General Letters and Revelation

The General Letters typically identify dikaiosynē with upright behavior that God requires of His people, sometimes in relation to the righteousness that is apprehended by faith.

The author of Hebrews extols Christ as the divine Son who “loved righteousness” (Heb 1:9; Psa 45:7). The author summarizes Christian teaching as “the message of righteousness” (Heb 5:13). Like Paul, the author also quotes Hab 2:4—”my righteous one will live by faith”—in order to exhort his audience to persevere under hardship (Heb 10:38 NIV; compare Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11). The author identifies faith as an instrument for attaining righteousness: “By faith Abel offered to God a greater sacrifice than Cain, by which he was approved that he was righteous,” and “by faith Noah … became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Heb 11:4, 7). Furthermore, the Lord’s discipline produces “the peaceful fruit of righteousness,” and those in heaven are described as “the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Heb 12:11, 23 ESV).

James uses the term primarily in an ethical sense. For example, he states that anger does not produce the “righteousness of God” (Jas 1:20) and claims that those who sow in peace reap the “fruit of righteousness” (Jas 3:18). The ethical sense of the term is also evident in James’ censure of those who would condemn and murder a “righteous person” (Jas 5:6) and in his claim about the effectiveness of the prayer of a “righteous person” (Jas 5:16). There is a robust discussion of righteousness and justification in Jas 2, where James quotes Gen 15:6 with a view to demonstrate that justification is by faith and works (Jas 2:23–24). This view of righteousness, which is probably a correction to distortions of Pauline teaching, stresses that faith should result in faithful behavior, a point with which Paul would likely agree (see Gal 5:6).

In the letters of Peter, Jesus is said to have died a substitutionary death on the cross for believers—”the just for the unjust” (1 Pet 3:18)—so that believers might “live to righteousness” (1 Pet 2:24). First Peter also stresses the importance of righteous moral behavior since “the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous” (1 Pet 3:12). The letter also states that if believers suffer, it should be for doing what is right rather than for wrong (1 Pet 3:14). The author of the letter further underscores the importance of righteousness by declaring that “the righteous are saved with difficulty” (1 Pet 4:18) in the sense that all face the judgment of God. Second Peter begins with a description of the “righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1:1), which is a righteousness that avails before God. The letters of Peter present those who embody this righteousness. Second Peter describes Noah as “a proclaimer of righteousness” (2 Pet 2:5) and refers to Lot as a “righteous man” with a “righteous soul” (2 Pet 2:7–8). The letter refers to false teachers as those who do not follow “the way of righteousness” (2 Pet 2:21). By contrast, those who would live holy and godly lives can expect to share in a “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness resides” (2 Pet 3:13).

In the Johannine letters, righteousness characterizes God, Jesus, and believers. God is acclaimed as righteous and just (1 John 1:9). Jesus is “the righteous one” (1 John 2:1). Righteousness also pertains to deeds and acts congruent with God’s will (1 John 2:29; 3:7, 10), and unrighteousness is a failure to do God’s will (1 John 1:9; 5:17). In the book of Revelation, much like in 1 John, righteousness is predicated of God (Rev 15:3; 16:5); God’s judgments (Rev 16:7; 19:2); Jesus who returns to judge the world in righteousness/justice (Rev 19:11); and the faithful who are called to refrain from evil and do righteousness (Rev 22:11).