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 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 …

  1This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” 3Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.
Whether literal or symbolic, the significance of Melchizedek is that Jesus had a priest older than the law to join.  There were things to believe and to obey, even without a law.  Abraham was the first one recorded to …

After blogging on righteousness for over a year now, I shouldn’t be surprised anymore when yet another scripture has a fresh insight for me that I never thought about.  In this case, I’m suprised learn that not everyone is ready to be taught about righteousness.  To me, this means they are not ready to be taught to believe God and obey Him.  Strange.  Isn’t even the youngest pup in Christ already believing Him? And when they get baptized, aren’t they already believing Him?  Well, if you think about, God has more for you to believe than Christ dying for your sins.  Don’t get me wrong, Christ’s sacrific is sufficient for salvation, but once you are saved there are more truths …

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 …

When Paul was writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, I swear he had “faith movement” preachers in mind (name-it-and-claim-it).  I can think of a few previous Assemblies of God preachers (remember Jim and Tammie?) who are described by this as well:
 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 …

In Psalm 106 - Another ingredient of Righteousness, I described how righteousness is accounted to men for their zealousness for God and His name.  As such zealousness naturally leads one to live out God’s laws and commandments as well as possible, it is easy measure man and his salvation by his works.  After all, Jesus confirmed that you would know a follower of God their fruit.  But, wait.  Am I equating works and fruit?  Didn’t Jesus actually draw a distinction between them?  Yes, he did, and boy did He shake things up!

Basically, the first people who followed God and His Law did so for the sake of God and …

 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 …