The Beneficial - September and October 2025

‘And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.’ Philippians 1: 9 - 11

I wonder what word sticks out the most when you read this passage … read it again, then come back to here … For me it’s ‘righteousness’. Whenever I read that word I immediately think of a religious prig - self-righteous, pharisaical. However, this is not the case. The word in Greek that is often translated into righteous really means ‘living in just relationship’. This means living well, fully, harmoniously with God, our neighbour, ourselves and our living planet. So, nothing much! This is what it means by ‘fruit of righteousness’, just living justly. I find these words from Graeme McMeekin from ‘Christians Against Poverty’ encouraging.

Keeping our relationships right might seem like an impossible task, and it probably is if we do it in our own strength, but we don’t have to do it in our own strength. Jesus said that he was leaving the Holy Spirit with us (John 16:7). The Holy Spirit is sometimes referred to as a comforter, counsellor and guide and so can help us in our relationships.