The Battle for Righteousness

Today’s verse of the day is Romans 1:17, and today’s readings were Deuteronomy 5, 6; Psalms 64; and 2 Corinthians 6. As I woke up before dawn and began my spiritual training, it dawned on me that today’s theme, or word of the day, is righteousness.

‘This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life. ‘
Romans 1:17

It is through faith that a righteous person has life.

I’m thankful that God makes us right in His sight. As Christians, we are called to be righteous; this is a daily battle. We have to take our faith walk seriously. We have an unseen enemy that hates us and uses multiple tactics to drag us down and destroy us. Our invisible enemy plots in the shadows, mirroring the ‘evil mob’ David describes in Psalm 64. David is talking about his enemies, but I believe we can also attribute these characteristics to our spiritual enemy.

‘²Hide me from the plots of this evil mob, from this gang of wrongdoers.   ³They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows.   ⁴They shoot from ambush at the innocent, attacking suddenly and fearlessly.   ⁵They encourage each other to do evil and plan how to set their traps in secret. “Who will ever notice?” they ask. ‘
Psalms 64:2-5

Imagine an evil mob of snarling, hideous demons, scheming, plotting, setting traps to destroy your relationships and you.

All you have to do is turn on the news to see how rampant evil is in this world. The enemy delights in our struggles and pain; his end goal is the destruction of our relationship with the Living God and fellow humans. But we don’t keep our heads on a swivel, fear or worry about any of that. Jesus has defeated the enemy; they are under his authority.

Don’t sweat the enemy, Christ is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, every knee will bow to his authority.

‘²¹Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. ²²God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. ‘
Ephesians 1:21-22

Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6 that our enemies aren’t flesh and blood, and I love how he describes the fight in 2 Corinthians 6:7.

‘⁶We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love. ⁷We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense. ‘
2 Corinthians 6:7

Purity, understanding, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit within us, and sincere love, that’s what I think of when I think of righteousness.

I never realized righteousness was a two-handed weapon—offensive and defensive. Righteousness acts as our sword and shield. When I think of Jesus, perfectly righteous, that’s what I need to strive for daily. Left to my own strength, I’ll misstep and stumble, but in Christ’s strength I stand; perfect righteousness is impossible for us by our own power. I’m so thankful for grace and forgiveness, and for the fact that we are made righteous through Christ’s perfect sacrifice.

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:21