Blogging Ottinger (tim)Scripture of the Day
Deciding to be a follower of Christ means deciding to live your life by righteousness and compassion. A simple search of the bible for the word “righteous” turns up a daunting number of places where men are either praised for their blamelessness, or else cursed for their intrigues.
Isaiah 59 speaks of a time in the life of Israel when the mechanizations of its leaders (religious and otherwise) were unfit for blessing. In general, it speaks to a time when men have forsaken righteousness and when justice is hard to find. In our times, a leading cause of unrighteousness is self-righteousness. The main difference between the two is that the righteous try to do whatever is right, where the self-righteous try to make whatever they do right. The righteous are self-searching and listen for a rebuke, whereas the self-righteous push their own agenda, and condemn those who disagree with them.
What is right? If one is a Christian, one believes that God will judge the righteous and the wicked, and that God is reliable (unchanging) in his commandment to man to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God”. Moral direction is given, never to mislead, never to seek your own profit at another’s expense, never to covet, etc. Those who seek to be righteous in all things are loved by God. Christ’s rebuke to the Pharisees in Matthew shows the centrality of righteousness in Christian thinking. He was echoing a statement from Zechariah (most of what He said was recitation from known and accepted scriptures).
The Christian is concerned about this in two regard: 1) desiring that the wicked turn from their wicked ways and are saved, 2) the Christian does not himself wish to be distanced from God by personal wickedness. Hence, the righteous are self-searching and necessarily a little confrontational.
Being righteous is not a simple thing, and not an easy thing. It requires transparency and often can put a man at odds with people he loves, as the song says “though none go with me, still I will follow.” It is hard because one must search out whether he is right, not just by looking for proof texts against those who disagree, but searching for personal direction and personal correction in the bible, and through accountability with others.
