Hallelujah! Glory to God! The Lord has blessed us yet with another week in life and promised to bless us with everything we need in life on earth – both spiritual and physical/material needs. The Lord God who created the universe and everything in it including the human beings in His own image and likeness is the source of our life and the reason for our existence here on earth as well as in the age to come. The Lord has been faithful to us all the days of our life and will continue to do so throughout our life on earth, as Moses stated: Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments (Deuteronomy 7:9; also refer to (1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:24; Hebrews 10:23).

The Lord has blessed us with a very assuring Scripture passage for our SftW meditation this week that is taken from the book of Proverbs 21:21 (mentioned above). The book of Proverbs mainly contains the wise sayings of king Solomon son of king David the son of Jesse the son of Obed the son of Boaz from Bethlehem (refer to Ruth 4:21a-22; 1 Kings 2:12; 4:29-34; Proverbs 1:1). According to Proverbs 21:21, the reward for the person who faithfully pursues righteousness and love will have the blessings of life, prosperity, and honor. As we meditate upon our this week’s SftW passage [Proverbs 21:21], let us try to familiarize the terms like Righteousness and Love. The term righteousness simply means the quality of being morally right (or virtuous) and honorable (or justifiable). Hebrew term for righteousness is צֶדֶק (Tzedek), which is closest to the term צְדָקָה (Tzedakah), which signifies to lead a life that is honoring God as one live their life based on the righteous laws and decrees and commands (the Scripture) that is given by God and having a right approach towards fellow human beings and rest of God’s creations through one’s morally correct behavior and goodness of heart. In a nutshell, righteousness could be achieved through maintaining a right relationship with God and with one another. The other term we need to heed is love. The Hebrew term for love is אַהֲבָה (Ahava), which simply means one’s feeling of deep affection towards the other, which could be towards God or fellow human beings or rest of God’s creation. The terms righteousness and love are deeply interconnected with one another because both these attributes derive from God. The Lord our God whom we worship and adore is righteous as the Scripture states so: The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does (Psalm 145:17; also refer to 11:7; 119:137); also, it mentioned that God is Love: … God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them (1 John 4:16; also refer to 4:8). So, as the children of God (John 1:12; Romans 8:16; Galatians 3:26; 1 John 3:1) or as the people who are called and separated by God for Himself as His chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, and so on (Exodus 19:6; Deuteronomy 7:6; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6) need to inherit these attributes in our life and practically and sensibly display it in and through our lives, so that God’s name will be honored and glorified among the mankind. As God’s dearly loved children, the greatest commandments given to us (by Jesus) is to (i) love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength and love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 2:30-31; also refer to Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37-39; Luke 10:27). As we discussed above, let us know that God is love (1 John 4:16), so let us walk in love (Ephesians 5:2); God is light (1 John 1:5), so let us walk in the light of God (1 John 1:7); God is life (John 14:6), so let us live a godly life; God is true (John 14:6), so let us walk in His truth (3 John 4).

Dear friends in the Lord, as the faithful followers of Christ, as per our meditation, if we pursue righteousness and love and live our life accordingly, the promise given to us is that we will be blessed with life, prosperity, and honor (Proverbs 21:21). Even if some of our life situations might not be as good as we expected, it will still be good to be a person who lives righteously before God and man, as it is mentioned in the book of Ecclesiastes: Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him (Ecclesiastes 8:12). Let us know that He who called is faithful and He who promised us is faithful, as the Scripture states: Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies w,ashed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:22-23). God is faithful an He will fulfill what He promised to each one us. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!