What Really Matters

Proverbs 16:8 “Better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice.”

What really matters in the end? I had read that the quest to answer this question has driven human history and driven people to probe the meaning of life. Nobody can avoid this question and all of us develop our priorities according to what we believe is of ultimate importance. Holy Scripture’s answer to this all-important question proclaims the emptiness and futility of those answers that our unbelieving God-rejecting world system tends to propose. The article points out that, ultimately, what really matters is not the degree of fame that we achieve, and the level of our intelligence is not what is most significant. The position to which we rise on the corporate ladder is not of ultimate importance, nor the size of our bank account or our net worth. No, what counts is righteousness. Righteousness is defined as purity of heart and rectitude of life; comprehending holy principles and affections of heart, and conformity of life to the Divine law. It includes all we call justice, honesty and virtue, with holy affections; in short, it is true religion. It is the perfection or holiness and faithfulness. It is the cause of our justification.

Proverbs 16:8 is saying that all the money in the world will not help us one bit is we are not concerned for righteousness, If we lay up treasures for ourselves but not rich towards God, we are fools indeed – Luke 12:13-21. There are several lessons from Proverbs 16:8, which we must take to heart: (1) The promises of divine material blessing upon the righteous people that we find in Scriptures are not always fulfilled in our lifetime. That it is better to be righteous and own little than it is to be wicked and rich implies that there are some righteous people who do not experience material prosperity. (2) We cannot apply it universally to mean either that righteousness and poverty go hand-in-hand or that injustice and wealth are inseparably linked. It is better to be righteous and poor than evil and wealthy, making the point that when one is forced to choose between money and righteousness, righteousness is better. However, one can be righteous and wealthy, just as one can be wicked and impoverished.

Given the choice between two options, it is still better to be righteous. Simply put, money in itself is indifferent. What is morally significant is the heart of the person. The only kind of righteousness that avails for eternal life is the righteousness of Christ that imputes to us by faith alone. But those who have received such an imputation will also begin to live according to the pattern of their Savior. They will increasingly become righteous in practice and profession. In the end, only righteousness matters.

In Christ, Brian