Do Not Be Overly Righteous

Can you please explain to me what it means to be over-righteous and over-wise in the context of Ecclesiastes 7.16? Then Tony writes, what does it mean in Genesis 6 when it says, the Lord regretted that He had made man, and also when He says, for I am sorry that I have made them? What does Ecclesiastes mean when it says in 7.16, be not overly righteous? Ecclesiastes 7.16. So I mean, what this really is, I mean when I'm posed with a question like this, we're dealing with hermeneutics, Bible interpretation. We're trying to think, okay, what are some of the most basic interpretive methods? Some of the most basic. I'll give you three right off.

One, you want to compare Scripture with Scripture. Two, you want to give close attention to the context, the verses right around the verse you're looking at or have a question about. Anybody know what that area right around the verse is called besides context? Pericope.

There you go. It shows up in Bible works and they use it, and I've heard a pastor use it from the pulpit, but I would not recommend using it from the pulpit. But anyway, and another thing is, read the entire letter.

And not just the immediate context, but read the entire letter. Because oftentimes, thoughts are showing up in the same letter in other places that may be similar, or at least may help to explain the kind of mindset that the author has. And so those are two big ones.

Now, beyond that, you might say you could look for similar thoughts in the same author in other places. But of course, this is Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is a very unique book.

So yes, we could find some other things that Solomon wrote, but the Proverbs, what else did he write? Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon is entirely different than Ecclesiastes. And the Proverbs, although there are areas in Ecclesiastes that are proverbial in nature, it's really the perspective of a man who has just found everything to be vanity.

Which that's not really the feel that you get in the Proverbs themselves. It's a very unique letter. In fact, you have to be careful with Ecclesiastes, just simply because you're not necessarily getting the most spiritual, sometimes perspective on things, as much as you're getting the perspective of a man who tried a lot of women, he tried a lot of pleasure, he had a lot of money, he had a lot of wisdom, and he just gave himself to all the things this world has to offer.

And in the end, he was just left empty. That's really the kind of letter that we're looking at. So, let's start by, obviously, we're not going to take the time to read all of Ecclesiastes now.

But I had time earlier to think about some of the things that are said in other parts of Ecclesiastes, and I'll bring those out in a second. But let's just read the context. So, verse 16 is where we've got the problem.

Let's just go back, I don't know, say verse 12, just random. Somebody start reading in verse 12, and then go past. If we're going to start four verses before, somebody go past to like verse 20.

And just, let's pick up the context. And just see if anything jumps out at you at all. I might stop you if you start reading just because you just hit on something that sounds important in my ears.

But listen for anything that might seem helpful in kind of giving us a feel for what 16 is. Somebody just read 16 first. Let's just get the problematic verse.

Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? Okay, so if we just want to be honest at face value, and we need to be, be honest with Scripture. What does that sound like it's saying? It sounds like it's going to mess your life up if you're overly righteous or overly wise, right? In other words, the result of being either of those is bad.

That's what he's saying, right? You all agree? That's what it sounds like it's saying. So, what should we expect? Is there a secret meaning here? Or, yeah, that's right. As I go through life, I don't want to be overly righteous.

Because why? God's Word says it. After all, Solomon says it in Ecclesiastes. I think some of the New Testament argumentation is often Romans 7. It's amazing people come up with these verses that they basically vindicate their sin.

Be very careful when you do that. So, okay, somebody start reading in verse 12 and go all the way through verse 20. For wisdom is protection, just as money is protection.

Okay, well, right there, does wisdom sound good or bad? It sounds great. We'd already say... And here's the thing. You know, you would expect that typically if somebody's going to contradict themselves, you know, they might tell a lie over here and then the next day they kind of forgot and they said something else.

You typically don't say one sentence and then contradict yourself like within the same four sentences. It's pretty obvious then. I'm not saying nobody ever does that.

