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 in Matthew 1:19.  “Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.”  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.  “Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray.  The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.”  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
   1. the doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God
   2. 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

 *blueletterbible.org

Righteousness Means You Do What Is Merciful

Joseph did what was right and did not expose Mary to public disgrace.  Joseph 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 if we lash out when it is within our power, our opportunity, our even our “rights.”  Certainly, Joseph’s heart was broken and the scriptures called for punishment.  Despite all this, he did what was righteous and was merciful.  When our hearts are broken or we suffer injustices at the hands of those we’ve trusted – will we be merciful like him?  Will I thirst for vindication or for grace?  Shall I put my 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

“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.  The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.  They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matthew 13:40-43)

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 Cor 5:11)  The Holy Spirit through Paul lists here 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

“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” (Prov 28:13)

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 1st 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 1st 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

“…confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16)  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.  

“You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.  In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”  (James 2:24-26)

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 3:12) 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)