Praise the Lord! God has been good to us throughout the past week as He blessed us with His presence and allowed His favor to rest upon us time and time again. We need to become fully aware of the fact that without God’s favor and mercy, it is impossible for anyone to live a life worthy of His calling in this troublesome world of all kinds of deceptiveness and falsehood and despair and emptiness and hopelessness and trouble and torture and grief and so on. Before Jesus commissioned His disciples to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), He warned them, saying: In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33b; also refer to: Matthew 26:47-27:66; Mark 14:43-15:47; Luke 22:47-23:56; 18:1-19:42; Hebrews 12:2). As Jesus warned, His disciples as well as many of those believed in Jesus Christ through their ministry faced hardships and trials and troubles and persecutions in their life (refer to: Matthew 24:9; Luke 21:2-13; Acts 5:40-41; 8:1-4; 1 Corinthians 11:23b-27; Hebrews 11:35b-38) but they trusted God more and more in the face of persecutions, as the author of Acts of the Apostles mentioned: The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name (Acts 5:41). As the devout followers of Christ, we also have to overcome the trials and troubles that come across our life in the similar way Jesus and His apostles and the believers ever since overcame the persecutions.

The Lord has blessed us with a very rewarding and advantageous Scripture passage for our SftW meditation this week that states: Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor (Proverbs 21:21), which means anyone who pursues righteousness and love will find good life, prosperity and honor in life. We do not think that there is anyone who does not want to have a good life, prosperity, and honor in their life. If we observe our surroundings and the people who we come across in our life, we can understand that every one of them is striving hard to make their life better and better day-by-day. The hints the Scripture gives us to have a better life, prosperity, and honor is to pursue righteousness and love. Thus, we, as the faithful followers of Christ, are invited to pursue righteousness and love in our life to have a better life – that is what God commanded in the scripture from the beginning till the end. That’s also what Christ Jesus taught His disciples throughout His earthly life, and that is what the Holy Spirit inspires everyone to do in life. Human history reminds us that there is not a single person since the creation of Adam [the very first person God created] who pursued righteousness and love in their entire life wholeheartedly for us to follow as an example except Jesus, who was God incarnate (refer to: John 1:14; Philippians 2:6-8; Hebrews 2:17-18; 4:15). Jesus is the only person for us to look forward as an example as we pursue righteousness and love in life as there is no one else who is righteous or perfect enough before God (refer to Genesis 6:5; Psalm 14:3; 53:3; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Isaiah 64:6).

This week’s verse specifically mentions the word “pursue,” and the term simply means intentionally following someone to get hold of them or something with the purpose of attaining it. Essentially, going after someone or something intentionally and patiently until the purpose is achieved [whoever/whatever/wherever it might be]. In our context, a pursuit might not be like a wild animal chasing after its prey [though it is a kind of pursuing] whose aim is to kill and eat it [or destroy the prey] but it is like following a wounded animal with the purpose of protecting or saving them. Some people pursue renowned persons in the society/world or someone whom they like/admire, some pursue the gaining of possessions or positions in this world, some pursue happiness or something that make them cheerful, and so on. In the context of our meditation, pursuing righteousness and love means, striving toward attaining and maintaining righteousness and love in one’s life. Those who pursue righteousness and love would begin to think, speak, behave, and act according to the righteous laws and decrees and commands the Lord God has given to His people through His servants and prophets during the Old Testament times (refer to: Matthew 23:3) and the righteous standard set by Christ during the New Testament times (Matthew 28:18-20; John 8:31; 14:15, 23; 15:10), which, in fact, derives from the same source and meet the same standards (John 1:1-3; 5:19-23; 10:30; 14:9-11; 17:21-23; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3).

One’s love for others ought to be filled with compassion and kindness, which forgives every offense that stands against it. The kind of love Christ Jesus asked His followers to practice with one another is the same love that He received from the Father and extends to His followers, which is, in fact, categorized as selfless love (refer to: John 3:16-17; 15:13; Romans 5:8; 8:38-39; Ephesians 2:4-5; 1 John 4:10). Such love has its own attributes, as Apostle Paul mentioned: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a). Paul also encouraged young Timothy – the minister and one of the key leaders of the church in Ephesus that You, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness (1 Timothy 6:11). Apostle Paul is urging his readers, especially the faithful followers of Christ Jesus, to flee from all that hinders them from attaining the likeness of Christ and spiritual maturity in their life. This indicates that on a personal level, one’s pursuit of righteousness, justice, and love should arise from our loyalty, devotion, and steadfast love for God and our genuinely felt empathy and gentleness and kindness and generosity toward others. We ought to maintain the integrity of heart and moral uprightness of life.

Dear friends in the Lord, as we conclude our this week’s SftW meditation, let us tightly hold on to the teachings of the holy Scriptures, which states that All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). God’s demands from us is nothing but to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God, as God spoke through prophet Micah: He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8). In reality, it might be hard to keep up with the demands of the righteous laws and decrees, and commands the Lord God has given us but if we are able to meet its spiritual requirements, the reward is great and they are abundant life, prosperity, and honor (Proverbs 21:21) in this life and eternal life in the age to come (Matthew 19:29; Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30; 1 Timothy 4:8). May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!