God has given to each man a built-in alarm system that lets us know if we’re choosing to do what is morally right. It’s our inner soul and witness, It’s called the conscience. We don’t talk about it much, but it’s very important. This drives each person to be called righteous or not.
Each of our moral inner witness determines one’s conduct when it comes to doing right or wrong. Now there’s a difference however, in the programming of the believer’s conscience and the unbeliever’s conscience.
The unbeliever’s conscience is trained and programmed by the world in which a person lives. It only knows right and wrong, this is defined by the way of the world view around us. e.g., 10 yrs back a man and a woman living together without marriage was considered wrong, but in today’s world this is ok. The unbeliever tends to take that thing as right ,as the world around them have accepted. Sin is decided by the time we live, its so much relative.
But a believer, however, has his conscience trained by the Spirit of God and enlightened by the Word of God. We know the difference between good and evil, not just right and wrong, and there’s a huge difference in that. Good and evil comes from God’s Word and it’s absolute and it never changes from the home to the school to the workplace, no matter what age you are and no matter the century in which we live.
I was meditating Paul’s word to Corinth, he has written a great deal and theologians tell he had great struggle in convincing the Corinth Church on the immoral life’s they led and there were many accusation that were bought to him and he is addressing to them.
'Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace. ' 2 Corinthians 1:12
Many things for us to learn from this single verse which defined how Paul lived a righteous life. It also defines the qualities of righteous man or woman on how God expects us to live.
The Heart of Righteous Man
'Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you
Now this is our boast - Here, Paul is telling his boast in the rightful way “This is our Boast” ~ It can be read as “the cause for rejoicing, for glorying in something.”, Paul is practicing what he taught to the Corinth 'Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”' 1 Corinthians 1:31
Here Paul is being accused by the Corinth people, We can learn from this “Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you”
Most of us (myself included) are accused of something or other ? It’s because we probably have done something wrong and we automatically assume there’s guilt somewhere within us. Remember the Lord Jesus with the disciples there on that last night, He looked at them and he said, “One of you will betray Me.” All of the heads did not turn to Judas. You know why? God knew that Judas would do that from day one, but he never let that be known to all. He loved Judas just like he loved the rest of them. What happened was ,Peter said, “Lord, is it me?” And John said, “Lord, is it me?” You know why? Because their conscience was accusing them. There had probably been situations in their life that they already had done that and we know that Simon Peter, just a few days later, he denies Jesus three times and the book of mark says he cursed and said, “I don’t even know the man.” There was something within them that was accusing them, condemning them. They thought they were the ones.
Our conscience testifies - When our conscience is driven by the Spirit of God and the Word of God, our conscience then bears witness to us and it does not condemn us, it doesn’t accuse us: it defends us. So the conscience, the inner witness is empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, it will defend us.
Do you know how to live when some one accuses you? We need to live the way Paul lived. To live with a clear conscience, so that even when you are accused, even when you are brought before others because of something they fabricated about you, you can stand in the midst and be at rest within because your conscience does not accuse you. It defends you because good has been done out of a pure heart in your life. This can happen only if the Holy Spirit is guiding you in all you do. This is the heart of a righteous man.
The Motive’s of Righteous man
“with integrity and godly sincerity”
There are two motives which Paul talks of
Integrity - is to do the right thing and accomplish it with a purpose of what’s planned, there is no hidden agenda in what you intend to do. Here, Paul says “I have lived among you with a heart that is pure and with a sincerity with you about my life. There is nothing hidden in me.”
Godly Sincerity
We know what sincerity mean but what is Godly Sincerity ?
When a person is sincere, there is no leaven, in his life, in his motive, in his heart. You see, leaven is sin. You may or may not know what a leaven is. You put leaven also called yeast in cooking a cake or dough it causes that to rise and make it fluffed up. His motive was to bring a change to the people to free from sin’s they were tied to. It was Christ living through Paul that produced the Godly Sincerity.
Godly sincerity is what Christ produces in us when we allow him to live his life through us. Paul uses the word in 2 Corinthians 2, and it describes the motive of his preaching; but he also attaches it to the fact that it has to come from God. 'Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.' 2 Corinthians 2:17
Dependence of Righteous man
We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace. '
Wisdom
Here, Paul says, he did not depend on world’s wisdom this is because, human wisdom is foolish in God’s sight.
'For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. ' 1 Corinthians 1:25
Instead Paul relied on God’s wisdom, that is revealed to us when we walk with God by the Holy Spirit.
'We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ' 1 Corinthians 2:6-7
God’s Grace
Paul talks about the same grace that he spoke in Verse 2 - 'Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ' 2 Corinthians 1:2
it’s the same Grace that Paul talked in 1 Corinth 15 - 'But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. ' 1 Corinthians 15:10
Many times we assume we have the grace of God and slow down a bit or take it easy, some even stop working. Paul tells he worked Harder (”I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”) than others to ensure the Grace of God was not taken for granted and Grace was there in his weakness. Wow! What an attitude we should all learn from him.
Summary
Interesting things to learn from Paul and emulate his behaviour to make ourself Righteous.Before you do
Check if your conscious testifies you or Condemns you when some one accuses you falsely?
Do you act with Integrity in all that you do ?
Do you have Godly Sincerity in what you do ?
Do you depend on your own wisdom or God’s wisdom ?
Do you work hard with God’s grace or do you slack around ?
Surrender to God and ask God to help you become like Paul, he is the same God who made Paul, he is the same God who made you and me, with his power we can become Righteous like Paul.
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