Look, I want you all to know, I do not approach Scripture from the standpoint that there could possibly be contradictions there. I don't go to the Scriptures as a judge seeking to figure out if I can find contradictions and somehow call it into question. When the Lord saved me, this is what happens.

The Spirit of God convinced me of the truthfulness of Scripture. When I find something that I can't understand, it doesn't even cross my mind that there's a contradiction here. What I immediately recognize, I am persuaded that this is the Word of God.

And you know what? Nobody can do that by logic. In fact, if you read 1 Corinthians 2, you will find that it is the Spirit of God that reveals spiritual things. The Spirit of God convinces us.

It goes beyond logic. You have to be convinced. I'm convinced.

When I go to Scripture and I find something that seems to be contradictory, I recognize this. It isn't. And if I think it is, the problem is with my understanding.

Now, it could even be the interpreters. It could even be the guys that interpreted the ESV. Maybe they were wrong.

That happens sometimes. Because all you have to do is compare translations. And you can find out, one translation says this, another translation says this.

And sometimes it's like, hey, that's not even the same. That's right. Sometimes it could be the translation.

What I recognize is this, when that Word was originally given, there was no contradiction in it. So maybe the problem is with the translator. Maybe and probably, the translation problems are with me and how I'm interpreting this thing.

And what you have to recognize is this, sometimes in Scripture, you have sarcasm. Sometimes in Scripture, you actually have the author telling you what the enemies of the truth say. Sometimes you have words used that actually have to do with how people see themselves rather than how they truly are.

And I'll give you an example of that. I'll tell you more about that. I know that probably wasn't real obvious what I meant there.

But right here in the same context, you've got wisdom is a good thing. So go ahead and keep reading. John says, "...for wisdom is protection just as money is protection.

But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its possessors." So there it is again. Wisdom preserves. It's a good thing.

Now, so far, you would say get as much of it as possible. Go ahead. John says, "...consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what he has bent? In the day of prosperity, be happy.

But in the day of adversity, consider God has made the one as well as the other, so that man will not discover anything that will be after him. I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness..." Well, you might want to just stop there too.

My life of futility. Can I tell you something? The Apostle Paul never talks that way. When you come to the New Testament, the New Testament authors do not view their life as a life of futility.

So one of the things you have to recognize is just the particular, special nature of Ecclesiastes. It's almost like what happened was God allowed Solomon. And it's kind of like, you know, you get to the end of Ecclesiastes and somebody has likened Ecclesiastes to Psalm 51.

That's basically Solomon's Psalm 51. It's his psalm of repentance. He basically wants to tell us about how with all this learning, and with all these riches, and with all these women, and with all the advantage, and all everything that he had, and he gave himself to building buildings and projects of all sorts.

He gave himself to everything under the sun, and in the end, vanity of vanities. So anyway, we need to recognize we're dealing with a man who just sees the futility of it all. Not all without exception, but all in the life that's lived without God.

Because in the end, he's going to take us somewhere else. In the end, he has things to say about living for God that obviously take him out of this futility. But you just recognize, if you get that kind of flavor, he's looking at certain things that he sees.

Remember, he wrote all these Proverbs. Where'd they all come from? Because he's observing man. He's watching how things work.

And he's saying, you know, I looked. The rich man, the poor man, you know what? They both die in the end. He also looked and he said, I see a righteous person, and they died in their youth.

That wicked guy over there, he lived to be 100 years old. What's that? He's recognizing, it just seems futile to me. And what good is it all? What is it? Anyway, go ahead and keep going.

So, 16. Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool.

Why should you die before your time? It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other. For the one who fears God comes forth with both of them. Wisdom strengthens a wise man.

Now, he comes forth with both of what? The man who fears God comes forth with both of what? Well, the ESV says comes out from both. The NAS makes it sound like he's bringing both with him. The ESV makes it sound like you leave being overly righteous, overly wicked.

Okay, so now we have a translation. See, that's important. Let's just talk.

