What Do Righteous and Righteousness Mean?

What do righteous and righteousness really mean?  What does it mean to be a “righteous person?”  Who is highlighted as a “righteous person” in the scriptures and why?  Or, most importantly, how can we be righteous in the eyes of God?  If I follow all the right rules will I be righteous?  Is it about duty?  Is it about heart?

The word “righteous” appears twenty-four times in the four gospels. It appears one time in the gospel of John, two in Mark, six in Luke, and fifteen in Matthew.  Mark’s gospel does not use the word “righteousness” at all.  Luke’s and John’s gospels only mention “righteousness” twice in each of theirs.  However, “righteousness” appears seven times in the gospel of Matthew.  Because the gospel of Matthew has these words used more than any of the other gospels we’ll start our study there.

---

Someone Who Does What Is Righteous

The first time “righteous” appears in the gospel of Matthew is:

The Greek word for “righteous” used here is “dekaios.”  The base root word is “dikē” which means “custom” or “just.”  This root word came to denote “what is right” (c.f. Vines).  “Dekaios” is used to describe someone who observes these “rules”, “customs”, and does “what is right.”  

1 John 3:7 sums up this idea:

The word for “righteous” here is “dikaiosynē” and it’s root word is “dekaios” which we’ve discussed previously.  The scriptures utilize this word “dikaiosynē” in the following ways*:

1. In a broad sense: state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God
   • the doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God
   • integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting
2. In a narrower sense: justice or the virtue which gives each his due

---

Righteousness Means You Do What Is Merciful

Joseph did what was right and did not expose Mary to public disgrace.  He could have made her pregnancy known and would have been within his rights to do so.  This would have disgraced Mary and the child she was carrying.  Furthermore, the scriptures commanded that a woman who lied to man about her virginity was to be stoned to death at the door of her father’s house. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21)  Joseph was being merciful in his actions.  He did not know what to believe in this situation and yet he handled it “righteously.”  Joseph did not lash out.

We must ask ourselves, do we lash out when it is within our power, our opportunity, or even our “right” to do so? Certainly, Joseph’s heart was broken and the scriptures called for punishment. But despite all this, he did what was righteous and merciful.

When our hearts are broken, or we suffer injustices at the hands of those we’ve trusted –

• Will we be merciful like Joseph?
• Will we thirst for vengeance or for grace?
• Will we put our hope in rectification or in the mercy of God?  
• Do we desire the satisfaction of a justly delivered punishment or the homecoming of forgiveness?  (Luke 15:11-24)

God always allows us our choice of what we will hunger and thirst for.

---

The Righteous Will Shine

This passage is very sobering.  We can be in the kingdom and be causing sin and doing evil!  Therefore, people can look saved but be destined to have angels “throw them into the fiery furnace!”  We can cause each other to sin even when our sin is not “public.”  We can think that because our sin is “private” it is not hurting anyone else.  I believed this lie myself in the mid-late 90’s.  During this time I struggled with gross impurity almost weekly for a couple of years.   Additionally, I numbed my heart to the thought that it affected anyone else because I committed the sins in “private.”

---

Un-Righteous Yeast Affects The Whole Body of Christ

The Holy Spirit through Paul the Apostle asks “Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?” (1 Corinthians 5:6)  The Word of God teaches “you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.” (1 Corinthians 5:11)  The Holy Spirit, through Paul, lists sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, slandering, drunkenness, and swindling in this passage.  These kinds of sins are the yeast that will infect “the whole batch of dough.”  If we are going to overcome this, we must confess and renounce our sins.  Then we will be righteous and shine like the sun.

I remember the profound effect memorizing the first and second chapters of the book of 1st John had on my mind and heart.  I spent several months in 1999 memorizing these two chapters of the bible. By God’s grace and faithfulness, He placed in my life two amazing disciples of Jesus who “discipled” me consistently and firmly with God’s word.  At first, I was critical, petty, proud, arrogant and hard-hearted.  This is because I resented the sharp truths presented to me from the scriptures by this dear brother.  To my shame I was numbed by sin and enslaved to pride.  It is to God’s glory and through his grace alone my character was shaped, my heart freed, and my mind changed.  Darren Christina, you will forever have my deepest gratitude.

---

Confession Is The Key To Being Righteous

The main point in this scripture is finding mercy by confessing and renouncing sin.  We certainly can’t find something we are not even looking for.  In the past, I’ve confused finding mercy with self-worth and self-validation.  I’ve thought and wrestled with my worth, my significance, coming from “my impact” or “my accomplishments” in the ministry in particular.  In retrospect, this skirts mercy and grace altogether because these are given, not earned by works or merits.  I’m already priceless to God, and I confess my sins because of that.  I trust that God is who he says he is, and he hears my cries for mercy.

The main principle in 1 John 1:5-10 is similar to Proverbs 28:13.  We are called to “walk in the light” because “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”  The author of 1 John is the beloved apostle John who also wrote the Gospel of John.  We can understand better what John means here in 1 John 1:5-10 by looking at what he wrote about “light” in John 3:19-21.  “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”  (John 3:20)  When we are transparent and confess our sins (walk in the light, as “he is in the light”) our evil deeds are exposed.  Then, according to the promises in 1 John 1:5-10, “the blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin.

---

Our Righteousness Is From God’s Mercy

We will be made righteous by Jesus’ obedience. (Romans 5:19)  Jesus humbled himself and “became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”  (Philippians 2:8)  Our responsibility is to own our sin, to confess it, to renounce it and repent of it.

May we find righteousness not in ourselves, but in Christ. I pray I remember God’s grace and allow it to teach me to say “no” to my worldliness and ungodly passions (Titus 2:12). I pray that grace will inspire me to walk in the light, to confess my sins plainly, so that whatever “righteousness” I do or have is shown as being done “through God.” (John 3:21)