In my morning quiet time with the Word of God, I was drawn over and over again to the word, "righteous; and righteousness". How about a word study? In your opinion, what is righteousness? In His Grace, Sissy

-- Sissy Sylvester-Barth (iblong2Him@ilovejesus.net), January 11, 2002

Answers

I would define rightousness as the ability to do good work without the need for public attention or a pat on the back. Or setting an example by action rather than purpose. Or shearing your religion when asked rather than trying to convence others who didn't ask.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), January 11, 2002.

I much prefer to use the term spirituality instead of righteousness, righteousness somehow implies that all other ways, beliefs, ideas, are less than ideal or acceptable. Righteousness is the most overused term in traditional religions to justify behavior and actions that are questionable when held up to other moral and ethical standards.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 11, 2002.

Mitch stated my idea of righteousness almost word-for-word! The thought of doing good without thought of reward is exactly how I could have described a gentleman in our community who has since passed away. He had quiet dignity.

-- Ardie /WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), January 11, 2002.

True Annie, sometimes that word can have a negative connotation. I always keep the thought in my head not to be "righteous overmuch" and self-righteousness can be a negative term as well. I will have to study up on these things a little. Personally one of my favorite Bible words is "humble"!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 11, 2002.

http://www.blueletterbible.org/tmp_dir/choice/1010803551.html

-- Kevin (kevinmail@earthlink.net), January 11, 2002.

Hello Sissy,

I posted my answer on Country Side.

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), January 11, 2002.

Hello Sissy,

I posted my response to this question on your CS thread. When I went to check and see if anymore people posted on it, I could not find it. Apparently, I has been deleted by the webmaster.

Rightousness means doing the right thing morally or justly. It really has nothing to do whether or not you believe in God.

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), January 12, 2002.

well said Ernest!

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), January 12, 2002.

Ernest - Yeah, you never know about countryside. Good to have this forum.

Ernest and John: A Christian would of course say that there can be no morality or justice apart from God.

-- charles (cr@dixienet.com), January 13, 2002.

Charles: That may be so but a person can be without "religion" and still be with God. I understand thats contrary to what you believe as a Christian but it doesn't make it less true IMO.

Its like saying an athiest can have no morals or integrity because they have no foundation for them which is obviously not true.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), January 13, 2002.

Righteous or righteousness in the bible refers to man being in rihgt standing (or sinless) With God through our faith in Jesus . Also in the old testament Abraham was made right through his faith in God.Righteous doesnt mean we are good But that our relationship with God is okay.

-- willa (goodall6@hotmail.com), January 13, 2002.

Thankyou each and everyone for your thoughts. I am still in much study on this. You know how sometimes, sometime just NEEDS to answered? This is one of them. Thankyou also, to everyone who responded on C.S., I got canned from there (again) and wasn't able to thank anyone. In His Grace, Sissy

-- Sissy Sylvester-Barth (iblong2Him@ilovejesus.net), January 14, 2002.

John,

Yes. But, Its not contrary to what I believe as a Christian. My father in law once said that Jesus was a good man that just wanted to improve his "religion". Christ could have cared less about "religion" , that being some coda or set of rules. Christianity is a relationship with God through Christ.

I also that agree that an atheist or anybody else can have morals and some integrity. Bt I think the being that defined and fixed good vs. evil; what morals and integrity are, is the God. Everything else adds up to personal relatavism, IMO. Individuals can inherit or otherwise be infused with the precepts of morality via culture without recognizing or accepting their necessary origin in God. In other words, the morals that an atheist may have are founded in God, although the atheist won't recognize the foundation he's standing on. I owe you a reply to several question you posed to me in a previous thread that has since dissappeared. I'll get to it sometime.

-- charles (cr@dixienet.com), January 14, 2002.

Charles: Thanks for your nice reply.

You say "Christianity is a relationship with God through Christ."

I agree with that but not in the way you mean it I suspect.

The Christ or Christos IMO is a universal spirit, transcendent of time and place, that exists in harmony with the eternal laws of God and survival because in that way He promises eternal life---for the individual as spirit and the human race as a species. Thus Love becomes a survival ethic and is not God love?

It is the spirit that honors truth, compassion and love and manifests itself as righteousness among other things. That doesn't make you mistaken IMO nor does it take anything away from the message of Christ as you're accustomed to understanding it, it merely broadens the scope of the message to be more inclusive than it is ordinarily understood IMO and thats the only thing that makes sense to me.

"I also that agree that an atheist or anybody else can have morals and some integrity. Bt I think the being that defined and fixed good vs. evil; what morals and integrity are, is the God. Everything else adds up to personal relatavism, IMO. Individuals can inherit or otherwise be infused with the precepts of morality via culture without recognizing or accepting their necessary origin in God. In other words, the morals that an atheist may have are founded in God, although the atheist won't recognize the foundation he's standing on."

I agree with that too, maybe in the way you do mean it.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), January 15, 2002.

Sissy, I wasn't able to address your question immediately, but here are some thoughts gathered from a study of Biblical passages. Very brief and merely suggestive of the richness of what the text says. On a subject like this, personal opinions are interesting, but ultimately the Scriptures must define and develop its own teaching. So a-mining we go.

Let me recommend to all the purchase and use of a concordance. With it, you can do your own study of what the Bible says about a subject or theme without depending directly on commentators and theologians. If they're worth their stuff, they started with a concordance, too. Well, enough of that.

Two Facets of Righteousness

The concept of righteousness begins in the Old Testament. The main idea is conforming to a norm, in this case, to the character of God as revealed in his word and actions. Something akin to, "Be holy, for I am holy." People are righteous when their conduct conforms to the principles and laws God set forth to be followed.

Today, we have a hard time with a prayer like David's, "let the Lord judge the peoples. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity, O Most High" (Psalm 7.8). It smacks of bragging of one's own works, but David does not say he is sinless, but that he has followed the will of God and depended upon God's power to save (see context of this psalm).

So how does that square with the New Testament teaching that none is righteous? The NT word group (dikaiosyne and related terms) generally follow the OT sense that rarely use it absolutely of "sinlessness." It refers to the person who is just, upright, or righteous. The person who conducts himself justly. So in the Sermon on the Mount (supposedly a beautiful teaching, but a serious call to discipleship), Jesus says with authority, "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mat. 5.20, NIV). And you won't get there, Jesus says, unless this righteousness is so important that you yearn and run after it as one who is hungry and thirsty (5.6).

Among the letters, Romans focuses most on the theme of righteousness, and there Paul develops most fully what he expresses in 1 Cor. 1.30 that Christ Jesus "has become for us wisdom from God -- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption." Men, he says, are "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3.24). They can't do it by showing God they're perfect; they receive it by giving up their own "works of righteousness" to accept the mercy of God in baptism (Tit. 3.5).

To sum up, righteousness entails at least two main ideas, complementary to one another. One, that only God is righteous and establishes man's righteousness through the cross of Jesus. Two, that man lives

The great division, in God's eyes, of the human race is often expressed in Scripture by the terms righteous/unrighteous or just/unjust. That shows how important it is that we become the righteous, first through faith and obedience to receive the salvation of God, and second by conforming to the standard of the life of Jesus.

Hope this is helpful. I chose not to enter the discussion between John and Charles, since that took off on another tangent, though a quite worthy one.

-- Randal in Brazil (randal@onebox.com), January 15, 2002.