Let's talk about this. I was talking to Zach just the other day about the importance of you being able to cross-reference translations. You don't need to be a Greek scholar.

You know what? The people who translated the NAS, the New King James, the Old King James, the ESV, Young's Literal Translation, the New English Translation, the Holman Christian Translation, the Old Geneva Translation, the Old Tyndale Translation. Maybe I would say NIV. I'm slurred.

Look, if you can cross-reference all of those, those translations were translated by tremendous linguists. Well, some better than others undoubtedly. Some with more conservative translational principles.

But when you take those works and you cross-reference them, sometimes that can be extremely helpful. I was telling the guys the other day, typically we use the ESV as a pulpit Bible at our church, but one of the primary reasons is not for scholarliness. The primary reason was an evangelistic one.

But the New American Standard and the New King James are very scholarly translations. Young's Literal Translation, he typically takes the Greek words in the order that they're found in the original and he makes it readable. But I find the YLT to be extremely helpful.

I have Greek tools available and I can manage to get around and I do lots of studies in the Greek. But listen, you all have the ability on the Internet today to cross-reference. And if you can, I don't know, people talk about BibleHub.

Are there free things where you can cross-reference online? Study it? Okay, well see, you need to use these because undoubtedly the translations that I just told you about are available to you for free. And so you want to cross-reference because the thing is, sometimes just the differences in translation, it's like I was saying before, one of the problems can be in misunderstanding a text. I can tell you this, the Old King James been tremendously used of the Lord.

But there are ways in which it translates verbs in Romans 6 that as a young Christian, I could not follow Romans 6 because some of those verb translations just honestly are not the best. And when you actually get them in the New King James and the New American Standard, they flow and the meaning comes together in a way that, I mean, you can say it was me, it was my problem. Okay, I'll grant you that.

I won't say that it was necessarily the problem of the King James. Yes, it was my problem. But I can tell you this, that when I went to other translations, it materialized before my eyes in a way that it never had before.

So I just encourage you, cross-reference the translations. Get a feel. Now, I think you went far enough.

I would just ask you this, you want to think about the genre of text that you're looking at. For one, it's Old Testament. Two, it's a very unusual letter and it's a man, I don't know if you want to say necessarily that he was being sarcastic, but he's definitely a man that had come to the place where it was all futile.

And this is a man whatever thoughts of grandeur or finding fulfillment in this world that he may have had in all of his endeavors, he came to the end and he was empty. So it's an unusual letter. One of the things that I would ask is this, the idea of not being overly righteous, is there anywhere else in Scripture? I mean, if you just want to use that hermeneutical process, is there anywhere else in Scripture that you can think of where we're being taught, especially in the clear teaching of Jesus Christ or His apostles in the New Testament, where they ever teach you, don't be overly righteous? Anyplace.

In fact, you tell me verses that seem to indicate we ought to be as holy, as righteous, as Christ-like, as loving as possible. Can you think of any? What are you going to do with that? The standard is God Himself. Don't be overly righteous.

You're supposed to be perfect like God is perfect. Holy as God is holy. Or when you think about Scripture, what do you think about? Even this same author in the Proverbs, he talks about the life of the believer being like the rising of the sun.

And it's just brighter and brighter until the fullness of day. What is that a picture of? Increase. More and more brightness.

More and more. Can you think about any verses in the New Testament that just talk about more and more? Doing something more? Growing more and more? Further and further? Can you think of any verses like that? Somebody look at Luke 6.36. What's that? 6.36. Somebody else look at 2 Corinthians 7.1. This is just some I randomly pulled out. Somebody else look at James 1.4. Somebody else can grab 1 Peter 1.15. There's still some of you left without one.

1 Thessalonians 3.12. 1 Thessalonians 4.1. 2 Peter 3.18. Just start saying them when you find them. Okay, therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. So again, God is the standard.

