The righteous Lord loveth righteousness.
This is true for ever.
I. RIGHTEOUSNESS IS CONGRUOUS TO GOD'S NATURE. If light is pleasant to the eye, and music to the ear, and beauty to the soul, it is because they are in the line of rightness. "No man ever yet hated his own flesh" (Ephesians 5:29): how much more must God love that which is akin to himself—which is of the very essence of his character!
II. RIGHTEOUSNESS FULFILS GOD'S PURPOSES. What God seeks is righteousness. This is the end of the Law; this is the purpose of all good government; this is the teaching of the prophets and the great object of Christ (Isaiah 42:1-14; Matthew 3:15; Romans 5:21). Christ is the "Righteous One;" and of him the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." "Christ suffered once the Just for the unjust;" and we see how dear righteousness was to God when "he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." The cross is the measure of God's love of righteousness.
III. RIGHTEOUSNESS SECURES THE BLESSEDNESS OF GOD'S CREATURES. Sin brought death into the world, and all our woe. It is by the taking away of sin and the re-establishment of the rule of God in the heart, that happiness is restored (Romans 14:17). The prophets tell with rapture of the good time coming; and note it as the peculiar glory of the new heavens and the new earth, that in them "dwelleth righteousness" (Isaiah 65:17-25; 2 Peter 3:13, 2 Peter 3:14).
Here is a test: Do we love as God loves? "Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God" (1 John 3:5-10).—W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT