Don’t Be a Prig by Bryan Craig

It is not your devotion to God that makes you refuse to be shallow, but your wish to impress other people with the fact that you are not shallow, which is a sure sign that you are a spiritual prig. - Oswald Chambers

I, like many others, have found that Oswald Chambers’ daily devotion, “My Utmost for His Highest” is full of rich treasures of truth.  Most of these messages were taken from Oswald’s teaching to seminary students in the late 1800’s.  Oswald was Scottish and so some of his language in his devotionals reflect that.  The quote above about someone being a “spiritual prig” caught my attention.  I wasn’t sure what a “prig” was, but I was certain it was not good. 

A quick search told me what a prig is defined as: a self-righteously moralistic person who behaves as if superior to others.  Another definition is this: a person who displays or demands of others pointlessly precise conformity, fussiness about trivialities, or exaggerated propriety, especially in a self-righteous or irritating manner. 

This really struck me.  I’m a perfectionist, a #1 on the Enneagram personality profile, and someone who always feels like I want to do the right thing.  And I’ve spent so many years studying and meditating upon God’s Word, I feel like I can apply it to many situations. I’m afraid at times I’ve been a “prig.” 

Recently, I was spending time journaling through John 6-10 as part of my Journey Group, and it blew me away that Jesus, the Son of God was standing among the religious leaders, who knew Scripture inside and out, and they could not see Him for Who He was.  It is fitting that Jesus seized an opportunity as He healed a blind man who had been blind since birth.  The leaders could not get out of their legalistic, rigid thinking that the man must have sinned, which caused his blindness.  They interviewed the man’s parents, they interviewed the man, they interviewed Jesus. 

They did not realize that THEY were blind.  Jesus said “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”  John 9:39 ESV

In John chapters 6-10, Jesus declares that He was the Bread of Life, the Son of God, the Living Water, the Light of the World, the Christ, the Savior, the Good Shepherd, the Father, and because He challenged everything they understood in their fleshly minds from the Old Testament scriptures, they wanted to kill Him.

I always want to be hard on the Pharisees, and then I realize how quickly I can become one.  Strange how we can know the Scriptures so well and not know the One Whom they are about.  We can be so full of Scripture that we begin to think we are the standard, and everyone must meet our expectations.

This is why we must learn to Abide in Christ.  When we come into His glorious Light, and He captivates our sinful hearts, the Scriptures move from our head to our hearts.  Then, the words in Scripture are immersed in His love, and they are used to convict US, not others.  Then, we have eyes to see our own sin and our own desperation.

The man who was blind since birth did not know Jesus, nor did He know God’s Word, but once Jesus touched him, he believed.  We need God’s Word, for we need God’s standard of living, and Jesus came to fulfill the Scriptures and be the Incarnate Word.  But the world doesn’t need to know how much we know.  They need to know the One we know.  When they meet Him, He changes everything.

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people. Ephesians 1:17-18 ESV