We're told to be merciful like He's merciful, perfect like He's perfect, holy like He's holy. I mean, when do you reach that? When can you say, oh, I'm being overly God-like? So when he uses righteous there, what would you say the definition of it is? Is it in the context right there? Is it what standard is it referring to imperfectly? In Ecclesiastes? Okay, now I have the tools to basically go look at the Hebrew word. That Hebrew word is used for righteousness all the way through.

Noah was righteous. Abraham is the same word. So it's the word for righteousness.

And that's key too, because you want to know, what word am I looking for? Sometimes you get words that they're translated into English a certain way, but it's an odd word in the original for that. And sometimes it's got a meaning that kind of goes out in another direction. Nope, none of that here.

This is your word for righteousness. So there's no secret hidden meanings in the Hebrew. Maybe he was giving a built Scripture in other places that specifically says self-righteous.

So why would it here say overly or excessively righteous? Right, we're going to get there. Let's just listen to these other verses first. Did you find one? Come on, this was your question.

You've got to be involved. Anybody have one of the other ones? Seven one. Which one? If you're called new and holy, also be holy in all your conduct.

Right, we kind of mentioned that one. Is it in James 4? Yes. Okay, alright.

And let 6,000 have the tools that they would be perfect and complete like in the New Testament. Perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. Did you find 2 Corinthians 7.1? Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit.

Every defilement. We are to cleanse ourselves from every defilement. No, Scripture doesn't say, well, okay, don't go overboard there.

Just some of the defilements. Don't be overly pure. Don't be overly clean.

Every shadow of a stain is to be eradicated. Look, we know. I just get this feel among professing Christianity.

We're so quick to say, well, nobody can be perfect. So quick to say, well, the Bible doesn't say we can be perfect. Well, the Bible actually does tell us to be perfect.

Now look, we so often get hung up on, well, in this lifetime, we can't fully... But I would say this, Scripture doesn't... Okay, Paul can say he hasn't yet arrived. That's true. But the thing is, brethren, we are to be radically striving for perfection.

Radically. You know this idea of having a clear conscience? You know what Paul said? 1 Corinthians 4.4 I love it. I come back to it over and over.

Because here's the example of a man. You know what he said about himself? I know nothing against myself. Now, should we be able to live our lives so that when we think about it, we're recognizing, I don't actively know of any sin.

And when we do fail, we confess it immediately. We're dealing with it before God. I mean, that's where Paul lived.

A clear conscience. What does that mean? It means you don't actively know sin in your life. You guys look at any of the other ones? 2 Peter 3.18 About growth and grace.

Yeah, we're to grow. There's never any cautions against excessive growth. Never.

And so, that would be one of the first places. Because typically, when something shows up in Scripture, it's safe to say that it is a portion of this body of truth. The Apostles' doctrine.

And so, we ought to be able to look in cross-referenced Scripture and find the teaching somewhere else. But you know, you can't find it anywhere else. This idea of being excessively... Now, let's just think about this.

He's either saying what it sounds like he's saying. Don't be excessively righteous. And he means true righteousness.

But I think, hopefully, we can tell by cross-referencing, Scripture just doesn't support that idea. So what are some other possibilities here? Well, another one is that in the midst of all of this, he is simply stating what some people say, and he's trying to debunk it. Now, look at 1 Corinthians 15.

There's many places we could show you this. Those of us that are spanning the depths of Galatians on Thursday afternoon, that's been an issue, is hearing what Paul's opponents say. Often when Paul's writing, he tells us what the error is.

But if people don't recognize it, because one of the problems is there's not quotation marks in Greek. And so, sometimes it can be hard to tell. But like when Paul says, all things are lawful, that is not likely something that Paul is saying himself.

The Corinthians have said that. What he's doing is he's coming back and saying, okay, you say all things are lawful. All things are lawful, but all things do not build up.

See, there's various places. 1 Corinthians 7 in Galatians, where you're kind of hearing what the Judaizers were saying to Peter. This happens all over the place.

But specifically, I want you to look at 1 Corinthians 15, 33 and 34. Because it's just so obvious here. But it's important.

