Category Archives: is it right?

Wrapping Up Right

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As we wrap up exploring what it means to think things that are ‘right,’ I can’t help but pray one of Paul’s prayer for each of you… and for me, too!

We’ve been in the weeds of ‘righteous’ – and what a blessing of a place to be!  As a reminder of our big picture, we’re aligning our minds to the Lord’s, which is a great first step as we seek to be wise about what we confront in others.  So we’re exploring how to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ using Philippians 4:8:

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

We’re wrapping up ‘right,’ or ‘righteous,’ which concludes our first triplet!  And we’re getting ready to move on to our next triplet: pure, lovely and admirable.

‘Right’ is such good stuff, and our Lord’s righteousness is beyond a blessing!  So I leave you with this impassioned prayer for all of us:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.  ~ Philippians 1:9-11

Amen, and Amen!

Vitally Right

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I was going through some old seminary notes on ‘righteous’ and was impacted… and humbled… and blessed… by the power of righteousness.  The heart of the gospel and the centrality of the cross focus us on the gravity of thinking things that are right.

This is what I mean…

Righteousness is so significant that God nailed His only Son to a cross for it. 

In and of itself, righteousness is powerful.  And as we talk about thinking things that are ‘righteous,’ it’s downright sobering.  In a good way – being sobered in the Lord is always a blessing… maybe combined with a grand dose of humility and an initial bit of jostle… but a powerful blessing nonetheless.  You won’t want to miss it.


So we’re perched in this thought:

Righteousness is so significant that God nailed His only Son to a cross for it.

After all, if righteousness could come through any other means, Christ died needlessly (Galatians 2:21).  Now hopefully no one would ever let anyone die needlessly… and especially not an all-wise, all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, purposeful God!

So the cross is a picture of the value of righteousness.  It conveys righteousness’s importance, significance, and magnitude.  It is a picture of righteousness’s worth.

For as powerfully as the cross portrays the significant worth of righteousness, it also conveys the extreme gravity of sin:

“Our sin must be extremely horrible… If there was no way by which the righteous God could righteously forgive our unrighteousness, except that he should bear it himself in Christ, [our sin] must be serious indeed.”  ~ John Stott in The Cross of Christ

God bore our unrighteousness in Christ.  Sinless Christ became our ‘extremely horrible’ sin.

Sometimes when I start to feel tiredness…or laziness… or entitlement because others are doing it… or whatever creeps in, I find it helpful to ponder this.  Now I hope you’ll take the illustration I’m about to give as a helpful image in application ~ I hope you won’t go theologically crazy on me here on all the nuances of this!  But sometimes when my tiredness or justification or seeming patterns of others or whatever tempts me to veer ’slightly’ off course – ‘oh, one little un-right thought is ok!’ or ‘they’re thinking ignoble thoughts, why shouldn’t I?’ or whatever other silliness my sinful self may consider, I find it helpful to reflect on the image of the cross.  On the selfless sacrifice of Christ.  And on the nails.

So when we consider thinking a thought that is not righteous – a thought that God tells us not to do – so sin – {deep breath} – is that worth Christ’s being nailed to the cross for?  If we feel entitled to think certain things – and those things are not true, noble, and righteous – are they worth nailing Christ to the cross for?  The Son of God, the Messiah, the Holy One, the Christ ~ it is our unrighteousness that He bore.  And all He’s asking here in Philippians 4:8 – all the one who became unrighteousness for us so that we may live in righteousness is asking – is that we live in righteousness by thinking things that are righteous.

Sobering it is.  But it also brings great vitality.  The gravity of sin is triumphed by righteousness:

[God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  ~ 2 Corinthians 5:21

[Christ] Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.  ~1 Peter 2:24

Indeed, righteous Christ became unrighteousness for us, that we might become the righteousness of God!  He died that we may live in righteousness.  Here, in Philippians 4:8, that is simply by thinking things that are righteous.

The Right Plumb Line

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Thanks for entertaining the sweetness of ‘righteous.’  It was fun to start there.  But we should of course explore the true heart of thinking about things that are right – it’s most common and full meaning.

I’m a big fan of gotquestions.org.  They are knowledgeable, concise, Scripturally-based, helpful, informative, responsive… and for someone like me, addicting!  Seriously, it’s a bit like “Choose your own adventure!”  You start with one question, then you’re clicking on another link, then another, then another.  It’s a fun journey of growing in our understanding of God and His Word.  So this is their definition of righteousness:

The Bible’s standard of human righteousness is God’s own perfection in every attribute, every attitude, every behavior, and every word. Thus, God’s laws, as given in the Bible, both describe His own character, and constitute the plumb line by which He measures human righteousness.

