We are living in times where we are constantly encouraged or being influenced in organizing our lives. We crop and edit our images and keep working on social platforms projecting ourselves as successful, smart, and purposeful.
Is living a life just of the exterior or is this kind of life all in vain, there’s a cry within that further says, the shine has to be within.
What it really means to live a righteous life, is the defining quest within, is my life being lived worth my God and His will for me.
Every Life Is Meant for Righteous Living
Living our days in a fast paced world, all that is exterior matters us the most.
Our day begins with we be awakened by an alarm clock, to pace and time each moments governed by the same clock guiding us how much time you need to spend on each activity.
We glance at the wardrobe, choosing our shirt and shoes to match the day like the meetings, and persons that we will encounter during the day. We want to please them each with how we would look outwardly.
So here we live a life that tends to focus on the external, the visible, what brands we are using, in clothes, our work bag, and our shoes.
Further what trending social apps are we using, how our feeds and uploads look, what image of ourselves do we post.
Beneath all this is an invisible garment of our heart and soul that is often overlooked and ignored that the seer speaks to us that we need to contemplate and ask ourselves each day, maybe just once a day…
What it really means to live a righteous life.
We are obsessed just how those around us and even the unknown to us but interacted and conversing with us on social platforms think of us, for us their judgment matters or affects us so much.
The likes, the claps, the comments and the messages conversed, all these are the modern age sketch of us.
This sketch is of what we are as a person, at least that’s what we and other’s think otherwise.
Representing ourselves for others to judge, thus value us.
But there is something deeper and profound for a Christian living and that is asking ourselves what are we wearing spiritually and emotionally?
And as a practicing Christian, what it really means to live a righteous life, as this is at the core of every Christian teachings from the Holy Bible and significantly by Jesus Himself.
So now let your heart and consciousness not prick you otherwise, questioning you your righteous living, thus what has righteousness to do with my life.
Righteousness…
The word in our times and the generation can sound outdated and even un-important.
Today in the Ai age, tech, social media and digital convenience define rather re-write our days and much of the human life.
Biblically, righteousness simply means being ‘right with God.’
It would not mean we live a flawless life or go self-perfecting, we will fault and fall, and that’s fine.
But we need to do is get up after that failure and do what we are to do, to do just what Christ our Savior wants us to do.
We need to align our hearts, motives, and actions with God’s truth and will.
Righteousness is not a performance or some brownie earned, it is a position, a state of being right, and living the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Living our lives as true Christians that has the will of Christ being lived is making perfect the very sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness…” — Isaiah 61:10
The prophet Isaiah reminds us that God Himself has “clothed” us with garments of salvation, and “covered us with a robe of righteousness.
Righteousness is described as a garment, a “robe” provided by God Himself.
So now you don’t have to weave a robe that you’re already wearing.
You don’t earn a gift, that is already been given to you.
The righteousness is not our moral achievement, but our humble reception.
When we speak of what it really means to live a righteous life, we need to find the unrighteousness that hinders or obstructs us from living a life as willed by God for us each.
The unrighteousness would be the sinful human nature and the state of sin that stains everything, even one’s “righteous deeds”.
Hindrances to a Righteous Life
‘What it really means to live a righteous life’ is not about living a religious life alone, just how often we attend Church or how holy we are or at least how holy we appear to others.
Jesus constantly challenged that mindset. The Pharisees followed every rule but missed the heart and will of God.
True righteousness flows from relationship, not regulation and religious rituals. It’s walking with Jesus daily.
Living a righteous life would be to surrender our will to God and allow His spirit and will to shape our hearts, thus life.
And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction. (Romans 3:22)
A personal relationship with God will deepen righteousness, making it a natural outflow.
You become of what company you keep, Jesus the friend is now obeyed not because of His approval and correctness, but you obey Jesus because you love Him.
That shift from obey to love is the essence of living a righteous life. This love for Christ is now your divine connection.
What it really means to live a righteous life won’t be easy and will come with many a challenges.