The reason I'm taking you here is because it's important to recognize that there are times in Scripture when you have something being said. Obviously, in narratives, you know what I mean by narratives. When you get this historical event, obviously, there are times when people say things.

You know, Sarah, say you're my sister. You know, there's obvious times you can quote stuff from Scripture in a narrative. And it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the right thing to say.

But often, when it's not a narrative where you have different people talking, you just have one person teaching, like in the Epistles or Ecclesiastes. Even though there's not necessarily another person immediately involved in correspondence back and forth, you can actually have the author quote what somebody else says, and then he seeks to answer it. So, right here, somebody read 1 Corinthians 15, 33 through 34.

Did you start in 33? Maybe 32. There it is. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.

Now, obviously, that's not Paul's instruction. Paul is not teaching that to the Corinthians, right? We would all agree that is not Paul's instruction to us. And yet, if you just isolated it right there, it certainly sounds like it's a commandment from him.

It sounds like it's an imperative. But taken in that context, we recognize, that is what somebody else is saying. Anyway, the only reason I wanted you to go there is just to recognize, because like I said, we are encountering this in Galatians.

Sometimes, when you consider that possibility, it makes the text open up to you. Here's another possibility. The other possibility is that he's not quoting somebody else.

This is something he's saying. And he is actually implying self-righteousness. Now, Tony says, well, there are other places where when self-righteousness is spoken of, the self is inserted.

So that was problematic for Tony. But let me give you an example, because again, Scripture does speak this way. Go to Luke chapter 15.

Scripture will often identify somebody based on what they claim to be, not what they really are. You say, what? Yeah, look at Luke 7 of chapter 15. Tell me about those 99 people.

Who are they? What makes you think so? Who said that? I was actually looking for the righteous persons who need no repentance. Who needs no repentance? No one. Who's righteous? Well, hey, Jesus said there's 99.

Scripture's contradicting itself. Jesus says there's 99 righteous people. Paul says in Romans chapter 3 that there's none righteous.

Now, of course, he's quoting from the Old Testament. But what do we do? Well, we don't say there's a contradiction. What do we say? The 99 righteous people aren't truly righteous people.

There is nobody who doesn't need repentance because Jesus said unless you repent, you will perish. God commands all men everywhere to repent. Everybody needs to repent.

What is he talking about people who need no repentance? Well, it's not that they actually don't need repentance, but what? They don't think they need repentance. They think they're righteous. Scripture deals with people at times on the basis of who they claim to be.

And I think that that's probably the best way to handle Ecclesiastes, especially in light of the other things that he says there. He clearly is saying that fearing God is good. He clearly is saying that wisdom is good.

And in fact, if we just maybe look at the broader context, when you get to the end of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse 13, I mean, what's Paul's basic conclusion? Anybody know the conclusion of the whole matter? Fear God and keep His commandments. Is he saying, well, don't keep His commandments too much? That's not what he's saying. I think he's basically vanity of vanities.

And he's looking around and it just seems like what he's doing is he's identifying people that are not truly righteous, but striving to be righteous in their own strength. It seems like what he's talking about. And you'd say, well, isn't that odd to say, don't be overly? I mean, if they're not righteous and this is just some put-on, or this is self-righteousness, wouldn't you say, don't be that at all? Perhaps.

But I mean, you've got to wrestle through your options here. And I think if you read all of Ecclesiastes, you basically find that vanity of vanity. That's how the letter starts.

There's an emptiness here. And he's not saying, don't fear God. Don't keep His commandments.

He's actually, the conclusion of the whole matter is that that's exactly what you should be doing. And so I suspect what he's seeing is the kind of righteousness that isn't a genuine righteousness. It's somebody that's trying to be something that seems to be a shell.

It seems to be the outward only. Kind of like Jesus talking about the 99 who are righteous and don't need repentance. Don't be like that.

