Righteous

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

RIGHTEOUS

Prov 29:6

6 An evil man is snared by his own sin, but a righteous one can sing and be glad.

NIV

Two people, two different outcomes of their lives. The evil or wicked or the person who either does not know, or refuses to know Jesus as Lord and Savior is bound to their sin, it is a snare which leads them to destruction. They may say they live in freedom to do whatever they desire to do without restrictions or consequence, but in fact they have been enslaved to sin which brings death upon them. The righteous are not people who are absent of sin, but whose sin has been forgiven. They are the people who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This is the reason they can sing and be glad. Their sin is not a snare, but it is forgiven, not counted against them, and thus can sing praises to the Lord and live in gladness of heart. There is some danger, however for the righteous. We can get caught up in a situation which might not bring the outcome of our lives as we think. Although we have our sin, past, present and future forgiven, we should not take liberty with God’s grace, with his forgiveness. The Apostle Peter put the Lords words to pen regarding this type of offense. Peter is giving a warning about the false prophets and teachers who prey on the newly converted believers. He warns the believers not to follow them.

2 Peter 2:17-21

17 These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity — for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.

NIV

We, who believe must stay true to the word of God, not to the false doctrine of men like whom Peter speaks about. We also should note that we too should be careful having accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior to make every effort to allow the Spirit to lead us into all truth. It is a matter of our will, to yield it to the Spirit. He does not overtake us, but is invited and yielded to by our own will to be the person God desires us to be. We cannot take advantage of his forgiveness and simply go about living in the same manner as the wicked, or once saved, return to some habitual pattern of life which would not be pleasing to God. We might find we are worse off than if we never accepted Christ in the first place, although we cannot understand how worse could death be? How worse could the torment of hell? Are there different levels of hell, as some believe there are different levels of heaven? We may not be free from all sin, or every sin, but we certainly cannot return to a live of sin, or freedom to live however we think is right. We need to be remorseful over any failure against God. We need to be repentant regarding any sin which creeps into our lives. Remaining in his word is extremely helpful for us to know when we and how we fail and are able to keep ourselves within his influence. If we do not remain in him, in his word, under his influence then we are subject to ignorance of our failures, our sin. It is also true that if we find ourselves being misled by false doctrine, false beliefs we would not be aware unless we remained in the word and under the influence of the Spirit. So let us always be aware of our imperfection in this world so that we can be perfect in his sight, holy and blameless without a spot of blemish, righteous.