Living in the Spirit
November 26, 2018
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 33:14-16
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
When we hear the word “righteousness” what comes to mind? I am sorry to say that I picture what is actually “self-righteous” in a negative connotation. I wonder from where in my past that was implanted in my thinking. The word “justice” now comes to mind but that arrived in my adulthood. Doing what is right was established as a goal in my family during my childhood. Telling lies was forbidden thus the wrong thing to do and treating other people with respect was required one of the right things to do. I was raised with a well-defined conscience long before the phrase “What would Jesus do?” became popular. I guess I never put doing what was right together with the word righteous. I do now.
I think many of the problems with which we deal today result from our confusing what is right in the eyes of God and thus our standard for righteousness, with our self-defined righteousness. Self-righteousness always creates a hierarchy of difference between peoples resulting in absolute injustice, the very opposite of righteousness. People of faith get caught in this web at times. We did it with the crusades, the doctrine of discovery, manifest destiny. Self-righteousness generally results in the definer establishing themselves as the judge of those not meeting their designated definition of what is righteous.
If indeed the Lord is our righteousness, we would do well to discern how God defines it. For Christ-followers’ understanding, his way of love is a great place to start understanding God’s righteousness.
Prayer: Lord, create in us clean hearts so that when we take in your way of doing what is right we have a place for it to reside. Amen.