The fear of the Lord is the most important thing in pursuing
righteousness. The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom, He is Almighty, holy, and judge. He is also merciful and loving and desires to
forgive those created in His image.
Those two things must be held always in tension, we should never forget
that He is judge and He is holy and sin is a violation of the covenant and of
His holiness as we are His image bearers.
Humility is the product of keeping those things in tension, we walk
humbly before our God and before men in some ways as we are His representatives
and all we do should reveal Him, His righteousness and His wisdom.
Righteousness is not only justification but also
sanctification. Jesus says that by our
words we will either be justified or condemned.
That is a high and scary standard.
Does that mean that it is more than faith by which we will be
justified? It means that what we truly
believe should be evident by our words and actions, not just our ability to
articulate a belief that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and so I should
get into heaven. If I truly believe
Jesus was God incarnate and that grace is given to me and I accept that in
faith which is itself a gift, then my life should show two basic things, an
awareness that sin matters and I am therefore pursuing righteousness in my
life, and thankfulness which shows itself in righteous living. Who we are should be radically changed by
that belief. We have been given the sign
of Jonah to certify Him.
Paul asks that prayers be made for rulers in order that
Christians be allowed to live godly lives in peace and dignity. In all things he gives thanks to God for what
He has done. Paul was a man who never
lost sight of how he was saved or how precious that salvation was and is, he
never took it for granted, it was the thing which marked his life forever. For all his life he had been trying to be
good, to be righteous, but in that end that effort availed nothing at all, he
missed the truth. The worst sin Paul
could imagine, as we see here, is blasphemy, his God was all-consuming and holy
and to blaspheme the one who loved him and saved him was too much for him to
bear. He knew what it was to blaspheme
and he knew the grief it caused but he knew also the depth of God’s love and
mercy in forgiving him and calling him to His service. Paul was truly an amazing man.
To all, life Thou
givest, to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish—but naught changeth Thee.
In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish—but naught changeth Thee.
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