We see this – guess where? – right back in the Christmas story! : )  John the Baptist’s parents, Zecharias and Elizabeth, were ‘righteous in the sight of God.’ Luke 1:6 seems to define this as ‘walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.’

So righteousness pertains to God’s own perfection – not ours!  Remember We’re not in heaven… yet!?  It’s primary question is, ’Will it happen in heaven?’  Take, for example, baseball.  If there is baseball in heaven, what will that look like?  Will it look like hitting a home-run every time?  I actually don’t think so.  I kind of think that’s logically impossible.  For a hitter to have ‘perfection,’ it would mean hitting a home-run every time, but for a pitcher to have ‘perfection,’ it would mean throwing strikes every time.  Very, very tricky for both to be true!  So it seems to me that this isn’t the type of ‘perfection’ God calls us to.  It seems that there will be both strike outs and home-runs in heaven… the difference in heaven will be the absence of things the Bible talks about – like shame and blame.

So when we think about things that are righteous, we think about God’s own perfection – His standard, not ours.  We measure things using the plumb line of things that are in His Word, not our opinions.

Let’s say we’re in a meeting, and we think our boss should have run the meeting differently. So we get all frustrated and bent out of shape that he should have done this and not that, and this other thing too and not that.  That’s nice, but what is God’s perfection in that situation?  If we use His Word as our plumb line, where do we stand?

So we search, and we search.  We can’t find anything in Scripture about how the meeting should have been run and whether it should have included this or that (when ‘this’ and ‘that’ both are non-sin issues).  But His Word – our plumb line – does remind us how malleable are the hearts of leaders in the hands of the Lord!

The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD;
He turns it wherever He wishes.  ~ Proverbs 21:1

If the Lord desired for our leader to do this versus that in the meeting, He could make it happen!  And especially if the leader is someone who has the Holy Spirit living inside of him, we can pray that the Lord would quicken the Holy Spirit in him to lead in perfect alignment to God’s will… and that He would quicken the Holy Spirit in us to keep our thoughts on God’s plumb line of perfection — not our own : )

As we continue to search Scripture, we still cannot find anything about whether this or that should have been included in the meeting, but we do see that we are to honor our leaders and help make it a joy for them to lead:

Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account.  ~ Hebrews 13:17

Note that Scripture says not just to gloss over respecting our leaders, but to actually have confidence in them: Πείθεσθε.  Vine’s defines the command this way: “‘to persuade,’ in the Middle and Passive Voices signifies ‘to suffer oneself to be persuaded.’”  The verb is in the middle voice here, so it indicates that in regard to our leaders and their authority, we should “suffer [ourselves] to be persuaded.”  So if something is going to thwart God’s blessing in this situation, it is more likely because of our lack of suffering ourselves to be persuaded to our leaders – that is in God’s plumb line of His Word! – and less likely because the meeting wasn’t run exactly like we thought it should be.  It’s no accident that the next verse is

Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.  ~ Hebrews 13:18

So not only are we commanded to suffer ourselves to be persuaded in regards to our leaders and their authority, but by doing so, we can also conduct ourselves honorably in all things. And as if that weren’t enough, it is ultimately for our good!

Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.  ~ Hebrews 13:17

So the plumb line for righteous behavior – and for our righteous thought – is God’s Word.  Hmmm…it’s just as Scripture says! : )

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for … training in righteousness…  ~ 2 Timothy 3:16

Right in the Christmas Story

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I just love this – especially since we’re celebrating Christmas!  So when Joseph found out Mary was pregnant, ‘being a *righteous* man,’ he chose a more merciful route of sending Mary away privately (Matthew 1:19). Check out the impact of Joseph’s mercifully right thinking:

Both to Joseph and Mary this must have been a great trial. Joseph was ardently attached to her, but her character was likely to be ruined, and he deemed it proper to separate her from him. Mary was innocent, but Joseph was not yet satisfied of her innocence… Mary was in danger of being exposed to shame. Had she been connected with a cruel, passionate, and violent man, she would have died in disgrace. But God had so ordered it that she was betrothed to a man mild, amiable, and tender: and in due time Joseph was apprised of the truth in the case, and took his faithful and beloved wife to his bosom.
~ Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

I love the role of sweet, mercifully right thinking in the Christmas story!  Can you imagine if Joseph had the mother of our Lord and Savior stoned to death?!  He could have done that (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:23-24). Now certainly God could have intervened… but can you imagine if they had even gone down that route?  The drama, the judgment, the public spectacle…uggh.  So much uckiness could have surrounded our Savior’s birth.

