“There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.” (Proverbs 30:12)
Many think they are doing right, even acting in the service of God, when they do the most ungodly things (Acts 26:9; John 16:2). Man’s capacity for self-deception is great (Jer. 17:9). The gulf is wide indeed between what is right and what one thinks is right. When we self-justify we vindicate our actions. We sit in judgment of ourselves and declare that our hands and ways are “clean.” “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.” (Proverbs 16:2)
To be justified of God, we must judge ourselves correctly by the help of the Spirit of God; we must humbly acknowledge when we have turned aside from God’s leading and acted in our own spirit; we must have no delusion at work when we declare that our deeds have been “wrought in God.”
Multitudes who are presently “clean” in their own eyes will shortly be weighed in God’s balance and be found wanting. If we would judge ourselves correctly now we would not be condemned with the world. Don’t let your righteousness be a figment of your own imagination. Get really right.