The word
Tsedek is a masculine noun meaning:
righteousness.
Ts’dakah is a feminine noun meaning:
to do more than is required,
such as;
to do more than the minimum for someone who is hurting: to truly love your neighbor as yourself.
The term is also applied to giving beyond the tithe to charities.
Therefore Ts’dakah is translated as
acts of loving kindness.
Ts’dakah is to be done in love,
cheerfully, with no thought of reward.
And
acts of loving-kindness
Romans 5:12
Heb. 1:8 your throne God is forever and ever and the scepter is the righteous scepter of your kingdom.
The word here is Gk. Euthutes which means:
uprightness, equity, impartiality;
which are a description of
righteousness.
We are the righteousness of God in Christ
Matt. 5:6
John 6:53
Righteousness in action 5v10
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Righteousness
is doing the perfect will of God
so this is hungering to do His perfect will
seeking him and His righteousness
with the whole heart and with zeal
and not giving up.
Press on for the sake of righteousness.
A good biblical example is
Noach
ish tzaddik – a righteous man.
צַדִיק
Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: tsaddiq
Phonetic Spelling: (tsad-deek’)
Definition: just, righteous
Noah/Noe/Noach –
B’resheet/Genesis 6:9 – 11:32
Righteous and he was wholehearted so that with God Noah did walk
His heart was set apart from others of his day
His heart was whole because he was full of God.
Ts D K is being wholehearted in the ways of righteousness.
Only our Heavenly Father can fill us, and give meaning and purpose in our lives.
We are cautioned not to look to the world to fill us.
B’resheet/Genesis 9:12-16
When we walk righteously with God we offer Him our trustworthy service.
Sometimes in the face of YHVH/Yehoveh/Adonai’s faithfulness, we flaunt our strength in an arrogant attitude of entitlement. If we truly hope to walk with God and to be called righteous by Him, it will be according to His plan and not by our choice. Our desire then should be to live a life of devotion to God. Not satisfying our own wants or walking pridefully in our own strength, but instead, seeking after Him to fill us up and make us whole in heart.
V 14 you will be established by acts of loving kindness beyond righteousness.
Is 54 :17 acts of lovingkindness are of Me.
In Matt 9:13 when Yeshua/Jesus said,
I desire loving kindness not sacrifice:
He was quoting from Hos 6:6 here;
the Hebrew text has
Hesed or chesed.
This word is often translated as mercy.
The ideal is not to have to kill something and sacrifice its’ blood to cover our sinful ways; but to be
a tsaddik – a righteous person
and going beyond the basic requirement of
righteous living,
to show,
and be,
and
do lovingkindness
in our dealings with everyday aspects of life.
This is the WAY the Truth and the Life.
It is how Yeshua/Jesus lived and told us to
follow Him by example
doing as He did.
This is our part of righteousness.
Matt 5:6 righteousness in action and…
Matt 7:12 doing unto others as…
Acts of loving kindness = doing unto others as you would want done to you; and as we sow, so we shall reap; often not from the same people or immediately, but, all actions have consequences.
In Hebrew these acts are called Mitsvot / Mitsvah.
מִצְווֹת mitzvoth/mitzvot/mitsvot
מִצְוָה mitzvah
the feminine noun mitzvah, meaning:
divine commandment.
Mitzvot are the expression of the will of God,
and include not only an order to do something;
in its primary meaning, the Hebrew word:
mitzvah ˈmɪtsvə /, means: commandment,
מִצְוָה , [mit͡sˈva],
Biblical: miṣwah;
plural מִצְווֹת mitzvot [mit͡sˈvot],
The plural is mitsvot and it means:
religious and moral obligations.
These obligations include all commandments, statutes, ordinances, observances, teachings and testimonies. Having no exact translation, it is rendered in different contexts as
good deeds, law or command
and can also mean:
duty or obligation
which is a key concept in Jewish law.
The expression in the
Greek language
is normally translated as either:
good deeds or good works;
but it can also include
righteousness
because
doing righteousness
is a common usage: tsadee
In Matt. 6:2 charitable giving in the Hebrew is either:
Ts’dakah or Mitsvah.
Ts’dakah is from the root
ts-d-k as in our post title
and as noted earlier means:
to do right to be just;
as well as in todays understanding referring to
charitable giving, which is going beyond the tithe.
In Biblical Hebrew Ts’dakah is translated
acts of loving kindness
meaning:
going beyond what is required (righteousness) by God.
Our salvation is NOT the result of our works but
it is the cause of our works.
We are not made righteous by our works
but we do good works/mitzvot because we are righteous.
Mitsvot are the evidence that we have been made
righteous by faith.
Gen. 15:6
Good deeds/Mitsvot
are the evidence of our relationship with our Heavenly Father and with Yeshua/Jesus.
As He Himself said in Matt 7:16 you will recognize them by their fruit.
Also in Acts 26:19 Paul said
Works worthy of repentance are also called
mitsvot/mitsvah or
doing righteousness.
mitsvah: commandment
Original Word: מִצְוָה
Part of Speech: Noun Feminine
Transliteration: mitsvah
Phonetic Spelling: (mits-vaw’)
Definition: commandment
Other references: Matt 7:21; 16:27; Luke 3:8; John 5:29 Acts 26:20; Rom 2:10,13; 1cor 3:8; Eph 2:10; 2Tim 4:14 Titus 1:16, 2:14, 3:8; heb10:24; james 2:14-26; 2Pet 1:5, 3:10;1John 2:4, 3:16-18; Rev 2:5;19:8;20:12,13; 22:12.
We are made righteous
by faith and grace
but
righteousness
is also ACTION.
This is often what we miss in this term
because
we think it is something
we have or become
and NOT
something we are
to DO
The word righteousness is
the noun form of the Hebrew root Ts d k .
ts d k and the Greek verb Dikaio
both mean
to do right, to be just.
They are
verbs that require action
by the subject/person identified by the verb.
When we are
made righteous by our faith
our behavior has to change.
If it does not
1 John 2:3-6 tells us a serious truth.
There are many times in the Brit Chadashah/New Testament that we have references like Acts 26:19 quoted by Paul.
And to him and all new testament authors, the word
believe
required
action
and as in that reference, this change in behavior
comes from above, as written in Pauls reference to the
gift of righteousness
in Romans 5:17 and 6:18.
There’s much we can do to be a better person yet we can do so much more when faith and commitment to God bring us the gift of righteousness.
Paul in 1 Cor. 6:9.
We need to know that in the Hebraic mind set,
in Jewish thinking; the word
believe
requires the
change in behavior
that John was talking about in
1 John 2:3; Ezek. 18:5-9
The connection to the Hebrew name
בית סדה
Strong’s Greek: 964.
Βηθεσδά (Béthesda)
Some manuscripts have
Beit Hi sda
meaning: House of mercy
better known as
Bethesda,
which is Hebrew according to
John 5:2
and consists of two elements.