Righteous And Devout

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

RIGHTEOUS AND DEVOUT

Luke 2:25-32

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29 "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all people, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."

NIV

Once again we have the moving of the Holy Spirit upon a man even before the Spirit came upon the disciples on that famous Day of Pentecost. Simeon, a righteous and devout man was filled with the Spirit and moved by the Spirit. That is, He walked with the leading of the Holy Spirit. First, we need to understand what Luke meant by saying that Simeon was a righteous man. The Greek word used here is dikaios and has been translated as just. It carries a great deal of meaning, with the most common meaning observing divine and human laws; one who is such as he ought to be. But in in wider sense, upright, righteous, virtuous, keeping the commands of God. However, it is also used as someone who is innocent, faultless, and guiltless. Then it is also defined as someone whose way of thinking, feeling, and acting is wholly conformed to the will of God, and who therefore needs no rectification in heart or life, thus approved or acceptable to God. That is a mouthful to say Simeon was righteous. Then we have the word devout, eulabees, used to define one who takes hold well, i.e., carefully, and surely; cautious, referring to God. Could we ever think that those definitions might be used to describe our lives? We wonder if Simeon ever failed and if he ever acted within his pure humanity and sinned. Surely, he was not a perfect man, for if that was the case, there would have been no need for Jesus to come to earth, for if one man could be perfect, then all men could be perfect without needing a Savior. Of course, we do have Christ now, and we live in Christ, or at least we are supposed to. Jesus is our righteousness, so then if we are wholly living in Christ, we are righteous. But we wonder if we are keeping all the commands of God,  which is not the Mosaic Laws that Simeon was living under. To live wholly conformed to the will of God and not need to be rectification, which would include no need to be altered, changed, corrected, enhanced, or improved in our hearts. This would mean our hearts are always bent toward God, always willing, but even more so, wanting to conform to the will of God. This could be a constant struggle if we allow our “self” to have the domain over our feelings, thinking we are more important than we should, and expecting others to always bend toward our will. God has declared us righteous because we are in Christ, but living like it is the quest.