What True Righteousness Looks Like

Well, good afternoon, brethren.

How righteous are you? Uh-oh, he stopped preaching and started meddling. Or just started preaching, and he’s already meddling. But I want us all to ask that question of ourselves. You can ask it to yourself. I’ll ask it to myself too. How righteous am I? You’re all very humble people so you’ll probably come with an answer that’s something like, “I’m trying to do my best to do what God wants for my life, follow his law, and that’s what I’m trying to do.” And come at it from that approach. And that’s a good way to go. But righteousness is one of those fuzzy words, isn’t it? Where we kind of know what it means, the word right is in there, which is correct, doing the right thing, that seems to be in there. But it’s a fuzzy word and it’s challenging. Challenging to really pin down. In the Old Testament, when you see the word righteous, it often means just. Which is another one of those words that it’s like, “What does that mean? What does that mean?” So when we’re asking ourselves, “How righteous am I?” Just. “Am I just?” And you can kind of get... we’re getting there somewhat, but it’s still challenging, isn’t it?

In the New Testament, righteousness, the Strong’s Concordance defines it this way. So when you see righteousness, it means equity of character or act. Thank you, Mr. Strong’s. Again, it’s unclear and it’s fuzzy and it’s difficult to quite know. All of these definitions are sort of helpful, but they’re not. So when you’re trying to figure that out and gauge, like, “How righteous am I?” These aren’t really helping. They’re not really helping. Perhaps a better question would be, what does true righteousness look like? So if we could see it, see actions of it, or see it in ourselves, that would be a little bit easier. What does it look like?

Matthew five. Let’s turn over there. Turn over to Matthew five. We’ll see Jesus doesn’t quite here say what righteousness looks like. He actually says what it is not. What it doesn’t look like. But it’ll help us down that trail. So, what righteousness does not look like. Matthew five and verse twenty. This is during the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus Christ says this. “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter the kingdom of God.”

So the scribes and the Pharisees, whatever they were like in the New Testament in the first century, they didn’t have it. Your righteousness must exceed that in order to enter into God’s kingdom. And it’s a little hard for us to see this, but for those who are listening and would hear this when Jesus said these words in the Sermon on the Mount, He was challenging their assumptions of what righteousness is.

The scribes and the Pharisees in that time, if you looked at them, most people would think they are the most righteous people. I can tell they are. They’re keeping God’s law. They seem very pious, and they’re doing the right things. The scribes and the Pharisees of that time were the leaders, and they were deep in the Bible. They were looking at God’s law and combing through it, trying to figure out what it meant.

They discussed it with each other and looked at it, and were trying to see what does God’s law want us to do and how to do it. They had even constructed a whole bunch of kind of rules and regulations, this box, that you could, if you stayed within what they said, the thought was then you’re following God’s law, and you’re doing things that are righteous. But Jesus Christ was challenging that. That was not what righteousness God is looking for.

So, in the New Testament, if the scribes and the Pharisees weren’t righteous, who is? What does that look like? Well, thankfully, that’s not the end of the Sermon on the Mount, and it continues, and Christ ends up telling us exactly what righteousness looks like. He does it by challenging more assumptions, more common ways to view God’s laws. So, for the scribes and the Pharisees, they put a meticulous outward show. They put on this meticulous outward show of righteousness, but that wasn’t enough. But God wants our righteousness to go deeper, and He has a very specific focus in mind for us.

So, here’s what we’re going to do today. We’re going to challenge our assumptions about righteousness, continue to do that, about what God wants from us. Actually, it’s going to be Jesus Christ’s words that are going to challenge those assumptions. And by the end of the message today, we’ll all have a clearer view on what true righteousness looks like, and what exactly to focus on to grow in it.

