Righteousness And Unfailing Love

Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honor.

Proverbs 21:21

Life, righteousness, and honor are the by-products of the right pursuit. When we aim at righteousness and unfailing love, we find that life, righteousness, and honor are the result.

I love the verb pursue. It’s such a strong word. It has the sense of chase after, hunt down, go after with intention and focus. Put your heart into it.

We are to live our lives pursuing righteousness and unfailing love. To boil it down for us, pursue Jesus.

He is righteousness, and he is unfailing love. We will find those things only in him. He is the laser-beam focus of our pursuits. Just Jesus.

When we focus on pursuing him, we find that he brings his whole self with him. He expresses himself in us and through us. When we find him, we have found everything.

Where are you expending your emotions? What are you looking to for fulfillment and happiness? What drives your behavior and decisions? Are you pursuing honor for yourself—to be admired and accepted by others? Are you pursuing life on your own—to find the missing piece that will slip into place and complete you? Are you pursuing righteousness as a merit badge—to feel deserving and worthy? Is it an empty pursuit?

Pursue Jesus. When you do, everything else comes as a by-product.

Jesus, I set my heart to seek you. Anything else is a lowered bar of expectation. I want you.

The pursuit of our interest and our happiness is never above God’s, but always in God’s. The most precious truth in the Bible is that God’s greatest interest is to glorify the wealth of His grace by making sinners happy in Him. . . . Therefore Christian Hedonists do not put their happiness above God’s glory when they pursue their Happiness in Him.

John Piper(1946–), American pastor