RIGHTEOUSNESS (Part Two)

I had a very hard time pondering on the question: ‘what is righteousness?’ One of the very first

I must confess this definition is not strange given my background. I am one of those who have been cowed to believe that to please God, I must necessarily avoid people. I held unto this ideology until it was challenged by the scriptures in Psalms 4:1 (Amplified Bible, Classic Edition):

"Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness (uprightness, justice, and right standing with You)!  You have freed me when I was hemmed in and enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me and hear my prayer.”

What an amazing God we serve. Just look at how He carefully laid out the pillars of RIGHTEOUSNESS for anyone who could take a little time to search (Joshua 1:8). As I reflected on this, the following suddenly dawned on me: “Righteousness rest wholly on 3 pillars namely:

answers that jumped at me was: ‘righteousness is always being right with God and man’.

1. uprightness: the condition or quality of being honorable or honest. That is to stand straight in all matters. (Job 1:8).
2. justice: refers to a genuine respect for people which results in ‘fairness’, ‘equity’, ‘even handedness’, ‘impartiality’, ‘objectivity’, ‘honesty’, and having a high sense of morality. Put in another way, "having a sense of justice" means having a balanced understanding of a situation or person (knowing the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats) and letting this knowledge guide your decisions them (Micah 6:8).
3. right standing with God: this is to please the LORD in all your ways. Is this very possible? There is no better way to answer that other than saying “if it were not possible, there may not have been a need for Proverbs 16:7 in the scriptures”.

Note that neither of these pillars is more important than the other nor can any of them stand alone. Like a twine, they must be interwoven; take out any of them and the super structure (righteousness) will crumble.”

I can hear you say ‘but righteousness comes by faith’ (Romans 1:17; 3:22). What can I say to this but ‘Selah’ (pause, and calmly think of that) until we interface again in part 3 on this subject.