For I say to you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

– Matthew 5:20

Thoughts on Today’s Verse…

When Pharisees are mentioned, we all know that they familiarized themselves with the Scriptures, prayed often at the intersections, and compassed sea and land to make people proselyte. However, their so called “righteousness” is not approved by God and can even less be called righteousness in the view of the Lord Jesus. And so, what is the righteousness in the eyes of God? It’s written in God’s words, “The standard by which man judges man is based on his behavior; one whose conduct is good is a righteous person, and one whose conduct is abominable is wicked. The standard by which God judges man is based on whether one’s essence obeys Him; one who obeys God is a righteous person, and one who does not obey God is an enemy and a wicked person, regardless of whether this person’s behavior is good or bad, and regardless of whether this person’s speech is correct or incorrect” (“God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together”). From God’s words we can see that the righteousness God mentioned is not the outward good behavior like loving our neighbors, not striking people, not cursing people, etc., but people’s obedience to God in essence. God does not focus on our outward performance but if we have true heart. Maybe we have done a lot of work, much of which is of great importance, and have run around many places. But at the bottom of our heart, if we don’t do those things for obeying and satisfying God, then all that we do is futile and in God’s eyes, it’s not righteousness at all.