Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more