It Is Important for Christians to Practice Righteousness

We are not saved by our righteousness (Titus 3:5) but by His gift of righteousness. However, we are to practice righteousness (1 John 3:7), pursue it with other believers (2 Timothy 2:22), seek it (Zephaniah 2:3; Matthew 6:33), and hunger and thirst for it (Matthew 5:6). These are to be our responses to God’s gift of righteousness.

One of the jobs of a godly father is to tenderly plead with his children to live righteously. Thus Abraham would urge, even “command his children . . . to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice” (Genesis 18:19).

God will reward our righteous actions, both in this day and during the final judgment. Every believer will be tempted to “lose heart in doing good,” and the key to overcoming this is to remember that we serve a righteous God (Galatians 6:9). God instituted the principle of sowing and reaping. The one who “sows in tears” will one day “reap with joyful shouting” (Psalm 126:5). For this reason, “The merciful man does himself good, but the cruel man does himself harm” (Proverbs 11:17). The wicked will not prosper in the end, but the one “who sows righteousness gets a true reward” (Proverbs 11:18).

Jesus assured His followers that any sacrifice they made for Him in love would be rewarded (Matthew 19:29). Not even the smallest gesture—even a cup of cold water given in His name—would go unnoticed or forgotten (Mark 9:41)! This is grounded in His attributes of righteousness, as “God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name” (Hebrews 6:10).

Isaiah lets us in on a private and prophetic conversation between the Father and the Son:

He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel, in Whom I will show My glory.” But I said, “I have toiled in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord, and My reward with My God.” (Isaiah 49:3–4)

The Messiah was tempted to feel He had toiled in vain as He experienced the resistance of the arrogant religious establishment, the misunderstanding of His own family, and His own disciples who would eventually betray Him in His hour of need. However, He surrendered this temptation to His righteous Father whom He knew would reward Him!

God assured even a first-century slave that he would “receive back from the Lord” for any service to Him (Ephesians 6:7–8). Jesus stated that even as we serve our enemies— for whom we could never expect anything in return—God will see to it that even in this circumstance our reward will be great (Luke 6:35). Serving a righteous God assures us with the knowledge that our “toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Our righteous God is a “rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

God will ultimately bless and favor the righteous man (Psalm 5:12). The deepest desires of the righteous are good (Proverbs 11:23) and will be granted (Proverbs 10:24). While each generation has to make their own decisions, blessing is promised to the descendants of the righteous (Proverbs 11:21; 20:7). The reward of true prosperity and honor (Proverbs 13:21; 21:21) will be clearly seen when the righteous are “repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14). One who may be overlooked, deprived, hated, and scorned will be remembered forever on that day and will experience his or her reward in heaven (Luke 6:20–23). One who lives righteously and who leads others to righteousness will be rewarded for all eternity (Daniel 12:3).