“Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call in the name of the Lord out of a pure heart.”
~2 Timothy 2: 22
If you are in Christ, you have been freely given the righteousness of God in your spirit, thus you are righteous. However we see Apostle Paul tell his spiritual son, Timothy, to pursue righteousness.
He tells one who is already righteous to pursue the same righteousness.
Every time you see some sort of paradox or contradiction in the bible, you should pause and think. By virtue of his new life, Timothy was born again. Timothy was a new creation in Christ. He had become baptized. In fact, in his case they even circumcised him though he was a gentile. So as far as the new creation was concerned, Timothy at this point had become a Christian. He had the gift of righteousness. So why would Apostle Paul tell someone who already possessed a gift to pursue the gift? Do you pursue what you already have?
Paul was speaking of something here that we need to understand. What does it mean to pursue righteousness? I want to let you know 4 things that it means.
First, it means to consciously imitate God in your thinking and in your actions.
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.”
~ Ephesians 5: 1
This righteousness is a reality in your spirit, not yet in your thoughts, or in your body. To pursue righteousness means that consciously, in your thoughts – that is in your mind – and in your body, you strive to imitate God.
Then again, you can’t imitate God if you’re not in fellowship with God. If you don’t spend time with God, you can’t see God. You can’t imitate God if you don’t study His word, and observe how God behaves in different scenarios. So to imitate God, you have to cultivate intimacy with God. You have to spend time with God. Observe Him. Listen to Him. This is what it means to pursue God’s righteousness.
Memory Verse:
Ephesians 5: 1
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.”Prayer:
Father, put in me a strong desire to cultivate intimacy with You, so that I can imitate You in Your thoughts and actions, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.