This past
week, my exploration of the context of God’s throne as revealed in Revelation 4
led me to see the distinctive qualities of “righteousness
and justice” as the foundation of his throne. [2] Today,
as I continued looking at these things, I realized that the God who rules on a
throne of righteousness and justice also expects his people to live by these
same two characteristics.
From the
beginning of forming a nation of people for himself, God spoke of Abraham this
way: “For I have chosen
him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the
way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”[3] Through all of Scripture we see that God’s will for his people
includes “doing righteousness and justice”.
As Solomon wrote: “To do righteousness
and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.”[4]
The opposite
of this is stated clearly as well: “He
who justifies the wicked and he
who condemns the righteous are
both alike an abomination to the LORD.”[5]
And, “It is not good to be partial to the
wicked or to deprive the righteous
of justice.”[6]
Once again,
church groups seem quite clear-minded when listing the ways that the world, or
other churches, justify the wicked among them, and condemn the righteous around
them. However, it seems like quite a different story when someone confronts
them with their partiality to the wicked in their own congregation, or the way
they deprive justice to the righteous who have committed no other crime than
standing outside their church or family.
I will go so far
as to say that it has taken considerable prayer this morning for me to resist
the urge to tell stories. I told them all to God, and his response seemed to
be: “Fret not yourself because of
evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.”[7]
However, I do
feel the freedom to generalize for the sake of teaching, reproving, correcting,
and training in righteousness.[8] For
teaching, we would have to all agree that we are to pursue the righteousness
and justice that are the foundation of God’s throne. That means hungering and
thirsting after righteousness in everything, and in relation to everyone,[9]
and showing justice to everyone without any favoritism or partiality.[10]
At the same
time, we need to be prepared to teach our churches or families about God’s just
and righteous throne if we see that they are allowing gossip, slander, lying
and back-biting because it is done by their favorite people. We would also need
to address what God’s word says about judging and condemning others without any
testing by the church[11]
just because the people closest to them hold some negative opinion about those
others.
For reproving,
we would have to examine our hearts and deal with any ways that we do not actually
care about righteousness and justice ourselves. And, we would have to repent of
any ways we have justified the wickedness of someone close to us because we don’t
want to lose them as friend or family member, or have condemned some righteous
person because it seemed relationally beneficial to do so.
For
correction, we would have to pray about how to turn around any discrepancies in
our own lives, or in our churches. In whatever ways we have tolerated
unrighteousness, let us seek out the righteous counterpart that ought to
replace it. Where we have allowed people close to us to act wickedly towards
others, let us take the steps of confronting their sin instead of believing their
stories. If we know that righteous people outside our cliques, or churches, or
families, or maybe even the pastors of our churches, have been judged,
slandered, and condemned by gossiping tongues, let us turn away from the groups
that support people in condemning the righteous, and see if there is anything
we can do to reconcile with the people of God who are mistreated in these ways.
For training
in righteousness, let us do all we can to influence our friends, families, and church
groups, to examine our hearts,[12]
test everything, get rid of whatever is evil, and hold on only to what is good.[13] This
may mean trying to carry out church discipline against people we now realize
are justifying the wicked and condemning the righteous.
Since church
discipline often fails because of church-politics, we must be willing to let go
of groups that promote justifying the wicked and condemning the innocent, and fellowship
with the smaller groupings of people who are so judged. If we hunger and thirst
after the righteousness that is by faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus himself will
satisfy our hunger and lead us into the training in righteousness we long for.
The aim of
earnest teaching, reproving, correcting, and training in righteousness is so
that “the man of God may
be complete, equipped for every good work.”[14] This was the way Paul worded it in relation to Timothy and other
pastors. It obviously applies to all believers as well, that if we allow
Scripture to do its work, it will equip us for whatever good works God has prepared
in advance for us to do.[15] In the case of our present subject, that would include the good
work of aligning ourselves with the justice and righteousness of God, and
encouraging others around us to do the same, always without favoritism or
partiality.
Once we have
cleared up these things for ourselves, and drawn our churches to adjust to God’s
word in these areas, we must live with the fact that our living by the
righteousness of faith will still result in people from churches treating us as
if we are wicked. We will continue to see wicked people in churches getting
away with gossip, slander, lying, back-biting, and other sins, because
relationships are more important to them than righteousness. In that case, “do not fret because of evildoers”, and
don’t let anyone hinder you in seeking first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness[16]
no matter how many times you are misunderstood for doing so.
Just as I was working
on this post, someone shared a quote from Charles Spurgeon that is right in
line with what I am sharing.
“The
more prominent you are in Christ’s service, the more certain are you to be the
butt of calumny [slander]. I have long ago said farewell to my character. I
lost it in the earlier days of my ministry by being a little more zealous than
suited a slumbering age. And I have never been able to regain it except in the
sight of him who judges all the earth, and in the hearts of those who love me
for my work’s sake.”[17]
I found it
encouraging hearing such words from a respected brother from our past. The
world, the worldly church, and worldly church-goers, have no real love for God’s
justice and righteousness. They are driven by deeper things of the flesh, and
often have such close ties to one another that they do not even see what they
are doing wrong, let alone have any desire to make it right.
God’s will is
that we do not fret, or worry, or adjust our earnest hunger for his
righteousness, just because others are promoting injustice and unrighteousness.
The reason we do not fret because of evil doers is that the foundation of God’s
throne is righteousness and justice. He will never justify the wicked, or
condemn the righteous. Let us make sure the same is true of us.
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Matthew 7:1-5
[2]
“Righteousness and justice are the
foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.” (Psalm
89:14)
[3]
Genesis 18:19
[4]
Proverbs 21:3
[5]
Proverbs 17:15
[6]
Proverbs 18:5
[7]
Psalm 37:1-2
[8]
II Timothy 3:16-17
[9]
Matthew 5:6
[10]
“You shall do no
injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great,
but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” (Leviticus 19:15); “In the
presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to
keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.”
(I Timothy 5:21)
[11]
The New Testament has so many clear instructions for how the church is to deal
with accusations of sin that, if all the gossips and slanderers in our churches
were held to account to these Scriptures, there would not be such an extensive
problem to deal with.
[12]
“Examine yourselves, to see whether you
are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves,
that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (II
Corinthians 13:5)
[13]
“For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are
obedient in everything.” (II
Corinthians 2:9); “21 but
test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.” (I Thessalonians 5)
[14]
II Timothy 3:17
[15]
Ephesians 2:10
[16]
Matthew 6:33
[17]
Charles Spurgeon as quoted on Mark Driscoll’s status, May 21, 2013
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