A Righteous Man?

What does it mean to be righteous?

“And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.”(Matthew 1:19)

Perhaps, if you have heard the birth story of Jesus numerous times, you have read over the following lines and have seen them as simply background information before Joseph knew that Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. I interpreted these verses this way until Dr. Roy Ciampa brought up a great point in Exegesis of Matthew this week. In Joseph’s culture, a righteous man would publicly disgrace a woman he was engaged to if she was found to be with child. If he did not publicly disgrace her, he would be seen as condoning sin. Yet, the 'being' in "being a righteous man" is a causal adverbial participle, which means that the righteousness of Joseph's character causes him to respond by sending her away in secret. How is it that Joseph sees showing mercy as being righteous and the Bible agrees? It is because true righteousness is a blend of justice, mercy, and grace. If it were not, then we’d have to question how we define the Righteousness of God. When we appeal to God’s Righteousness, we appeal to the whole of His Character. Therefore, when we desire to reflect God’s Righteousness, we must desire to reflect the whole of His Character. We cannot separate the Justice of God from the Mercy of God. We must speak the Truth in Love and share His Love in Truth. May the Spirit of God within us give us the ability to fully reflect the whole of His Character as Joseph models for us in Matthew 1:19 and as Christ models for us eternally.