Righteousness and Love

             Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor. (Proverbs 21:21)

One of the tropes of the old Scooby Doo cartoons is that when they pulled the mask off of the villain, they were surprised at who the villain was. In the Bullwinkle cartoon, Bullwinkle often said, “What me pull a rabbit out of this hat,” and as Rocky lamented, “That trick never works.” So often, the things we chase after elude us. Sometimes it’s a competition, and somehow, they are faster, stronger, etc. Other times, it’s a game of hide-and-seek. We look, but somehow the hiding place is just too good – sometimes right in front of our faces.

Today’s verse hints at this. It doesn’t tell us that if we pursue righteousness and love that we’ll find righteousness and love. It says we’ll find life, prosperity, and honor. While it doesn’t quite say it, the verse suggests that if we pursue life, prosperity, and honor, we won’t get them. To get them, we must pursue righteousness and love.

What does pursuing righteousness and love look like? I suspect it doesn’t look like a dating ap or an evening at a bar, looking for someone to treat us right and love us. Pursuing love isn’t treating it as a prize to be won or a gift we are given (at least in this context.) Pursuing righteousness isn’t taking someone to court to force them to behave rightly. It could involve our standing up with someone for their rights, but I suspect this verse primarily refers to our doing what is right and our loving. When we do something wrong, we pursue righteousness by repentance, confession, and making things right in terms of our involvement in the wrongdoing.

As I read the verse, the other idea that came to mind is that righteousness and love are character traits. They describe the kind of person we are.  To the extent that we are righteous and loving, the result will be life, prosperity, and honor. But if we pretend righteousness and love to reap the profit of life, prosperity, and honor, we are not righteous or loving, and will not reap the reward. It’s only when the character itself is the reward that the others will follow. Unless we build the foundation of character, the building we try to put on top of it will crumble.