Justice, The Righteous

BIBLE STUDY #775- CHURCH IN THE HOUSES FROM: JULY 9 - 15, 2013

Topic: “Justice, The Righteous” Hosea 10:12 “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers RIGHTEOUSNESS on you.” We are chosen by God and if we walk with the purpose of knowing Him, we will achieve this and we will acknowledge Him in everything and especially in His justice! By acknowledging Him we will be like Him, just, righteous. In the beginning, the word justice was only known as a moral rectitude. It was what was considered when a person was observed. But, the justice that the Lord requests from us goes furthermore than a moral rectitude, it is total rectitude. It is the justice of the heart, of all our inner-being. It is the way of living of a true believer just as Jesus, the Master, lived. For that we need to die to our past, to the old, to the bad habits, to everything bad that grew roots in our hearts. The prophet says: “And break up your unplowed ground.” To fallow is to plow breaking the ground pulling the hawthorns and the bad weeds. So, to make a good seed planting of what is of God in our lives, a good plowing has to be done to break and clean the bad weeds and hawthorns that were in our heart. We have to seize the mind that was educated for the easy things, for the light and comfortable things, for everything that is without sacrifice and take it to the new and righteous of God. We have to take our heart, plow it well to remove each one of the bad things that were sowed in it such as disputes, envy, hatred and pride. We should consider that when we came to the Lord for the first time our lives were filled with all these things that are unpleasant to God. It is not right to sow the old together with the new. If we keep in our lives the bad without “fallowing” in our hearts, things will not go well. To sow on top of the old that was already plowed, even if it appears not to be there, is to make a mixture between the roots. Then there begins great confusions between the old that was brought before and the new that we receive from God. Of that mixture we will reap some righteousness, but there will not be justice as God teaches. Proverbs 11:18 “The wicked man earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.” The deeds of the impious are false. Those who do not fear God are false in their intentions. The impious do not have true love, they cannot perform a deed of weight, but rather what they do is to be seen by others. They do their deed but not from the heart, but as a business or deed with God. It seems as if the drug lords do a deed for those who are in ruin, but it is with the evil of their harvest that it is done. You can see artists helping in marathons, it seems as if they are performing deeds, but what they’re accomplishing is promotion; they receive their pay and everything else that moves along with them. “But he who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.” THOSE WHO LIVE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL DO THINGS WELL, THEY PLOW IN THEIR LIVES AND UNTIE FROM THE HEART EVERY DOUBLE INTENTION. What they do is because it flows, not because they’re seeking anything for themselves, but because there is justice, there is righteousness. The rectitude of the just exceeds all intentions of seeking their own interest. Although they are not seeking prizes or any reward, Jehovah will bless them. When the heart has been plowed then God is pleased with the person and blesses him. One can perform with rectitude, this is when there are no other intentions after the acts. When one performs a deed with rectitude, the divine reward is obtained. Not because we deserve that reward but because of the grace of our Lord says: “To plow in mercy…” It means: Let’s gather! What do you have in your life? Do you do mercy to those who have necessities? According to the measure of our mercy, that’s how the divine mercy will be for us. The mercy of our Lord repays with increases the kindness or mercy that we show towards our fellowman. Let us look at our loved ones, mother, father, children and brothers, how much is your kindness towards them? When do you help them? When do you protect them? Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” If you give you will be given. The Christian ministry is to give. Those who give generously are rewarded generously. The picture here of which Jesus is speaking is that of a man with a great pleat like an apron formed by his clothing. There he tosses the seed and spreads it and in that same apron will be poured the measure of what he will reap. The more he spreads the seed the greater his harvest will be. He is rewarded with a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. It is received in the lap that is to say in the pleat of his mantle. It is a definite principle of life, that WE WILL REAP ACCORDING TO OUR PLOW! Our actions relapse upon us with the same measure we use to measure others, in that same way we will be measured again. If we sow material things in others the result will be that we will sow spiritual treasures of an inestimable value. What we preserve we will lose and what we give we will have. That is the reward for rectitude, for justice.

Let us sow in justice and we will reap in mercy, let us fallow in our lives, plow our heart to pull out all old roots and sow the new: what we have learned from the Lord which is His justice and live in it until He comes. Amen.