true righteousness

The Colson discussion brings up some favorite verses I've written about before, but not here.  This is long but they do go together.  

Basically, I had a very narrow view of what truth is and these verses changed my mind and heart.   

Isaiah 58:6-7  true fasting  The Lord is speaking here: 

Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free
And break every yoke?
Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

James 1:26-27: true worship  The Greek word that is translated here as "religion" really means corporate worship.  The word is only used four times in the New Testament - three of them are here.  The fourth is in Colossians 2:18 where Paul talks about the worship of angels.  So read James like this:

If anyone thinks himself to be worshipful,
and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart,
this man's worship is worthless.
Pure and undefiled worship in the sight of our God and Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their distress,
and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

1 Corinthians 11:20-22  true communion  When Paul wrote this, communion was an actual meal - they called it a love feast.  So it's no wonder he admonishes the believers of his day for pigging out:

Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper,
for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.
What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink?
Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?
What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.

 Job 29-31  true righteousness  Reeling from the attacks of his smug and holy friends, Job defends his righteousness from chapters 26-31.  The last three of these, he tells how his heart was always with the needy.  A sample (Job 31:16-23):

 If I have kept the poor from their desire,
         Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
    Or have eaten my morsel alone,
         And the orphan has not shared it
    (But from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,
         And from infancy I guided her),
    If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,
         Or that the needy had no covering,
    If his loins have not thanked me,
         And if he has not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep,
    If I have lifted up my hand against the orphan,
         Because I saw I had support in the gate,
    Let my shoulder fall from the socket,
         And my arm be broken off at the elbow.
    For calamity from God is a terror to me,
         And because of His majesty I can do nothing.

True fasting is lifting up the poor and oppressed.  
True worship is loving widows and orphans.
True communion is feeding the hungry and homeless. 
True righteousness is meeting the needs of everyone around you. 

Tozier says. "God is not as concerned about our happiness as He is our holiness".  I would go one further and say He's not as concerned about our happiness OR our holiness as He is about wholeness.  It's not about our happiness.  And when it's our holiness, it looks more like selfishness.  When it's His holiness, as these verses define it, you see other people becoming whole.  You see His people mending the broken, and partnering with those who have no defender.

We cannot be truly happy or holy unless we are helping bring wholeness to others.  It's always outside ourselves. 

To get there, we have to acknowledge our own junk.  If we consider ourselves too clean, we'll never want to dirty ourselves with meeting needs outside our own.  As Mike Mason says, "One thing is sure: if we deny the bizarre and the grotesque in ourselves, we will never accept it in others.  To the extent that we shrink from the disorderliness of people, love will scare the daylights out of us."

So we start with our own brokenness, and learn to love beyond our hurts.  Until finally we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves.  These are the truths books can't contain.