I mean, that's not profitable. That doesn't lead anywhere. That personally, when I wrestle with a verse like that, I mean, personally wrestling with this verse, that's where I would tend to lean.

But the thing is that when I search the New Testament, I'm not hung up on that verse. That verse doesn't cause me to trip up. I recognize just in what was said here tonight that there's differences in the ESV and the NAS.

I mean, there are areas of Scripture that are hard to translate. Sometimes I get the footnote in the ESV and it just says meaning uncertain. I mean, those are the kind of things that translators are confronted with.

Sometimes they get things and it's like it's really difficult. And Hebrew is far more difficult than Greek because there is so much that has to be filled in that you have to assume. And so, I don't get hung up over that text because there are so many verses in the New Testament that are pressing us to be holy.

Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Cleanse every defilement. Every defilement.

I know nothing against myself. A clear conscience. You see, when I come to the New Testament, what I'm finding is Christ is pressing His people.

He looks at them and He says, follow Me. What are you going to do if you're following Him? What does it look like to follow somebody? I mean, I remember being in Indonesia. We were following in the dark up the side of a volcano.

We were carrying these packs and it got dark and it was treacherous. I mean, even the trail had pits and rocks and there was a ditch off to one side. Carlos was back there behind us.

He was about two, three people behind me. And all of a sudden, you just heard, Vroom! He fell into that ditch and he had a pack on. Carlos, are you okay? He was not okay.

He sprained his ankle. So for the whole next day and a half trudging up and down that volcano, he was impaired. But I remember every step, Lord, guide my foot, guide my foot.

Because I mean, everything around there was... It was amazing when the sun came up in the morning. The Lord gave us the only piece of flat ground to pitch our tents in the entire place. And it was pitch black.

We just found it. But I can remember as it's getting darker and darker and darker, I'm trying to keep my eyes... It's like I don't want to veer off. Because leading and you're kind of trusting Him that He's been up this path before, none of the rest of us have.

You're trying to keep your eyes on that shirt in front of you. You're wanting to follow. Jesus says, follow Me.

I mean, He never says veer off or don't follow Me as well as you can. He's saying, follow Me. And where's He going? I mean, if you look up there in the horizon, there's a cross.

And He said, we need to carry our cross. We need to die daily. And I'm setting my eyes on Him.

Look, when you behold His glory, you're transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to the next. What are you going to say? There's a cap on the glory of Christ that you want written on your own soul? That verse back there in Ecclesiastes, actually, I mean, I'm not haunted by it. I don't lose sleep over it.

It doesn't put a check on my soul. Because the clear realities of the New Testament is strive after Christ. Strive to have His glory.

Just that image ingrained in your own person and your own being. To be as Christ-like as possible. He says, I gave you an example.

He said, love one another like I loved you. No greater love than this, that you lay down your life for your friends. He gives us this example.

He says, imitate me. Did He not say that? Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly. What are we going to say? Well, I've learned enough.

That's not the spirit of the New Testament. Not at all. It's always more, more, more.

It's like, even in Solomon's own writings, brighter and brighter and brighter until the fullness of day. Abide in me. That's what He said.

He said, much fruit. My Father is glorified. Much fruit.

I mean, with Jesus, He gave Himself for this particular people to make them zealous. Of not just barely enough good works, but zealous of good works. Zealous.

And so there's no cap. You can find the Christian that's reached the highest heights of holiness and righteousness. And yet, even for that person, Scripture was calling them higher, higher.

Because even Paul, who's, I don't think you find anywhere in Scripture a more righteous man than Christ Himself, than the Apostle Paul. And what did he say to the Philippians? As high as he had gone. It's amazing.

You find one place where he says he misspoke against the high priest and they slugged him in the head. But it's interesting. You don't really see sin in this guy's life.

You see, he knows nothing against himself. He's striving to keep a clear conscience. And yet, he can tell the Philippians, I haven't obtained.