Our times and modern thinking celebrates self over surrender, comfort over conviction, and pleasure over purity.
The digital age floods our eyes and thoughts that finds it normal to compromise and seek comfort.
But Jesus teachings speaks…
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)
Search within yourself if there is that hunger and thirst for righteousness. Does being unrighteous affect or bother you.
Is there a regret.
The hindrances to righteous living in our times can be the tools for connection like our smartphones and laptops that need to be used for communications and growth have become instruments of distraction and sinfulness.
Endless scrolling, the pressure to curate a perfect life, and being attracted to the snares of the enemy by watching pornography spending time on other sinful vices is making us live a life of unrighteousness.
Our working and self-sufficiency has further has made us believe that we are architects of our own destiny.
This prideful self-reliance is a direct antagonist to a righteous life.
We think we need no support or we need to rest our hope on anybody.
This hinders us from fully surrendering to God’s will for our life, as we cling to the illusion of self-controlling our own lives.
Living Righteously in Practical Ways Today
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12)
In His great mercy, God erases your sin from His memory!
What it really means to live a righteous life, part of the answer lies above.
A lot of people struggle under the weight of guilt, thinking righteousness means never stumbling or falling into sin.
But me living a righteous life doesn’t mean being perfect.
It means pursuing and searching and living the presence of God daily, every day.
So well does Proverbs 24:16 speak, as if it’s giving us a chance to rediscover ourselves from un-righteousness to righteousness.
for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes. (Proverbs 24:16)
It’s a message of resilience, encouraging us that setbacks and failing is going to there for righteous persons, but they need not stay down, but they need to get back up moving spiritually, whereas the wicked as they are unrepentant of their sins will fall into ruin.
Every time that you rise after failure, repent, and return to God, you are walking the path of righteousness.
What it really means to live a righteous life happens every day.
A righteous living is a way of living that tics right, if it was a will of God.
- Be truthful in all dealings. In a world filled with deceit and misinformation, being honest is living in righteousness.
Speak honest even if it costs you being less popular.
- Guard your heart and your screen. What you consume online will shape your mind and spirit.
Righteous living means choosing purity over pollution of sorts.
- Treat others with grace. Each person like yourself was made by the same Creator who created you.
The teachings and righteousness of Jesus is reflected by you in how we treat others, especially the difficult ones.
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (1Peter 4:8)
- Live Generously. Righteousness is all expressed through compassion, serving others, giving to the needy and your daily dealings with others of selflessness.
- Seek Justice and Mercy. For a Christian it involves living a balance of both, acting justly by upholding righteousness and fairness, and extending mercy by showing grace and compassion to others, recognizing that this reflects just how God has shown mercy to us.
Every choice of ours can either draw us closer to or away from God.
The Reward of Righteous Living
Your righteous living is not for a reward or goodness in life, the reward is in finding Jesus saying a whispering ‘thank you’ to you for doing His Will. Isn’t that the highest reward?
The reward is a blessing and an inner peace that is dissolved within you now.
The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. (Isaiah 32:17)
Now what it really means to live a righteous life would make you live the love and peace, the treasure that the world cannot give or take away.
It’s rooted deep inside you as now you are walking in alignment with God’s will.
It’s also a treasure as in our age of anxiety and endless comparison, this love and peace of Christ is like a pearl that is immeasurable in value.
Now as a righteousness as a virtue within you, you need to prove nobody, as the highest assurance and validation comes from Christ, our judge and savior.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)
Your worldly concerns and needs is now in the hands of God as you live a life of His willingness, when you live in all righteousness.
This does not negate a life free of trials, but it does mean His favor, wisdom, provision, and protection will follow you.
Your success in life is in walking with Jesus, every day.
Let righteousness not be appearing right, its being right with God.
For a Christian, living a righteous life is both a spiritual privilege and daily choice.
It’s about making a choice, faith over fear, purity over popularity, and truth over convenience.
So if you ever wonder what it really means to live a righteous life, remember this:
It means living in the grace of God, walking in the truth of His Word, and shining His light in every corner of yours and others life.
