Are We Ignorant?

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

² For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

³ For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

-Romans 10:1-3 (King James Version)

I really think these words of Paul are among the most insightful words he's written. These words, I believe, are directed right toward the religious leaders during his time. The reason they are so insightful is because he, Paul, was one of them. Paul was a Pharisee, and in Philippians 3:4-8 he recounts all that he was, and how he now views that compared to Christ. 

He says, in Romans 10:1, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." Paul wanted them to be saved. That was his desire. Verse 2, "For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." The religious leaders he studied under had a zeal for God, but, according to verse 3, their zeal was based upon trying to establish their own brand of righteousness. "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." When you study the encounters between Jesus and the religious leaders of His day, you see where they (the religious leaders), put more emphasis on their own man made doctrines of how things should be, than on the commandments that God had given them to follow. Maybe they felt that the Old Testament law was incomplete, and they needed to fill in the gaps, and and add some things here and there. They didn't understand the righteousness of God, and they would never submit themselves to it.

That brings us to today. People are still trying to establish their own righteousness through their own man made doctrines, instead of what is written in the Word of God. We have a zeal for God, but our zeal is misplaced. Our zeal for God is placed upon the things we believe God should stand for, how we believe God should work. We add to and subtract from His Word, for we feel we know better what He meant. In reality, all those efforts mean we are still ignorant of God's righteousness. Think About It.