So we can stay right here. So what does true righteousness look like? What does it look like? What is that first assumption that Christ was challenging? Verse twenty-one. “You’ve heard that it was said by them of old time, you shall not kill, and whoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.” So you’ve heard this said of old time. We’ve all heard that too. That’s quoting from the Old Testament. That’s part of the Ten Commandments. Don’t murder. You shall not kill. It’s the sixth commandment.

So you see that, you’ve heard said, that’s that assumption that Jesus Christ is pointing out, or it could be a common understanding of that, interpretation of that, but then He clarifies it with the next words, but I say unto you. So you’ll see that over and over as we go through. “You’ve heard said, but I say unto you.” And these are those assumptions that we’re talking about. Those common understanding of God’s law, and it will help us to see what righteousness looks like.

“So you’ve heard said, you shall not kill.” Verse twenty-two, ‘But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever shall say to his brother, Raca,” that means empty head or worthless. You say to your brother, Raca, “...shall be in danger of the council. But whoever shall say, You fool,” which can mean stupid or blockhead, “...shall be in danger of hellfire.”

So it’s easy to see actual murder is wrong. And if you actually kill someone, there should be consequences. But here, Jesus Christ is deepening this, and he’s expanding this to a much greater level. It’s very serious, too. He’s equating these things we just saw with murder. As serious as you hear on the news when you hear about someone being murdered, and it hurts. And if you’ve ever had someone close to you be killed, it hurts even more. But if you’re angry with your brother without cause, that’s an equation with murder. You can think of the people listening to this in the New Testament, they swallowed hard. Like, “Wow, that’s serious. That’s serious.”

Let’s keep reading. “Therefore, if you bring a gift to your altar,” expands this and how important it is, ‘‘...you bring a gift to your altar before God, and you remember that your brother has ought against you,” that there’s some sort of friction or disagreement or argument that you’re in the middle of. So you bring that gift before God. “Leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come offer your gift.”

So you can think of God’s perspective here. So if an individual brings a gift to God, and it’s like, “Here’s my gift.” And as a father, He probably looks at them like, “Is there something you’re forgetting? Is there something that a brother or someone you’re close to, where there’s that friction or that problem or you had a disagreement? Go take care of that, and then let’s talk. I’m excited to see your gift, but go take care of that first.” From God’s perspective, this is serious. Again, it’s this anger and calling someone worthless or stupid or a blockhead, and equating that with murder.

But from God’s perspective, that person who you called worthless is made in his image. It’s a potential son or daughter of God. Someone that can be born into his family. And so when we call each other names or are angry without cause, He takes that very seriously. Takes that very seriously. Have to take care of those things before they fester and grow into a larger problem.

Verse twenty-five. This expands on it even more and the importance of it. “Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver you to the judge and the judge deliver you to the officer and cast you into prison.” So this isn’t exactly saying if law proceedings happen, but agree with your adversary quickly. Take care of those problems. If we have little disagreements or squabbles, whatever they are, catch them while they’re small and take care of them. We’re all human beings and there’s going to be these moments, but fix them. Go to your brother and fix them. Agree with them quickly. Solve it right away.

Otherwise, “Verily I say unto you, you shall by no means come out thence till you have paid the uttermost farthing.” If we don’t take care of these sorts of situations early on, they’re going to fester, grow, and become a big problem. Big problem. So when we’re looking at what righteousness looks like, this is serious and you’re all very quiet, but look what righteousness looks like. It’s about people, about how we’re treating other people. We’re seeing that right here. It’s so important that God says to take care of it before you bring a gift to him. That’s the first assumption.

Let’s move on to the second one. In the first message, there was some talk of calling people names and we just say Raca and worthless and we shouldn’t be doing that, obviously, but sometimes some schoolyard names are so good that you can’t blame them when you hear them. My wife’s maiden name is Echelbarger, which is a gem already, but one of her schoolmates decided to call her Erkle Burkle. Erkle Burkle. You can’t be mad at that. That’s chef’s kiss. Erkle Burkle.

