The prophet Isaiah offered a prayer of national repentance. In it he declared, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags…” (Isa. 64:6).
No doubt, this vivid word picture would have been very familiar to the people of Judah as they relied on using rags to cleanse themselves from bodily discharges. Isaiah describes the hypocritical displays of righteousness of his people as “filthy rags” which are unable to cleanse them. I couldn’t help but think about how well this fits our own nation’s outward reliance on a religious heritage while sin is ignored and flaunted.
I’ll admit, I like it when I witness influential or famous people publicly express faith in God. I like it when athletes give verbal praise to Christ or point upward toward God. I like it when national leaders express reliance on God. However, when the same mouths use vulgar language that needs to be “bleeped,” it proves such “righteousness” as merely “filthy rags.”
Speaking of the use of the tongue, James writes: “With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing…” (3:9-10).
It is easy for us to see the hypocrisy that is all around us; but just as Isaiah’s words were primarily meant for God’s people (not the Gentiles) in his time, we as God’s people today must take heed to the principle being taught. If we rely on our own righteousness instead of the righteousness revealed in God’s Word, “all our righteousnesses are filthy rags” and are unable to cleanse us.