Is Righteousness Your Legacy?
2 Samuel 23:1-7Â (New International Version)
The Last Words of David
 1 These are the last words of David:
      “The oracle of David son of Jesse,
      the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High,
      the man anointed by the God of Jacob,
      Israel’s singer of songs [a] : 2 “The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me;
      his word was on my tongue. 3 The God of Israel spoke,
      the Rock of Israel said to me:
      ‘When one rules over men in righteousness,
      when he rules in the fear of God, 4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise
      on a cloudless morning,
      like the brightness after rain
      that brings the grass from the earth.’ 5 “Is not my house right with God?
      Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant,
      arranged and secured in every part?
      Will he not bring to fruition my salvation
      and grant me my every desire? 6 But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns,
      which are not gathered with the hand. 7 Whoever touches thorns
      uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear;
      they are burned up where they lie.”
David contrasts himself with evil men. In other words, he contrasts being evil with being righteous. So if an evil person is “not righteous”, what does that really mean? It means that an evil person does not obey God and does not even believe him. Does that mean that everyone who doesn’t believe God and does not obey God (again, I don’t mean does things correctly, I just mean that they try), that all such people are evil? Well, yes. That’s what that means.
We usually compartmentalize based on gradations of evil. If someone is mostly evil, we say their a little good. If they are only a little evil, then we say they are mostly good. These days, people have to be entirely evil in order to be called evil. It makes verses like those above appear particularly harsh… and I suppose they are, but not like one would think.
Remember that a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
But, we are not talking about good and evil here… but righteousness and evil. There are plenty of people who do good, but they do not believe God. They try and live good lives, but they do not obey God, or at least the good they do is not out of obedience to God. But, people who believe and obey God will generally do good and not evil. So, I believe that in this particular case, we can forgo the debate about compartmentalizing and just look at David’s larger point. We have choice between two extremes to strive for… being righteous or being evil. If you don’t strive toward one, then you are striving toward the other… no judgement on whether your actions or intentions are “good”, but it is a judgement on whether your net impact on the world around you is good or evil. And I dare say that those who do good out of righteousness will do more good for the world than those who do good in order to make up for the evil that is in them… for the former are chasing after God, the latter after their own legacy.