Who Is Righteous?

When I created the Righteous Men Twitter account in 2011, I began to answer a question in my mind that nobody had asked yet. I was certain this question was coming and I wanted to have an answer for it. I waited and waited…ready with my answer. But to my surprise, no one ever asked it;

Who are you to call yourself a righteous man?

The question would not have offended me…I expected it. I figured some people would be offended by the name or the tweets…maybe thinking I was being arrogant or that I claimed to have all the answers. I was ready for this conversation, but it never happened.

I knew exactly what I wanted to tweet about. I knew exactly what I wanted the account to be. For the profile image, I uploaded a picture of a man on a bench with a Bible. It doesn’t show his head…that was intentional. And then I wrote a bio for the account. Neither the profile pic nor the bio have changed ever since.

And then I started to tweet.

Lord God, may this Twitter account honor You and serve with excellence the godly men who seek You and Your Glorious Kingdom. #righteousness

— Righteous Men (@RighteousMen) November 25, 2011

I was excited and grateful to gain a few followers, a few retweets and likes, an occasional reply. I expected all kinds of backlash but received the opposite instead; high praise and compliments;

“Keep tweeting, you guys!”

And my favorite:

“Yall’s tweets are awesome.”

But the truth is, there is no “y’all” because there is no “us.” My name is Joseph and I am the one and only person who manages the account. I’ve written every single tweet and post. The Righteous Men name was never intended to refer to me or some group of guys that you might have imagined. All along, the righteous men that I’ve been referring to is you.

Remember why you’re here. Remember what you’re living for. Remember what’s important. Your life is not your own. pic.twitter.com/lED5mXoNri

— Righteous Men (@RighteousMen) April 11, 2013

“Righteous” is not a word that you hear very often these days, especially outside of church. I don’t think many people know what it means. When I do hear it, it’s usually in a negative context…referring to someone who is “self-righteous,” which means he thinks he’s better than others or that he’s reached some level of superiority. That’s certainly not the type of “righteous” I had in mind.

There are two types of righteousness in the Bible. One refers to the righteousness we receive from God. It’s a position of acceptance and forgiveness that is based on the perfect life of Jesus. It’s not something we can earn. We are treated as if we lived his perfect life because he was punished as if he had lived our lives. We are “credited” with his righteousness. We can only accept this by faith and believe it. Trying to earn this righteousness is like applying for a job that you already have.

If you're a Christian, earning God's righteousness is like applying for a job you already have. @RighteousMen Click To Tweet

The other righteousness refers to our character, whether or not we are living rightly. This is a much broader type of righteousness. It calls every part of our lives into question, whether or not our attitudes and actions are right in relation to other people, to ourselves and to God. Are we being kind and patient with the people around us? Are we disciplined in our lifestyle? Are we taking care of our bodies and possessions? Are we responsive to God’s Spirit?

Using the job analogy again, we have the job and we’ll never lose it. This is what the first righteousness is like. We can’t mess it up because we didn’t earn it to begin with. It’s as if our father owns the company and he’s never going to fire us. In this “position” we have with God, however, there are many responsibilities.

WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF US?

God does have expectations of us. And these expectations go far beyond what any regular boss would expect from an employee. Many bosses will overlook an employee’s bad attitude as long as that employee is being productive and getting the job done.

But God is not a boss. His authority over us doesn’t end at 5pm when we go home. He goes home with us. His concern for us goes beyond our on-the-job performance. He gets into our words, attitudes thoughts and motives.

God’s Spirit is alive and active within us who believe, urging us forward to be changed and renewed so that we’re more like Jesus. We’re saved by this great work that is happening inside of us. But on the outside, we’re still living in a fallen world in aging bodies which love to sin. Adding to the challenge, we live and work with other imperfect people who are often difficult to love. Our souls are constantly pulled in two opposing directions, a literal tug-of-war between good and evil…and we are the rope.

There’s so much confusion about righteousness by Christians and non-Christians alike. Unbelievers go around thinking there’s a list of things they must do and stop doing in order to be accepted by God…when the truth is that He would accept them today, just as they are, if only they would believe in Him.

Below is a complete list of everything you must do to be saved;
1. Ask God to forgive your sin and become your Lord.
2. Make sure you did #1

— Righteous Men (@RighteousMen) May 27, 2016

And as for the wayward Christian…he’s been told 1000 times that he’s saved and going to heaven, so he pays little attention to the do’s and dont’s. With a ticket to heaven in his back pocket, he lives however he wants to live. God’s Spirit lovingly withdraws peace from this man until he learns to repent in various areas of his life. To one extent or another, this learning process is happening within all of us, which is why no one’s in the position to judge anyone else.

YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION

However, as I scroll through the tweets of the men (and women) who follow @RighteousMen, I don’t usually find wayward souls. Instead, I find inspiration and greatness. I see faithful men who clearly love their wives and children. I see wives who work hard and are devoted to their families. I see pastors who are careful with their words, even as they comment on controversial topics.

I’ve received some great compliments from so many of you. Right here on this first post on this new website, I just want to express my gratitude to you, the faithful men and women who are sensitive and obedient to God’s voice. You are the audience I’ve always wanted to reach…to challenge and encourage you…because I’m challenged and encouraged by you.

There will be regular posts on this site from a variety of contributors. There will be opportunities to pray for one another and some other features that I’ll mention later. For now, you can subscribe (here) to the site to be notified of new posts. Twitter has been a nice home the last few years, but I always wanted to create a website in order to post full articles. So here it is…it’s nothing fancy, but if it moves anyone closer to the life God has for them, then I’m certainly glad to keep it going.

Click here to send me an email…I’d love to hear from you.