“Righteousness” is one of those biblical words we don’t encounter often outside religious language. Translating it as “justice” doesn’t fully capture the personal ethical dimension of the biblical righteousness. Justice can be reduced to a social setup, or a right reward for certain commodities. It can be quite dry or soulless, like communism or socialism, or (heaven forbid) capitalism, or even
just paying wages on time.
But righteousness means being in right standing with God, doing what God requires of us. This includes being just to our neighbour, but is not limited to it. It also requires us to be on good terms with our neighbour, and to love them by virtue of the fact that we love God, and God loves us.
The hunger and thirst for this kind of relationship
with God mean that we are really striving to be at peace with God and with what God wishes of us. God sees, knows, understands and appreciates our desire for a closer connection, and a more just way of living in the world. Jesus is promising that this yearning will be satisfied… even if it is not always possible to be at peace with our neighbour. I wonder why my experience is sometimes different.
What does it mean for me to be in a
right relationship with God? How do I experience that spilling over into my relationships with other people? What do I still need to do to come to that level of righteousness?
