Kingdom Righteous

In Matthew 4:23, we see Jesus teaching about the kingdom while healing those with diseases and disabilities. Great multitudes follow him to a mount where he begins to deliver a lesson we commonly call the Sermon on the Mount. Back in Matthew 4:23, the apostle calls this the gospel of the kingdom. One of the topics of this lesson is one of righteousness. What does it mean to live righteously in Jesus’ kingdom?

A Righteous Character

This topic begins in the Beatitudes when Jesus says, in verses 6 and 10:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied…Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Around this statement, he is speaking of the character of the kingdom’s citizens. He goes on to speak of those citizens being lights onto the world, seasoning for the world. We are to enhance the lives of those around us with the quality of our character, and we are to illuminate the path to Jesus for all around us. When we put on Christ, we put on a hunger for righteousness. We put on humility, meekness, mercy. We become salt. We become light. Christianity is not merely about doing something new; it is about being something new.

Righteous As Christ Would Have

What is kingdom righteousness? We are familiar with the term “self-righteous,” a self-made standard of religiosity and righteousness we can use to look down upon others. It is comparative and self-assured. That is not righteous as Christ would have us. To illustrate this, compares the righteousness of his followers to that of the Pharisees in Matthew 5:20. Kingdom righteousness is not self made. It demands denial of self. It demands a reverence for every command of God. It demands our hearts.

Hebrews 5:8 explains Jesus’ obedience in His suffering. Philippians 2:8 describes Jesus as obedient to the point of death. In Matthew 5:19, Jesus reminds us that, if we are to be citizens of the kingdom, we need to be as reverent of God’s will. This reverence begins in our hearts, and our actions and words reflect the contents of that heart. Our righteousness is not an outward appearance. It is an inward commitment.

In Matthew 5:20, Jesus reminds us of the scribes and Pharisees, for whom religion was an outward show. In Matthew 15:8 and Matthew 23:25-28, Jesus draws a contrast between inward and outward appearances. We can make a good show of religious living while being spiritually dead inside. If we are inwardly righteous, however, we will not be able to help but live righteously – not self righteously but righteous in Christ’s way.

Conclusion

Matthew 5:6 blesses those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. We hunger for so many distractions and priorities in this life. Is righteousness one of these priorities? Is it foremost among our desires? We are sensitive to the stomach-hunger of our bodies. We should be so sensitive to our God-starved spirits. He fills a void in our lives that nothing else can satisfy.

In order to enter God’s kingdom, we have to want it. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus calls on us to seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness before all else. It begins with our character. It begins with us being kingdom righteous.

lesson by Tim Smelser

Seeing Ourselves As God Sees Us

In I Thessalonians 5:21, Paul tells the saints of Thessolenica that they should test or prove all things. Having tested all things, they should tenaciously cling to all good things while abstaining from evil. We do this with choosing a job, a house, a car, even what we eat. We come to conclusions based on an examination process. We undergo similar scrutiny in our reputation and self-esteem – what others think of us and what we think of ourselves. In both these metrics, there may be some bias one way or another, but God sees our character, the person we are when no one else is looking.

To see what God sees, we have to honestly look inward. We cannot always rely on our opinions of ourselves, and we cannot always rely on the assessment of others. To truly examine one’s self, to test ourselves in the way of I Thessalonians 5, is to see ourselves as God sees us. When we see ourselves the way God sees us, when we examine our true character, we are more capable of growing closer to our God.

A Righteous Standard

It’s possible to divide the Old Testament into a massive list of right and wrong. In contrast, the New Testament serves as a set of guidelines and principles guiding our moral character. It divides righteousness from unrighteousness. The New Testament creates a picture of the type of person a Christian should be, and it is ours to apply those principles in our own lives.

To get a picture of how God would like to see us, we’ll start in James 1:27 where the disciple defines pure religion as behaving charitably and keeping ourselves unspotted by the world. I Timothy 5:22 records Paul writing that we should not be quick to align ourselves with those who could lead us to sin, and I Peter 1:14 admonishes to be holy in all manners of life. In Romans 12:1-2, Paul writes we should be transformed to a new mind, and Philippians 4:8 calls on us to set our minds things of purity and peace. The New Testament paints a picture of those who comes out of the world to keep themselves clean and pure, whose character is uncorrupted.

II Peter 2:20-22 warns against knowing the word of righteousness and turning away from it. I Corinthians 15:33 warn against our associations, and I Peter 2:11 encourages us to avoid worldly desires. I Corinthians 10:12 challenges us to self-examine, lest we fall without knowing. These passages leave us with a sense of responsibility for what we should do with the ability God has given us, the ability to know His will, to know ourselves, and to conform to His word.

A Work in Progress

In Philippians 2:12, Paul encourages us to work. The Christian life is a work in progress. It is never complete. Sometimes there are setbacks. Sometimes the unexpected occurs, but Paul reminds us to work on our own salvation. It’s so much easier to point out your own challenges than my own, to wish for you to carry me with you to salvation, but no one can fulfill our Christian work but ourselves. The end of this effort, though, is salvation – a home in Heaven.

What should our work look like? II Corinthians 5:17 says our work begins with a change. This means new speech, new outlook, new priorities, now attitude. This means keeping ourselves pure from the influence of sin. Our work is a transformation and a separation from the world. I Corinthians 6:17 calls on us to come out from these influences, cleansing ourselves in the hope of God’s promises. Our character should reflect righteousness in all we say and do, and Galatians 6:9-10 encourages us to endure this work, not growing weary in our spiritual conduct, and doing good to all. Paul, in Colossians 3:1, encourages us to seek things above.

Conclusion

We have things in this life that tie up our time and resources, that interest us, or that distract us. Other times, this life can can discourage us in its unfairness or lack of justice. When our emphasis is on the world, there is much to drag us away from God. We know the rewards of reaching toward and obtaining personal goals. We have days where we see that the work we have put into an effort is worth it. God promises that such a day will come for our spiritual efforts. In I John, John uses the phrase, “we know,” roughly twenty times. We can have confidence that we are growing closer to our God when we know we are living as we should, when we know our character reflects the picture we see in scripture. We may not always know what standards to which others hold, but we can know God’s standard as presented in His word. We can know that we know Him when we walk in His truth.

lesson by Tim Smelser