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So, here are. The last book in the bible on Righteousness!  I always found it interesting that the very first verse in the bible on righteousness tells us how to get it… believe God, and the 2nd tells us how to use it… obey God.  From there, scripture simply uses the terms, only occasionally referencing back to these two verses.  It’s like God did not assume we knew what righteousness was, and so made sure those first verses would tell us.  This set the stage for the rest of our word study this last year.  Well, now we come to the last book on righteousness, 2 Peter, and wouldn’t you know… God assumes we know what righteousness is by now!

In …

The actual righteousness verse is 1 Peter 2:24, which reads as follows:
24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
It’s a simple verse, but there’s a lot to it.  Primarily, what does Peter mean by living for righteousness?  Is he referring to believing, or to obeying?  In short, to obeying, because he speaking to a crowd that already believes, as he opens in his letter (emphasis mine):
 1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
      To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2who have been chosen according to the …

 13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

 17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers …

 1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2This is what the ancients were commended for.
In other words, faith is believing God.  So, when we someone in scripture commended for great faith, they are being commended for believing God, who then credits them with righteousness so they can be counted among the rightous.  Their righteousness then manifests as obedience, and there obedience is what everyone saw, and what we read of in scripture.  What I find interesting is that the Old Testament does not often bare witness to these great people’s beliefs, but much more so to their actions.  The manifestation of their righteousnes is what we …

Love and hate. Righteousness and wickedness.  In God is the ability to love righteousness and to hate wickedness, and His Son has inherited this flawless trait…
8But about the Son he says,
   ”Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
      and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
 9You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
      therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
      by anointing you with the oil of joy.”
With righteousness as his sceptor, Jesus rules in justice.  What is justice?  It is blessing the wicked who turned good; cursing the good who turned wicked.  We tend to value human compassion over God’s justice, when justice is the higher value.

One problem man has is the flaw …

Warning: The following is a bit of a downer, but it is the next passage on righteousness.  I cannot help what the scripture says, but I cannot skip it just because it makes me uncomfortable…
 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

6For …

Recall yestereday’s scripture on righteousness in 1 Timothy 6:11…
 3If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.  

- - -

 11But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
Today’s scripture, also an exhortation for Timothy, reads …

 9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
The “fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ”?  Didn’t, we just talked about that in Ephesians 5 - May the Righteous Shine? But let us zero in on the scripture, Ephesians 6:9-11…
 8For you were once darkness, but now …

As we saw yesterday in Ephesians 5 - May the Righteous Shine, Paul was exhorting the Ephesians to live intimate (i.e., emotionally trusting, not necessarily sexual) lives with the believing Christians God has put in your life.  After focusing on the practical consequences of attaching yourself intimately with unbelievers (they don’t have God’s light, and so at least unwittingly bring you into darkness), Paul then turns his focus to exactly how you should be within your Christian relationships.  As Paul states in 5:21:
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
He then gives examples in chapters 5 and 6 of the kinds of relationships the Ephesians were already …

How we come to righteousness matters.  That is, how we live, where we look, what we do, will determine whether or not we actually come to the point of believing God and obeying him.  This is why Paul writes the following in Ephesians 4:
 17So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so …