In Ephesians, chapter six, verse 14, the Bible says, stand there for having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Now, these two pieces of armor fit together. And it’s important to understand that we need truth as the foundation so that we can know what is right. And God wants us to live righteous lives.
Now the righteousness that the Bible speaks of here is not the righteousness that gives us favor with God. That righteousness cannot be achieved by our own acts. In fact, Isaiah says that all of our righteousness is like filthy rags.
The righteousness of Christ is the only righteousness that will enable us to stand before God and that righteousness is imputed into our account when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. But this righteousness that we talked about today is a practical righteousness.
God wants us to do what is right. And why? Well, most importantly, so that we can hold our ground so that we can take our stand for Jesus Christ.
And so what does the benefit of righteousness bring? First of all, it brings to us strength. We have that clear conscious, we’re doing the right thing. And because we’re doing the right thing and following the right steps, we are going to have the blessing of God and we will have success.
God’s word is practical. And what it tells us to do, it tells us because it’s for our benefit, because God the owner has given us His manual. And if we’ll do things right, we will operate more effectively and happily in this life.
But also when we do what is right, we can be a good influence on others. We can let our light shine and when others see the righteousness of God exhibited in our lives, then they begin to understand the standard that God has set.
I think it’s interesting that it’s the breastplate of righteousness, it’s on the heart. God wants us to do what’s right. Not because we have to, but because we have fallen in love with righteousness.
It’s not always easy to make wise choices to do the right thing. But when we do, our lives will be blessed. And our testimony will be effective.
And so I want to encourage you to put on that righteousness, do the right thing today, at home, in your marriage, in school, it works. Wherever you are, live a righteous life.