBLIMELY NOBLE NATURE) - - that's all! It's not about your religious faith, or lack of it; it's about NOBILITY!
Some people did not grow up in nobility, of course. Many people. Most people. People all over Akure (where we lived) in the 1960's, used to wonder, highly surprised, almost terrified, at the way Olu Akinnola (my father) handled his children with UTMOST DISCIPLINE. In school, we (the Akinnolas) were known as the cleanest, most gentle, yet lively, pupils. So, it wasn't a discipline that rendered you humourless! It wasn't a discipline that made you sub-human! Rather, it was a discipline that made you, among your peers, a "god"!
The first thing you noticed in the premises of the Akinnola household (back then) was the perfect serenity! (By the way, somebody, recently, described my "meticulousness" as "cherubic." I got it from my father, through the processes of aristocratic upbringing and training). No rowdy noisemaking! (It's a home in which you could easily feel embarrassed, without anybody seeking to embarrass you, if you're the noisy/rowdy type. You would feel intimidated.) There could be happy chatter - - and there was plenty of it; in fact, that was the 'common' thing, but not anything that my father would consider 'unruly.' In fact, but for the fact that it was a very very happy home, we spoke, virtually, almost in whispers! No, not the 'monastery' kind of thing; it was still 'normal' conversation, but there was something so 'responsible' about it that it was a far cry from what obtained "out there"!
The next thing you noticed was the very cleanliness of the entire home environment, including the grass lawns, and the always neatly-cut fence of flowers! The 'neatness' and 'cleanliness' of our 'spirit,' our 'heart' (the Akinnola 'heart' and 'spirit') manifested, thoroughly, in our environment.
After that you noticed the cleanliness of the persons! Not even the household staffers were allowed to be dirty and unkempt! My father loathed dirt of any and every kind (whether in 'character' or in 'environment'). You couldn't go around barefoot! We weren't even allowed to pick up food items, like biscuits, for instance, that had fallen on the floor! They had become 'waste' and were so treated!
No child could crawl around in the dust outside! (Remember this was the 1960's. The society wasn't as sophisticated as today's; yet the Akinnola household, uniquely, had a sophistication greater and higher than today's society). And, inside the house (before the days of the kind of floor tiles that we now have), our floors were gloss-painted (the only house I knew at that time that was like that), and mopped clean continually, so children could safely crawl around! There was nothing like a child's nappies (I think they call it 'pampers' these days?) being sandy brown because the child had been crawling or sitting just anywhere! (Not in the Akinnola household).
My father believed that everyone of his children must be able to do things for themselves! So, despite having a household Laundryman who did the bulk of the laundry, we (the children) were regularly made to wash some of our school uniforms! The same thing he did with cutting of grass in the compound. Although at any point in time we would have at least one Gardener, Dad sometimes made us to do a little bit of cutting grass to keep the environment tidy. It was the "cleanliness" in our heart, the tidiness, the 'orderliness,' the 'character' (instilled and engrained in us through Dad's strict discipline) that was simply manifesting on the outside. You had to be truthful; you had to be straightforward (at ALL times!) No lying; (of course, no stealing); no abuses (I don't know how to abuse); (of course, no cursing); no 'street language,' not to talk of "gutter language"!
We were taught to go out of our way to do good; to be philanthropic. And my father, himself, was the best example of that. I wouldn't know how many children and relations of his friends/acquaintances, or perhaps people he didn't really know, that he sponsored in school or cared for, one way or another. You might say, well, he had the money! But, what about those around you, today, who have it, but wouldn't as much as allow you to fetch water in their house/compound if you were kind of having problems with your source of water?
And, talk of etiquette! The Akinnola household, and members thereof, were excellent, wherever we found ourselves. My cousin, Clifford Adeduro, who grew up as a part of the family, used to say no child could grow up in our house and be spoilt!
Your shoes had to be freshly polished for each new day that you would use that particular pair! From childhood, I was taught that if a lady didn't have a seat, and I had one, I should give up my seat for the lady!
I didn't learn all (or any) of these things in a church seminar! I learnt them at HOME! And, it was NOT "labelled" "christian." It was simply the "NOBLE" thing to do!
In our house, you didn't lean on walls, making them dirty; no; you didn't drag furniture on the floor, making unpleasant sound and ruining the furniture; no! And, it was in the same way that we were never allowed to use bad, corrupt, corrosive, vitriolic language towards anybody! Never! You had to be pleasant - - in and out! You couldn't even be rude or violent, physically or otherwise, towards the household servants! My father would discipline you SEVERELY!
We had CHARACTER! Because my father put it in us! It had nothing to do with FAITH! No! It had to do with NOBILITY!
So, when, at 19 years of age, I decided, by God's Grace, to start my own personal walk with Jesus, it wasn't so that I could be MORALLY GOOD! No! NEVER! It was simply, to LAY HOLD ON LIFE ETERNAL!
I didn't come into Christ so as to be morally good. If you had a good upbringing, the type that I had, you'll be morally good - - IN and OUT!
Jesus gives LIFE ETERNAL, and the God-kind of RIGHTEOUSNESS that can only come with that LIFE-ETERNAL. But, a good upbringing, like mine, gives you MORALITY!
So, when people grow up, from their childhood, being allowed to "grow up wild," because some parent somewhere didn't do their job well, they now come into Christ, thinking that it's Christ's job (or, the job of THE CHURCH) to make you 'good,' it's wrong theology! The LAW makes you "GOOD" (even the "LAW" of parental upbringing), but Christ gives LIFE-ETERNAL! He gives the kind of "HEART OF LOVE" which all the morality in the world couldn't give (not that morality doesn't give you love, it does - - I've said enough about that, already; but this LIFE ETERNAL is another dimension to it).
Basically, what I'm saying is that, when you've not had a good upbringing, you think (without realising that it's your upbringing that's faulty; you think) that it's normal, outside Christ, to be rough, bad, uncouth, etc., and that it is now that you're in CHRIST that all those things will be taken away! (That's what some people understand as "old things passing away"!) NO! You simply didn't have a good upbringing! If you did, those are not "the old things" that would now have to pass away.
In case you still don't understand what I'm saying, I'm saying that those bad thoughts, ideas, character, mannerisms, lifestyle, etc. that you now claim (or expect) Christ has taken away, or to take away, does not require Christ, my brother! A good, responsible parenting and upbringing should have taken all of that away from you! If you now "overcome" those things (now that, according to you, you're "in CHRIST"), believing/thinking that that's what constitute "the New Creation," I've got BAD NEWS for you! - - I already "overcame" those things "before" the "new creation" - - as a result of GOOD PARENTING! What you're NOW calling "RIGHTEOUSNESS IN CHRIST" is what I call "normal behaviour of a moral/noble man" even if he's not in CHRIST! So, my brother, you're DECEIVED! You've simply become "MORAL" (because you didn't have parents to give it to you before now) and you're calling it RIGHTEOUSNESS IN CHRIST! How pitiable you are!
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