Isaiah - Verse By Verse | Isaiah

Isaiah - Day 17

versebyverse | May 25, 2008 15:30

Scripture: Isaiah 1:17 (NIV): "learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."

Thought: To me, happiness would abound if we learned how to serve one another.

Question: Have I learned to "do right"?

The changed behavior we need to "learn" is the doing of good things in the place of the bad things. There is no middle ground in God's presence: we are either "bad" or "good." We are either needing forgiveness or we are forgiving someone else. We are either part of the problem or actively helping with the solution. Doing good things, righteousness, is the way to cleanse away the bad things, sinfulness. Scripture says "overcome evil with good", Romans 12:21.

Doing these good things is what the life of Christ was all about, and when we receive Christ into our being, we can have Him living His life through us. Finally then, and only through Christ in us, we will be pleasing to God, The Father. It is by allowing Christ to live in and through us that we will "learn to do right".

In this verse we see some basic, Christian values desired by God, found in Christ and commanded by God for us to live out as well: 1) justice 2) working to ease the burden of the oppressed 3) aiding orphans, and, 4) sticking up for widows who, in the age of this culture, were without income or support of any kind. These works please God!

Prayer: Holy God, help me to catch the vision of Your causes among mankind. Enable me, through Christ, to "go about doing good" as Jesus did. Amen.