Proverbs 11

One of the words that you see often in the Proverbs, especially in contrast with wickedness, is the word righteousness.  There are few things that are important to understand about righteousness.  First of all, if you have trusted Jesus as your Savior, you are righteous.  2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  In God’s eyes, you are forgiven, clean, holy, and righteous.  He doesn’t see sinful Troy Knight.  He chooses to see me through the blood of Jesus.  We are righteous!  Thank God!

However, though we are righteous, we still live in a sinful body and a sinful world.  Every day we are tempted to do wicked things.  Therefore we need and depend on God’s Spirit to help us live righteously.  Proverbs 11 gives us the motivation and desire to live righteously.  The blessings of living righteously are astounding.  Righteousness makes a straight way for us (v.5), delivers us (v.6), rescues us from trouble (v.8), gives us the knowledge to escape destruction (v.9), cause the city to rejoice (v.10 & 11)... You get the idea.  When we see the big picture, the blessings of living righteously and the pain of wickedness,  it makes doing the right thing seem like a no-brainer.