Secondly,
In our “Lost in Translation” series, we started out with looking at what faith is, and this past Sunday, we investigated the meaning of “righteousness”.
What does righteousness mean to you? We all want people to do right by us and do the right thing.
Check out these passages to look at what God says about righteousness in scripture:
Proverbs 11:6, Proverbs 11:18, Proverbs 13:6, Proverbs 21:21, John 16:8, 2 Corinthians 6:14, 1 Timothy 6:11
Scripture shows us that righteousness is important to God. He wants us to do what is right and to pursue righteousness, but here is where the misinterpretation happens:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” – Matthew 5:6
Here’s how most people interpret this verse:
“Blessed are those who do what’s right or strive to do what’s right…”
But here’s what’s wrong with that thinking. How many times a day do you mess up and sin? We make mistakes on a daily basis, right? From the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep, we mess up. But what if you’re trying really hard to be good, would that number go down? Maybe some, but not much.
See, the problem with interpreting that verse that way is that if we are only blessed based on the amount of right things we do, and the amount of wrong things we don’t do, then we would never be blessed. The point God is trying to get across to us is that YES, righteousness is extremely important when it comes to our relationship with Him, but it is not as important for me to focus on doing what is right as it is for us to focus on the One who is right!
See one of the attributes of God is righteousness – He is always right and He is the only one that is truly righteous. What this verse is really saying is blessed are those who seek and hunger for God (the only righteous one). But for so many of us our relationship with God is about what we do and about what we can bring to the table.
Be honest. When reflecting on your relationship with God, how many of you have said, “Well, I just need to…” or “I need to stop…” or “I should do….” We all convince ourselves of these things, but these statements lead us to focus on our actions and behavior. The truth is that our PURSUIT of God is the most important thing.
Have you ever really had the craving for something? This is how we are meant to feel about God. We are meant to hunger and thirst for Him – to desire Him and seek Him. To seek God, there must be an action like reading the bible and praying. We don’t do these things because we feel like we should, but rather because we really desire to know Him.
God wants your affection, not your silly obedience. If you pursue Him, everything else will fall into place.
So here’s the question: What role is righteousness playing in your life? Is it about trying to do what is right, or is it about pursuing the only One who is right, and letting your life reflect this pursuit?
Join us this week as we wrap up this series by breaking down the meaning of “Salvation.” We’ll see you there!
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