A Word in Season: Messages by R.J. Rushdoony on the Faith for All of Life

Scripture uses the word righteousness to mean justice, revealing that a truly righteous people are those made just by God and committed to doing justice. Jesus blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and those who suffer for it because both pursuits display God’s grace at work. Yet many who demand justice want exemptions for their own sins and judgment only for the sins of others, re...

Proverbs teaches that when people abandon God’s law, they unintentionally praise the wicked they vindicate evil by sharing its contempt for God’s Word. Proverbs 29:18 adds that without God’s revelation, a people become “naked,” stripped of protection and left defenseless before danger and judgment. God’s Word is our only true covering, our armor against sin, folly, and destruction; to cast it asid...

There is a world of difference between being alone and being lonely. Solitude can be a gift our Lord Himself sought it out in prayer but loneliness can strike even in a crowded room, when there is no true fellowship or shared purpose. Scripture addresses this ache directly, reminding us that covetousness and restless desire isolate the heart, while contentment and faith anchor us in communion with...

Hebrews 12 reminds us that God’s chastening is not optional it is the necessary proof that we are His sons and daughters. Though His discipline is often painful and “grievous,” it is the only path to the “peaceable fruit of righteousness,” for our God is a consuming fire who either judges or refines. The question is not whether He burns, but why He burns in our lives. After speaking soberly of thi...

A three-year-old’s innocent prayer “I thank Thee, Lord, for all my sins!” was quickly corrected, yet her mistake mirrors the attitude of many adults who seem strangely content with their sins and deeply burdened by their duties. While Scripture calls us to confess our sins, most people prefer vague generalities: they will admit to being “a sinner,” but never to specific failures like stinginess to...

A child once suggested solving a drought by melting ice cubes a harmless example of folly, yet Scripture shows folly has a far deeper root: “Fools make a mock at sin.” The true mark of foolishness is treating sin lightly, and our age excels at it. Many consider sin outdated, irrelevant, or merely a churchy word, yet sin is nothing less than defiance of God’s law. To take sin lightly is to take God...

Scientism has led many people to think love can be measured in percentages 20 percent to the job, 20 percent to the spouse, 20 percent to the children but Scripture exposes this as both foolish and morally distorted. God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and might, and Jesus affirms that only by giving God all our love do we gain the capacity to love others rightly. When God has fi...

Proverbs teaches that we become like the company we keep and the company we keep is ultimately chosen by the cravings of our hearts. Many Christians claim to be too busy or too tired for even five minutes of Scripture, while giving hours each day to trivial entertainment. God is not fooled by our excuses. If we offer Him only the leftovers of our time and devotion, why should we expect anything bu...

Most people assume Jesus said our treasure follows our heart but He said the exact opposite: your heart will follow your treasure. Whatever you invest in your money, time, effort, identity will eventually claim your loyalty, even if it leads you away from God. Christ warns us that if we store up treasures on earth, our affections will drift toward humanistic hopes and away from His Kingdom. Histor...

Scripture repeatedly insists that God deserves our best never the leftover, the blemished, or the convenient. Even among clean animals, Israel could not sacrifice a deer, because it represented no personal cost; only offerings tied to a man’s labor, time, and wealth were acceptable. God needs nothing from us “the cattle upon a thousand hills” are already His but we need to give to Him in order to...

We constantly hear calls for “sacrifice” today—but seldom the more important question: sacrifice for whom? David gives us the standard. When three of his soldiers risked their lives to bring him water from Bethlehem, he refused to drink it, pouring it out instead to the Lord, declaring that only God is worthy of such costly devotion. In contrast, modern leaders—political, social, even personal—oft...

Paul’s command in Romans 6:12—“Let not sin reign in your mortal body”—only makes sense in light of the preceding verse, which calls us to be alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Faith is not merely a negative posture against sin; even criminals dislike being sinned against. True Christian faith is positive, active obedience to Christ as King. It is not mere words or pious sentiment, but a...

Genesis 4:26 tells us that after Seth named his son Enos—meaning “mortal”—“then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.” As scholar Cassuto noted, the verse pairs two names: man named truthfully as frail and dying, and God named truthfully as YHWH, the self-existent and eternal One. By naming his son Enos, Seth confessed that humanity offers no ultimate hope; only God does. And to “call upon...

