Why bother to be righteous?

Why bother to be righteous? Why bother to do the right thing if no-one else does, if they all get away with it, if no-one notices wether you do or not?

At work I am pretty much my own boss, and so long as the orders go out and the invoices get written and paid no-one really checks up on what I am doing. Sometimes I find it hard to be righteous in things like time keeping or making sure I do the jobs I would rather shove to one side. But I do believe righteousness is important.

We often sing "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness" and that is straight out of the Bible. It also says (Matt 5 v 6) "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness..." , and (v10) "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness..." If Jesus strarted off His ministry talking about righteousness then it must be important.

When Mary annointed the feet of Jesus with perfume Judas got angry and said it was a waste of money. In brackets we are told he was used to stealing money from the common purse, and it was because he was so greedy that her extravagant generosity annoyed him. Some people say it was this unrighteousness that led to greater greed for money until he was prepared to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. I don't know how far I want to push that theory, but I think it is definately the case that a "little thing" so often leads to a bigger thing and then our consciences get dull and we end up in all sorts of predicaments we would never have dreamed of.

But more than that, I want to try to live righteous because I love Jesus, and I do not want to upset Him.

Psalm 73 is one of my favourites 'cos it talks about keeping pure when everyone else seems to be getting away with it. It is a Psalm I read at a time when I was struggling with keeping my promises in the face of others who had gone back on theirs and didn't seem any worse off as a result.
Psalm 73