Instead, Joseph was a righteous man.  He chose the respectful mercy associated with thinking things that are ‘right.’

So that is one precious advantage to Joseph’s ‘right’ thinking – it prevented his making a spectacle of the mother and birth of our Savior.  Another advantage is that it seems to have put him in the right mindset for what was to happen next.

If Joseph’s mind and heart worked anything like mine, when I start down an angry, ‘justified,’ critical path, it’s hard to get off it.  It affects how I view people, my plans for next steps, and the solutions that I consider.  But if I start down a merciful and right path, well, then my heart is more tender towards loving, caring solutions — it is more malleable for God to form towards His desired next steps.

So Joseph’s mind was already in a state of ‘right’ thinking. He was already at a place where he was thinking on things that are righteous, so when behold! an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him what to do, he woke up and did what the angel commanded (Matthew 1:24).  He took a woman who could be stoned to be his wife.  There was no wrestling… no arguing… no consideration of self and public perception…no justification of ‘rights.’  Instead, his mind was already thinking things that were truly ‘right,’ so he simply woke up and did what the angel said.

Joseph, being a righteous man, chose the respectful mercy coupled with ‘righteous.’  His ‘right’ thinking seems to have enabled him to honor the mother of our Savior in the process, to keep Christ’s birth from being a spectacle, and to malleably align his heart to the will of God — for the salvation of the world!

Who knew thinking things that are ‘right’ had such a big role in the Christmas story?!

Merry Christmas!  I pray you enjoy a precious celebration of our Lord’s birth!

Sweetly Right

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I was intrigued as I looked into ‘right’ from Philippians 4:8.  It refers to ‘righteous’… a little shorthand, if you will : )

To get us in the ‘right’ frame of mind : ), here is a glimpse of who and what is righteous:

~ those who love Christ’s appearing (2 Timothy 4:8)
~ those who live by faith (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38)
~ children obeying parents in the Lord (Ephesians 6:1)
~ doers of the law (Romans 2:13)
~ God (1 John 1:9)
~ God’s judgments (Revelation 16:7; 19:2)
~ God’s ways (Revelation 15:3)

As I was exploring ‘righteous’ a bit more and what it means to think things that are righteous, several things popped out to me.  One of them actually kind of surprised me.  That’s fun – maybe I should start with that.

I thought this was sweet…

‘Righteous’ is also sometimes translated ‘just.’  When I see those words – especially ‘just’ – I usually think more of letter of the law.  And that is certainly true — that is more of the main gist of ‘righteous,’ and we’ll explore that soon.

But it also has a sweet aspect to it.  It seems there is a sort of wise respect or grace associated with ‘righteous.’

Consider Joseph.  He found out Mary was pregnant – the woman to whom he is engaged is pregnant… out of wedlock… and not by him.  He could have been outraged, embarrassed, and made a spectacle of her.  And that’s just the beginning!  According to the ‘just’ letter of the law, he could have punished her with death by stoning (Leviticus 20:10; John 8:5) – even when they were betrothed and not yet married (Deuteronomy 22:23-24). But instead, Joseph, ‘being a *righteous* man,’ did not want to make a public example of her.  He chose a more merciful route.  This righteous man chose instead that he would send her away privately (Matthew 1:19).  What precious respect, care, and wise mercy he had with his righteousness!

Or consider God.  Along with His faithfulness, it is His righteousness that forgives our sins (1 John 1:9).  Not His mercy… not His grace… but His righteousness.  Certainly He judges our sin because He is a righteous God — but the aspect that is so sweet to me is that righteousness isn’t just about judgment.  It is also His righteousness that forgives our sins.

And that is of course possible because of Jesus!  His atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:2) enables righteousness.  And as if His death on the cross weren’t undeserved enough, it is Jesus Christ the Righteous who is our advocate before the Father if we sin (1 John 2:1).  Not Jesus Christ the Defender.  Not Jesus Christ the Merciful.  Though He is those things, God chose ‘righteous’ – it is Jesus Christ the *Righteous* who advocates for us when we sin.  Christ, who paid the penalty for our unrighteousness, advocates for us when we are unrighteous.  Christ the Righteous advocates before the Father if we sin!  How undeservedly blessed are we!

‘Righteous’ is precious indeed. It seems there is a forgiving, advocating respect coupled with thinking things that are ‘right.’ An element of grace, respect, and care.  What a precious aspect of right thinking!