60. It is very different for us if we read the Word with a body of false religious teaching in our mind, and even more different if we use the Word to support those teachings and then focus on earthly wealth or our own glory. Then it is as though the truth of the Word were in the shadow of night and what is false were in the light of day. What we read is true, but we do not see it; and if we see even a shadow of the truth we distort it. We are then the people of whom the Lord said that they have eyes, but they do not see, and ears, but they do not understand (Matthew 13:14-15). This is because nothing blinds us more completely than our self-importance and our convincing ourselves of what is false. Our self-importance is our infatuation with ourselves and our consequent pride in our intelligence; and our convincing ourselves of what is false is a darkness that pretends to be light. Our light in that case is entirely earthly, and our sight is like that of someone who sees ghosts in the dark.

The word "righteous" has taken on a bit of negative shading in modern language. That may be because we hear it most often as part of the word "self-righteous," a rather scathing term for someone who thinks he is quite a good person -- almost certainly better than anyone around him -- and is in a position to judge others without being judged himself. The original word, however, is not negative at all: A righteous person is simply someone who does what is right. The spiritual meaning of "righteous" reflects that: people described as "righteous" act from a love of serving others, and that love is "righteousness." This is commonly described as "the good of charity," "charity" meaning a state of caring for others.