In the early church, baptism was understood not merely as cleansing but as coronation. Borrowing imagery from the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles—where crowns and olive branches symbolized joy and dominion—the church placed a crown on the newly baptized to remind them that redemption restores mankind to his original calling: to rule under God and to bring all of life into obedience to Christ. Believer...

Paul commands Timothy to “rightly divide”—literally, cut straight—the word of truth, meaning Scripture must be delivered plainly, directly, and without bending its sharp edges. Proverbs echoes this imagery: God cuts a straight path for those who acknowledge Him, and righteousness cuts a straight way through life. But many believers trust their own tact, diplomacy, and cautious phrasing more than G...

Before the days of Columbus and Luther, Europe was collapsing into moral and social anarchy. With no respected authority in church or state, every city—and practically every household—acted as its own little kingdom. As Pope Pius II observed, obedience had vanished, and both Pope and Emperor were treated as “painted objects.” Such moral chaos inevitably bred political tyranny, for lawless men cann...

Paul’s command in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 to “warn them that are unruly” refers to those out of step—not with us, not with the church, but with Jesus Christ Himself. The Greek word ataktous pictures soldiers breaking rank, refusing discipline, and abandoning formation. Too often we judge “unruliness” by our own preferences or traditions, but Scripture insists that the only true standard is the law-wo...

A church advertisement urging people to “Follow the crowd” reveals how deeply modern Christians have adopted pagan assumptions about majorities. Scripture never tells us to follow the crowd—only to follow Christ, even when that means standing alone like Elijah or Caleb, who “followed [the Lord] fully.” Today the crowd has become a false god; people assume the majority is always right, though the B...

Christianity brought a moral revolution the ancient world could scarcely imagine. In pagan thought, only the strong were close to the gods, pity was a weakness, generosity was calculated reciprocity, and envy ruled society. But Jesus overturned that entire order, teaching His followers to give freely, expect reward from God rather than from men, and show kindness even to those who could never repa...

When Jesus declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” He reveals that truth is not an abstract idea or a set of facts—it is God Himself. Whenever people detach “truth” from the Person of the Lord, they fall into grave error, whether it’s Gandhi identifying truth with India or Marxists equating truth with their political cause, becoming self-righteous and ruthless in the process. The same d...

Paul’s declaration in Colossians 2:10—“Ye are complete in him”—teaches that true human fulfillment is impossible apart from Jesus Christ, the true and last Adam in whom a new humanity is formed. Our potential, our identity, and our wholeness all flow from union with Him. But Paul goes further: Christ is also “the head of all principality and power,” the rightful ruler over every sphere—individuals...

Christmas is a season of profound joy because it celebrates the astonishing truth that God became man to redeem us. As St. Ephrem the Syrian wrote, in the cold month when seeds lie hidden, “there sprouted forth from the Womb the Ear of Life.” This is why Christmas overflows with song, warmth, and gifts—because it reflects God’s own great gift of salvation. Even when the world tries to recast the d...

Isaiah condemned Judah for two telling signs of moral collapse: their silver had become dross and their wine was diluted—fraud in both money and daily life. Scripture repeatedly commands just weights and honest measures, and for centuries even America’s gold-standard currency reflected that biblical integrity: a dollar meant a fixed weight of real metal. Today’s paper money—cheap to print, endless...

The French Revolution exposes less the strength of revolutionary forces and more the weakness and moral collapse of the royalists and the church. As pornography, occultism, and every imaginable perversion flooded France under the banner of “liberty,” the church—softened by Enlightenment compromise—proved too timid, too pietistic, and too eager for intellectual respectability to resist. Robespierre...

In Haggai 2, God teaches a striking truth: holiness is not contagious, but sin is. A clean towel cannot purify dirty hands—rather, the dirt spreads. Judah needed to learn, as we do today, that no one becomes godly by belonging to a good church, a good family, or a wholesome community; righteousness does not transfer by proximity. But sin, injustice, and foolishness rub off easily unless we stand f...