Let’s move on to the second assumption here. Yes, that lives rent-free in my brain, that Erkle Burkle. The second assumption here, we’re looking at what true righteousness looks like. Verse twenty-seven, “You have heard that it was said of them in old time, you shall not commit adultery.” It’s like we’ve also heard that said and it’s true. You shall not commit adultery. That’s the seventh commandment. And in Christ’s time, they were very serious about it. Think of the story of the woman that they brought before Jesus that was caught in the act of adultery. They all thought she needs to be stoned and that’s how they took care of adultery. It was just a death penalty right away.

So in Jesus’s time, this was very serious, adultery. The actual act, sexual act of adultery. So you’ve heard it said, don’t commit adultery, “But I say unto you,” in verse twenty-eight, “...that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already with her in his heart.” Once again, this is that deeper view, this expanded view that that Jesus Christ is bringing for us here. Just as we should take interpersonal squabbles, being angry or name-calling seriously like murder, lust is the same as adultery.

Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her, and what does that do? What does that do when that happens? It’s objectifying that person. It’s belittling the person that you’re looking at to lust after them into an object. Again, this is about interpersonal relationships. So as we’re looking at what righteousness looks like, the first example was external and there’s that friction and when there’s arguments or name-calling, and this is something that happens inside of us. But it’s just as serious.

Verse twenty-nine, here’s what we should do if this is in our lives. “And if your right eye offend you, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish than that the whole body should be cast into hell. And if your right hand offend you, cut it off and cast it from you, for it is profitable that one of your members should perish and not that your whole body should be cast into hell.” Of course, we mention this often, and these are common verses that we read often, but see them with fresh eyes. Challenge your assumptions about them.

Obviously, we’re not cutting off hands or plucking out eyes, but take it seriously. Remedy the situation. Ask God to help you if these things are occurring in our lives. We must take action, but again, it’s about how we interact with people. Are we objectifying them? Are we stealing from that person’s future spouse? Or if they’re married, you’re stealing from their spouse through lust.

Next assumption, verse thirty-one. “It has been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, save for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery.” So in the first century here, in Christ’s time, there was a debate over what could constitute divorce. And some thought it was only fornication, which is what Jesus agreed with, and He said that clearly. And then others thought it could be really for anything.

And this, if you’ve heard it being said statement, is quoting from the Old Testament. You bring her a bill of divorce, but it says only from uncleanness. That’s what the Old Testament verse says. And Christ obviously says that’s fornication. That’s the reason for divorce. But of those two things, whether it’s just for fornication or it could kind of be whatever reason you bring up, that whatever reason you bring up as a man for divorce, that was the favored position. It could be that you burned a meal. Divorce. Getting a little wrinkly. Divorce. It’s like trading in a new car.

But think of what’s happening here. Again, we’re thinking of interpersonal relationships. For this, when you’re thinking of someone could just bring a bill of divorce and get divorced for whatever reason, the husband is the head of a marriage. God gave them that. God gave them that. It’s authority given to the man. And this common assumption or view of this law of God twisted it and made it beneficial and good for the man. When it made the woman and the wife, she had no say. She just would be divorced and kind of be off by herself and not be provided for anymore.

For us who have been given more authority, it could be in our job, our marriage, husbands in a marriage, in your congregation, be careful of that. We have to all be careful of that and not twist that authority to our own ends, our own purposes. Because once again, when we do that, when we treat others and kind of lord over authority, we’re not valuing that other person, the people we’re working with.

Next assumption, verse thirty-four. But I say unto you, verse thirty-four, one second, we’ll go here. We’ll start in verse thirty-three. “Again, you have heard that it is said, that has been said by them of old time, you shall not forswear yourself but shall perform it unto the Lord, the Lord your oaths.” And verse thirty-four, Jesus says, “But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne, nor by earth, for it is His footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your communication be yes, yes, no, no, for whatsoever is more than those comes of evil.

