It might seem that righteousness means you have to live up to God’s standards, like when you are in school and have to do everything right in order to get a good grade. But a better way to think of righteousness is living inside God’s intended order.

The welfare of you, your community, and the world are central to living righteousness. The Creator of the universe knows what we need to do to stay healthy, balanced, and free within the design of His creation. This is His how-to guide for living our healthiest, most relationally rich and happy life. Staying inside His boundary lines is ultimately for our own benefit. When we go outside them, we are hurting ourselves and others.

Instead of using His righteousness as an excuse to distance Himself from people, God’s righteousness means that He comes so close that He can save His people.

Doing justice” meant not only “not doing wrong,” but also actively doing right and restoring what is broken.

Western views of justice are primarily focused on how things should be done—laws, rules, and what should happen when laws are broken. In Hebrew thought, justice is focused on what life should be like. Justice in the Hebrew world was concerned not just with laws, but with enhancing all human life, especially the social world.

We need the Bible to find a unifying, God-centered, and gospel-centered expression of justice and righteousness that Christians can live out.