{"id":6120,"date":"2014-12-12T00:05:15","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T08:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6120"},"modified":"2014-12-09T14:06:06","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T22:06:06","slug":"righteousness-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/12\/12\/righteousness-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Righteousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, \u201cHow is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018The Lord said to my Lord:
\n\u201cSit at my right hand
\nuntil I put your enemies
\nunder your feet.\u201d\u2019<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

David himself calls him \u2018Lord.\u2019 How then can he be his son?\u201d<\/p>\n

The large crowd listened to him with delight.<\/p>\n

As he taught, Jesus said, \u201cWatch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows\u2019 houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.<\/p>\n

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, \u201cI tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything\u2014all she had to live on.\u201d (Mark 12:35\u201344)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tThe religious leaders wanted to be honored by people, even as they dishonored those around them. They claimed to love God, even as they hated those created in his image. The problems infesting the Israelite leadership were the same problems that had infested Israelite leadership throughout its history. Though they had given up idolatry for the worship of a single God, they still didn\u2019t understand what it meant to be righteous. Prayer and tithing were good, but Jesus was concerned about their motivations.<\/p>\n

\tRighteousness is not about giving money, or praying long prayers, or gaining the admiration of others. Instead, righteousness is all about loving God. And the way we love God is revealed by how we treat those who bring us no advantage, who cannot advance our careers, who cannot offer us money or prestige. As John wrote, \u201cIf anyone says, \u2018I love God,\u2019 yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.\u201d (1 John 4:20) How we treat the least of God\u2019s people is how we are treating God. Our behavior toward those around us is a reflection of what we believe about God. <\/p>\n

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While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, \u201cHow is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: \u201c\u2018The Lord said to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6120"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6122,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6120\/revisions\/6122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}