So in the Old Testament, this again, you’ve heard it said, if you vow a vow unto the Lord, do it. That’s Numbers thirty in verse two. We won’t go over there, but you can go look at that. “If a man vows a vow unto the Lord, he needs to do it.” And in the first century here, they had come up with all of these elaborate loopholes. It’s like, well, if I don’t make a vow unto God, but instead I swear by his footstool, or the temple, or other things that are around God, his throne, rather than God himself. It gave them these outs, if they made these vows, and they could say, “Well, I told you I’d do that, and I swore by God’s footstool, but that wasn’t him, so I’m not going to do what I said.” So there was ways to get out of those vows, those promises that were made.

But verse thirty-seven says what we should do. “Our communication should be, Yes, yes, no, no, for whatsoever is more of these comes of evil.” Of course, we don’t make oaths like that. I have never heard someone in the Church, anyone, say that they swear by Jerusalem that they’re going to be there at two PM. That doesn’t happen. We’ve rooted out that old way of thinking. However, we should think to ourselves, is our word our bond? Is our yes, yes, and no, no? Just as important as it was back then to have your word be your bond, it’s equally important, if not even more so today.

Think of what happens when we don’t honor what we say. How does that affect others? It often leaves the other person high and dry, where they probably have to do some extra work. If you were supposed to be over at their house to help them with some yard work at a certain time, and you don’t show up, you show up late, or you show up... don’t show up at all, they have to do extra work. And during that time that if you show up late, they have to think, “Where are they? What happened to them?” You could even push that person, because you didn’t do what you said, you push them into bad attitude. And they could fall into some of the things we talked about earlier, of maybe calling you names in their head, or thinking poorly of you.

But again, if our yes is yes, and no is no, and we follow through, those things will happen. We value that person’s time, and we’re not taking advantage of them, we’re not insulting them. And with those things, we’re going to slip up. There’s going to be times where we say something, and like, “Oh, I’ll be there,” and then forget completely. Which has never happened to me, but I’m sure it’s happened to you. No, we’ve all been there. We’ve all been there, and if that happens, just admit it. Own up to it. If it was a big... ask for forgiveness, let it sting a little bit, like, “Oh, I was late.” And then make changes for the future, so you can make sure you fulfill those things.

But the worst we can do is show up late, or just not do it, and blow it off, and not even say anything. It’s good to own up to it when we don’t quite do what we said. I’ve mentioned a lot about being late, but it could be anything we say that we’ll do. It’s like, “Oh, I’ll make sure I’ll take care of that,” and we don’t. Find those things, and root them out.

Another assumption. Verse thirty-eight. “You’ve heard it said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that you resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite you on the right cheek, turn him the other also.” We often hear that term, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, in a vengeance way. It’s like, “Oh, you took my eye, I’m going to take your eye.” Or, “You took my tooth, I’m going to take your tooth.” Where it’s violent, and you’re going to... “They did something violent to me, I’m going to do that same violent thing to them, and more.”

And that was a little bit of how that was viewed, and somewhat viewed, in Jesus Christ’s time. But there was also the more practical application of that as well. Which was, this was to help judges in the Old Testament, and also during Christ’s time. If there was a matter where someone was injured, or had a loss of some sort, they had to say, okay, they lost their eye in whatever scuffle, or workplace injury, or whatever it would be, and what is that eye worth? And the other person had to pay that monetary amount. And that was known, and that’s how these situations were taken care of.

But Jesus is saying to not even go for that recompense. So if something happens to us, don’t go eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. But rather, someone smites you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. He’s taking that farther than just, “You can get what you want under God’s statutes and laws.” But no, don’t even go there. Just let some of those things go. Let some of those things go. A lot of these that we’re going through are very common sayings. “Turn the other cheek.” We hear that all the time. And it starts to lose some meaning. But see it with fresh eyes. We have to challenge ourselves to think a little more deeply about it.

