Jesus offers peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.”1 Don’t look for peace in this world. You won’t find it. So, how can we be at peace in a nonpeaceful world? By living righteously. Doing the right thing—not the correct thing, the minimal thing, but the thing that is “more” than others. Jesus asks, “What more are you doing than others?”2 Righteous people do the right thing for no apparent reason, “for the righteous shall live by faith.”3 Righteous people are those who need no cause and no reward to do the right thing. They are good people not because God is good to them but because God is good.
Righteous people exhibit the qualities of love: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful”4 —to name a few traits.
How do we become righteous? Not by being righteous! No. We become righteous by faith, by believing in Jesus, who then goes before God and defends us by taking on our case. Then we are “justified by faith.”5 And once we have been acquitted of the penalty of sin, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”5 Jesus, then, begins to live inside of us and we become righteous. As we grow in Christ, he enables us to act righteously!
So, what does living righteously have to do with being at peace? It’s the effect of being righteous. “The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.”6 Doing the right thing creates peace in our souls, which results in a “quietness and trust forever.” It matters not what is going on in the world if we have peace in our souls. Everyone needs this peace, but many search for it in the world, and it will not be found there.
Another benefit of living righteously is that it offers hope for people. Jesus tells us, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”7 Will God loves us more if we live righteous lives? No. Why not? Because God cannot love us anymore than he already does! His love is so great that it cannot be greater! Then why do good works? Why live righteous lives? Because of its effect on us—it results in peace in our souls. When the world is noisy and rude and violent and chaotic, we can live in the midst of it all and be at peace. And because the peace of God reigns in our hearts, Jesus says we can also count on this: “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”1
So, to summarize: Living righteously produces peace, quietness, trust, patience, kindness, no worries, no fear, good works, and hope for the world. The question, then, for us is Are we living righteously? Or to put it more succinctly: this: “What more are [we] doing than others?”
1John 14:27 2Matthew 5:47 3Galatians 3:11 41 Corinthians 13:4-5 5Romans 5:1 6Isaiah 32:17 7Matthew 5:16
