What Righteousness Is

But perhaps you will say at this point, “Then teach me what righteousness is, so that once I know it I may more easily practice it in full.” Very well, I will explain it to you briefly, as far as I can, and I will use the plainness of ordinary words. For the subject we are dealing with ought by no means to be clouded by attempts at fine description; it should be laid open in the simplest words. A matter that everyone needs should be set out in the speech that everyone uses. Righteousness, then, is nothing other than not sinning; and not sinning is simply keeping the precepts of the law. Now these precepts are kept in two ways: by doing none of the things that are forbidden, and by striving to fulfill the things that are commanded. This is what is meant by the saying, “Turn away from evil, and do good.” [a]

For I do not want you to think that righteousness consists only in not doing evil, since not doing good is also evil, and the law is broken in both ways. The one who said, “Turn away from evil,” also said, “and do good.” If you turn away from evil and do not do good, you are a breaker of the law, which is fulfilled not only by hating all evil deeds but also by doing good works. For the commandment you have received is not only that you should not strip the clothes off someone who is dressed, but that you should cover with your own clothes the one who has been stripped of his. It is not only that you should not take bread away from someone who has his own, but that you should gladly share your bread with someone who has none. It is not merely that you should not drive a poor man out of his own shelter, but that you should take him into yours when he has been driven out and has no shelter.

For the precept given to us is “to weep with those who weep.” But how can we weep with them if we share none of their needs and give them no help in the very things they are mourning over? God does not ask for the useless moisture of our tears. Rather, because tears are a sign of grief, he wants you to feel another person’s troubles as if they were your own. And just as you would want help given to you if you were in such distress, so you should help another, in keeping with the saying, “Whatever you want people to do to you, do the same to them.” For to weep with someone who weeps, and at the same time to refuse to help him when you can, is a proof of mockery, not of godliness. In short, our Savior wept with Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, and proved by the witness of his tears the boundless compassion he felt. But works soon followed as the proofs of true love, when Lazarus, over whom the tears had been shed, was raised up and given back to his sisters. That was weeping sincerely with those who wept: taking away the cause of their weeping. “But he did it,” you will say, “because he had the power.” Well, nothing is asked of you that you cannot do. Whoever has done what he could has fulfilled his whole duty.