But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
Summary: Looking closely at the word “righteousness” opens the door to new insights about how the word is used.
In our last meditation, we asked the question, “What are we to do instead of being ‘eager for money’?” In this verse, Paul answers the question with typical Pauline conciseness.
‘Pursue better things!,’ he says. Pursue “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.”
Let’s begin with righteousness.
Righteousness, unfortunately, is a word that is often misused and misunderstood. Like many other words such as “judging” or “love,” righteousness has different meanings depending on the way it is used.
The world uses the word “righteous” to mean “morally right,” but unfortunately for the world, without God there is no standard for what is “morally right.” For those who know God personally, God is the definition of all that is “right.” God, therefore, is righteous.
One of the main points of the Bible is that man is not God and is not capable of being “righteous” in a godlike sense. Hopefully we can all agree that this is true. However, the word “righteous” still has meaning for us.
The first meaning is what the theologians call “imputed” righteousness. “Imputed” is a fancy word that means God can decide to call somebody righteous if he wants to (even though we don’t technically qualify as righteous).
For example, God considered Abraham a righteous man. The Bible says:
“Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)
It is hard to beat that kind of righteousness! It is like getting an A+ on a college exam even though you misspelled your own name.
Paul explains how this applies to us when he writes:
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Jesus, who is God, extends his righteousness to those who are his sheep.
But what about the other kind of righteousness? What about righteous living?
When Paul tells Timothy (and us!) to “pursue righteousness,” he has something very specific in mind. He is not saying that we should conform to the Old Testament covenant law. Instead, he wants us to abide by the New Testament covenant law: Love (agapē). As Jesus so succinctly put it:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)
Application: Love God and others as God loves us.
Food for Thought: Why is personal righteousness in our Christian lives important?
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Continue reading “1 Timothy 6:11 (Part 1) – Righteousness “
