Engines at the Full

Welcome back, dear reader, to a conclusion of this past week's theme. We have been studying Jesus' focus on the inner self, or perhaps more precisely, on an inner state of being. Originally dubbed "dikaiosune" [die-kah-yo-soo-nay] by Plato, it was thought to be a desirable quality or state of being. We have heard this termed as "righteousness" in the modern language. I am sure we have little idea what it means.

Jesus' account of dikaiosune, or of being a really good person, is given in Matt. 5:20-48. We need to stop for a comment on this special term that plays such a large part in the thought world of classical and Hellenistic Greek culture, as well as in the language of the Bible and in the early form of Christianity.

Aristotle, his pupil, changed the focus to "arete", in our language this becomes virtue.

Of course no contemporary ethical expert would be caught dead discussing "righteousness," though virtue has recently experienced something of a revival in the field.



Dikaiosune speaks to a way of living. In it, we find an answer to the age old question, "What is the good life?" What is it that must be done to feel satisfied with the quality of our lives or the way we have lived.

The human need to know how to live is perennial. It has never been more desperate than it is today. 

While quite true, this still averts the actual question of what is dikaiosune? What does it mean to be righteous or to have righteousness? Is this not the very thing Jesus promises to give? Is this not the very thing God seeks in us? "You shall be made righteous," we are told, but I warrant we have very little understanding what this means.

The best translation of dikaiosune would be a paraphrase: something like "what that is about a person that makes him or her really right or good." 

I suppose we could picture it as the carat of a diamond or the weight of gold. The dikaiosune of a person is his measure against the heavens; it is how he marks up to the Almighty Himself. Interesting then, that not only does God require this from us, but he also grants it to us. In Genesis we find Abraham (formerly Abram) interacting with God on a personal level. What is more surprising than this, is that God does not treat him an estranged being full of sin, as he does with Adam prior to his expulsion from the garden. God speaks to and of Abraham as one who has met the requirements of communing with the Creator of the world.

"And Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for dikaiosune."

Righteousness. God is a righteous God, and he desires children who follow after him in this way. Oddly enough, faith in and a desiring of God provides this righteousness. Abraham had it. Jesus promised to give it. We are asked to seek it.

Later we are told in Hebrews that by faith in God, Abraham obtained his dikaiosune, his righteousness. It was not about a confession of belief or a system of actions, but an inner mindset of trust in and desiring after the One who made him.

Is this something we stress in today's Christian world? Is this something we teach? We so often want children to say they believe in Jesus or adults to serve the poor and the needy. How often do we want humans, of any age, to harbor an inward desire to be as God is. To love mercy and kindness, to seek justice and truth. Not that the other things are not profitable to the individual soul, but surely we must recognize these as a biproduct of God's inner nature.

Dikaiosune is Jesus living in our hearts. It is a fire that fuels the engine of our Christian spirit. A raging furnace, a roaring river, a churning volcano of spiritual energy inside of us, ready to power any act that God might call us to. This is not mysticism, this the reality Jesus preached from Genesis to Revelations. Those who live in God's kingdom, possess the kingdom heart, the dikaiosune of a redeemed individual.

Without the righteousness of Christ inside of us, we will find it very difficult to handle the situations of the everyday in an eternal and eternally good manner. With it, we will rise above what is thought to be humanly possible. Jesus gives six examples where this can and should happen.

1. Irritation with one's associates
2. Sexual attraction
3. Unhappiness with marriage partner
4. Wanting someone to believe something
5. Being personally injured
6. Having an enemy

The next focus of this chapter will be to examine each of these in light of how the world understood them, how a follower of the law understood them, and how Jesus, as a living member of the Kingdom of God, understood them in light of the reality of that Kingdom. Put on the Kingdom Heart, seek true dikaiosune of character, and follow me as we explore that Kingdom in the coming days.