Verse forty, “And if any man will sue you at law and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. And whoever shall compel you to go with him a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asks of you, and from him that would borrow of you, turn not away.” In first century Jerusalem, in the area, the Romans were occupying. And they were able to ask you and compel you to go a mile with them. And this is saying, okay, you have these oppressors that are there and they’re telling you to do this thing, and you do more.

Even though it’s unfair. If someone sues you for your coat, give them your cloak also. Give a little bit more. If there’s way to give to that person who is asking of you, look for ways to give more. We don’t have these same examples today, brethren, where no one’s suing you for your shirt. And then you give them, here’s my North Face winter coat, because you asked for my shirt. But understand the spirit here, and we have to think about them and how they apply to our lives and our relationships.

In verse forty-two, it says, “Give to him that asks, and from him that would borrow of you, turn not away.” That’s not changing the subject. Someone smacked you on the cheek, sued you in the court of law, and compelled you to go with a mile with them, even though they’re oppressive forces that have taken over your homeland. We should be giving. Think of the way of give. I know Mr. Armstrong talked about that all the time. The way of give. Outflowing concern toward others, even those that are putting us in unfair situations, putting us through the ringer, so to speak.

But you’ve all been very quiet during this whole time because you’re thinking about these things, and that’s good. There’s a lot of weight here of what Jesus is talking about, and you can think, ‘How am I supposed to do all these things?” Who is thinking that? “How can I do these things?” The final assumption starts to answer the question. Don’t worry, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Final assumption here. Verse forty-three. “You have heard that it has been said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you.” We’ll get back into that in a moment. Verse forty-three is saying, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. This was a distortion of some verses from the Old Testament. Obviously, love your neighbor is there. Love your neighbor as yourself. Another phrase that we hear often, and we have to keep fresh in our minds so it doesn’t just lose its potency and its meaning.

But they were cherry-picking some other verses to hate your enemy. Oh, I love my neighbors, yes, and all the people that are around me, and for the Jews at this time. Oh, I love all Jews, yes. But they found different places where it seems like God’s saying that we can hate our enemies, hate the foreigners, hate those are outside. But oh, I love those that are inside.

But once again, Jesus challenges this. Verse forty-four. And he ups the ante and makes it even bigger, expands this into an even greater way. “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” Wow. Every time I read this verse, it hits me in a different way. And all throughout this discussion here, and how you interact with others, and the standard that’s there for righteousness with God. And it challenges me in new ways every single time I see it.

I remember the very first time I read the Sermon on the Mount. I learned about it when I was a child, growing up as a Lutheran. But I remember the first time when I knew God’s truth. And I was in the Twin Cities visiting my sister. She lived in St. Paul, Minnesota. And I was sitting at her table, and the sun was coming through. I had a pillar open, and it was leading up to the Passover. And there was an article about the Sermon on the Mount. And I was reading through, and, “Oh wow, I understand God’s truth, and all of these wonderful things.” I’m sure the pluck out your eye and your hand, that spoke to me in a certain way. But all of these years later, it speaks to me in a very, very different way.

I’m supposed to pray for them which despitefully use me and persecute me. That continues to be challenging, even decades into God’s way. I’m sure you can say the same thing. These are hard. Bless them that curse you. Someone curses you, and says awful things about you, and is just verbally coming at you. Bless them. You can think of how God blesses us. He gives us wonderful things. But we have to find ways to say good things about someone that is not saying good things about us. Be careful about how we treat them.

Love your enemies. Going all out of order here, but these are all... all have a lot that we can meditate on, and think about, and delve into. That word for love is agapaō, which agape is the love of God. So it’s right there. Love your enemies. How do we do good to them that hate us? How do we have that genuine outflowing concern toward our enemies? Praying for our enemies, and those that despitefully use us, there’s reasons for that.

And the more that you look at these and meditate on them, you’re going to see reasons for it. And one thing that I’ve noticed over time is that praying for your enemies changes you, changes you on the inside. It ends up softening you, and you can see it’s easier to have that mercy on them, easier to be kind to them, and then speak well of them, and bless them, and do good to them as you’re able to. As you’re able to.