Even for him, that day he got his head chopped off, Scripture was still calling him higher. If he'd have lived another day or another week, it was calling him upward, upward, more, more. So, the reality is in Scripture that we have this call.

Remember, we've seen it in Galatians. Paul says that I died to the law, that I might live to God. And that reality comes out in Romans chapter 4 as well.

Or Romans chapter 7, the first four verses. In fact, you can look there. Look at the first four verses of Romans 7. There's this idea of belonging to Christ.

Why? Just that we might live unto God and be fruitful unto God. Dying to the law. It's like this reality.

You have a woman. She's married. She ends up going off with some other guy.

She's counted an adulteress. But the reality is that if the guy dies, she's not committed adultery if she goes and marries another guy. And what does it say in verse 4? I mean, basically he tells this whole thing about somebody committing adultery and not committing adultery and the husband dying.

And look at the conclusion he comes to in 7.4. Somebody read that? Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. Well, yeah, that's good. You know what the picture is? The picture is like the law was our first husband.

And we died with Christ. So that now we're no longer married to the law. Now we belong to Christ, the One who died, that we might live to God.

This is the way you bear fruit. I mean, the reality is, the realities of Scripture are Christ is the key to us growing in fruitfulness before God just more and more. And it's found in Him.

It's found there. You know, you can have a person that's striving in their own flesh. I think this is really what Solomon is talking about.

Somebody striving by their own efforts to be as good as possible, or at least to put on a show of that. And that's really the problem the Galatians were faced with. They were trying to be perfected according to the flesh.

Well, not only do you want to overmuch give yourself to that, you don't want to give yourself to that at all. The secret of the Christian life is found in faith in Christ. It really shows up everywhere.

We need to die to law. That's the thing about self-righteousness. What does self-righteousness do? Well, it basically sets up its standards.

And if I keep them or strive to keep them, then I'm righteous. No, put that away. Ten commandments or whatever.

Oh, the commandments are righteous. But the problem is, they don't give you any help keeping them. The secret is found in having your eyes glued on Christ.

And what the Spirit of God will do is something mysterious. He changes you. He makes you want to.

He changes you from the inside out. That's what we need. We need transformation at the heart level, inside out.

But that's that one. Your other one was Genesis 6. 6. Okay. Yes.

Okay. I guess like in the ESV, it seems to verse 16, be not overly righteous. Verse 17, be not overly wicked.

And it says if you fear God, you come out from both of them. Being overly wicked, being overly righteous. Yes.

And in that case, it would be that fearing God delivers you from being overly righteous, which obviously he's indicating is a bad thing. And if that word righteous is actually used as a good thing in other places, it means that he's actually putting, like Jesus did in Luke 15, he's putting the meaning on it based on how people view it. Not so much for what it actually is in and of itself.

So I understand, yeah. Be not overly righteous. Be not legalistic.

Would you take the be not overly wicked as be not lawless? Or I would be saying not to be overly wicked. And come out from both of them. So when I read it in my daily reading a while back, I put come out from legalism and lawlessness.

I mean, I don't know if that's be not overly wicked. I can't be as convinced of that as the be not overly righteous. Right.

Yeah. I mean, obviously what he's describing there is something that we need to be delivered from, something to come out of, they're kind of extremes, but it's not the extreme of bad and good. Obviously, we're never called in Scripture away from the good.

So it's two extremes that show up in the spirit of Ecclesiastes. What you have to remember is a man who's basically, he's watching things. He's a man who's observing things with his eyes.

He's not always in tune with the spiritual rightness of things. How could he be? You look at Solomon. Now by the time he writes this letter, it might be, but so much of what he's writing about is his perspectives as he's come through life.

But I mean, his wives led him into all manner of idolatry. But it seems like in the end, like I say, this is Psalm 51, where it seems like when you get to the end, he's recognizing and fearing God and keeping His commandments. This is the path after it's all said and done.

This is the sum of the matter as I found it. As I've sized up everything in life, this is where I'm left. This is what matters.