But if we do this, if we do good to them that hate us, and pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us, verse forty-five, here’s what happens if we do these things. We’re starting to turn the corner, brethren. Here’s what happens if we do these things. “That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” If we do all of these things, we can be God’s kids, his children.

Here’s what God does. “He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Well, the Father, from his perspective, he sees all the wickedness and all the sin and the awful things that people do to each other on the entire world, and yet He still sends rain on both. He sees the good things that people do as well. He sees those that know God’s truth and are righteous, but it doesn’t matter. He’ll send rain on them and sunshine, and He’ll give them both, those things. “For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans do the same?” The tax collectors, greedy tax collectors, they even love those who love them.

Brethren, verse forty-seven, ‘And if you salute your brethren only, what more than others? Do not even the publicans do so?” These are all very challenging things that we have to meditate on and think about, and I always... I think Matthew, as he was writing this, was doing the same thing. He was reminding himself, he was a publican, and it’s one of the, I think, a level of humor throughout the whole book of Matthew, but every time there’s sinners, the tax collectors are in there too, the publicans, and you can see, imagine Jesus Christ winking at Matthew every time he was like, ‘Oh those sinners and publicans, those tax men,” but Matthew was thinking about this. We can assume he was.

“For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Don’t even the publicans do the same?” It’s easy to do those things. It’s easy for us to do those things, but we must love all men and do good to everyone. This is a tall order. It is. But these verses will help us with righteousness, help us see where there are places that we need to correct in our lives. Where are we going wrong? But if we want to know what righteousness looks like, and if it’s in our lives, we can see how we treat other people.

So here’s a quick summary of what we were talking about. Do we quickly handle squabbles or disagreements? Do we objectify people, degrading them into an object of pleasure? Do we twist the authority of God has given us and demean those under us and grind them with our authority that, “You do what I want?” Do we keep our word? Do we let things go even when we’ve clearly been wronged? Do we love our enemies? Do we pray for those who persecute us?

The righteous people make all of these things central to their lives, all of these things. They make sure the relationships are taken care of, that they’re not taking advantage of anyone in any way. Brethren, this is where the scribes and the Pharisees, they fell short. Let’s turn over to Matthew twenty-three. All of these things are very doable, brethren. They’re heavy, and you should read these statements and gulp and meditate on them and see how you can do them. But they are doable, and we’ll see that in a moment. But the scribes and the Pharisees didn’t have it figured out.

Matthew twenty-three and verse three. We’ll start in verse two. “Saying,” Jesus said, “...the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.” So they have authority. “All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, and that observe you do, but do not after their works, for they say and do not.” He calls them hypocrites, play actors. “For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born, and lay them on men’s shoulders.” So, it’s taking advantage of people, once again.

Verse five, Matthew twenty-three, five. “But all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and they love the uppermost rooms at feasts.” So, they like to be the big man on campus. But Jesus helps us see what our attitude should be. Verse eleven, “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” That’s where the scribes and the Pharisees, their righteousness wasn’t enough. They were doing certain things of God’s law. They were keeping the Sabbath, and they were they were doing a lot. But they weren’t helping people. They had their focus wrong.

Verse twenty-three. “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you pay tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you have done, and not left the others undone.” So tithing is important. Keeping God’s law, and Sabbath, and doing all those things, and doing them properly is important. But we must not forget the weightier matters of the law. Scribes and Pharisees were worried about the leaves of herbs. Like, “Oh, did I get... that’s one for God, and then nine for me, and one for God, and nine for me.

And they weren’t thinking of mercy, being kind, and just letting things go and roll off our back. They weren’t thinking of judgment, of what’s really right and wrong. They would often say so far from that, that it just made these oppressive rules and regulations that were just hard, and difficult like we just read. And faith. These are the weightier matters of the law. Faith, if we’re in a difficult situation, where someone is giving us a hard time, or persecuting us, or maybe it’s your boss is a little hard on you, you have faith that God’s going to remedy that situation. You can pray for that person, that boss, or whoever it is, co-worker, or family member. Pray for them, not about them. You pray for them, and ask God to help them, and help them see what’s going on, and to remedy your situation as well.

So let’s ask that question again. “Am I righteous? Am I?” We are, brethren, and God allows us to do this, and do it in a big way. He doesn’t leave us high and dry. Here are all these things you need to be doing. Your righteousness must exceed the scribes and the Pharisees, these great scholars of the Bible, these people that seem like they had it all figured out. God shows us how to do it. I should have told you to keep your finger back in Matthew. Let’s turn back over there.

Matthew five. So God’s asking us to do all of these big things. To love our enemies, to pray for those who despitefully use us. I’m staying with those last ones, because those are the hardest to do, but all of them are there. You can think back to, we shouldn’t be quickly angry with our brother. We should be keeping our words. With all of that in mind, verse forty-eight comes into the picture. “Be you therefore perfect,” verse forty-eight, “...be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” The God that sends the rain on the wicked and the just.

But remember that Jesus Christ, who said these words and lived them, He’s living inside of us through God’s Spirit. The Father who does all of these things and has for millennia been long suffering with human beings. He’s also in us as well. If we feel like we can’t do these, and if we’re meditating on, “How do I do this?” Ask him for help. Jesus Christ already did it. He knows what this takes. It’s hard. He had to be dying on the stake, crucified, and he said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” But they’re both in us. They’re making this happen.

We often will look at the whole law and we say it’s summarized as love toward God and love toward neighbor. But in all of these examples, how many times did it mention what love toward God and doing things toward God? Very few, wasn’t it? He was mentioned more, okay take care of that and then let’s worry about me. Love toward God is hugely important and we must have that, but love toward God and love toward neighbor, we can actually simplify it further.

Let’s turn over to Galatians five. You can keep your finger there if you’d like. Galatians five. Let’s summarize God’s law. What does it take to be someone who keeps God’s law and does it correctly is righteous. Galatians five and verse fourteen. “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love toward God is important, but if we’re focused on these things, everything we’ve been talking about, that comes with the territory.

We are able to look at every single person and make sure we’re valuing them and kind to them and merciful and loving, no matter who they are, family members, brethren in the church, it could be co-workers, and then those that are difficult to be around and interact with, that we have to interact with. All of the law can be fulfilled in that. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And clearly neighbor just doesn’t mean, “Oh those I’m friends with.” Jesus Christ expanded that beyond that. You think of the Good Samaritan. It was beyond just those in my little tight knit, “oh that’s my next-door neighbor. I’ll love them. But anyone beyond that, no.” We have to expand that and love your neighbor as yourself.

So we have to be perfect in all these things as the Father in heaven is perfect. Another way to look at it is to become perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect. We must be striving for those things. When we need to, brethren, and when you need to challenge those assumptions, maybe we’re feeling... maybe there’s a little more interpersonal issues that we’re running into, or we’re falling short on some of these things. Come back to these. Read them. They’re challenging and every single time you’re going to find something more and deeper. But they’ll help you be that North Star and guide you toward righteousness, toward entering the kingdom of God.

To summarize these things, God wants us to look at our relationships, every single one of them. He wants to think about them and, deeply. That’s one of our main focuses in life, is making sure those things are right. How are we treating others? We must always remember that everyone is made in the image of God. That’s how God views them and that’s how we should view them too. They’re a potential God being.

They can be born into God’s family. They may not know that yet and may not be acting like that yet, but that doesn’t stop it from being true. Brethren, once again, be you perfect even as your Father which in heaven is perfect. So, whenever we’re asking that question, if you want to ask, “How righteous am I? How righteous are we? How am I doing in that righteousness department?” You now know where to look.