There is not a right thinking person alive who is not painfully aware of the difficulty of doing the right thing, at all times, in all places and under every circumstance. Nevertheless, the righteous person is he or she who does and continues to do righteousness as God defines righteousness (1 John 3:7). Every person who "worketh righteousness is accepted" by God (Acts 10:35). Christians, "[b]eing then made free from sin…became the servants of righteousness" (Romans 6:18).

Although the Word of God is the source "for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16), often people find themselves "…going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God" (Rom. 10:3). Christians sometimes turn from "the way of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:21).

Doubtless, there are many reasons for which both non-Christians and Christians not only fail to practice righteousness but in addition often bully those who endeavor to steadfastly practice the righteousness of God (e.g., peer pressure, 1 Samuel 15:24). Sometimes, doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do can lead one to be as lonely as Noah, the sole "preacher of righteousness" in "the world of the ungodly" (2 Peter 2:5). By inspiration, the apostle Paul advised the Thessalonian Christians that God will vindicate his faithful people with "righteous judgment" as "it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble" his people (2 Thessalonians 1:5-9).

Simplified, righteousness equals "right action" (Vine's). Righteousness or right action is sufficient reason of itself for the practice of righteousness. The reason for doing the right thing need only be because it is the right thing to do. Notwithstanding, the journey may be lonely and discouraging, but the end of which journey is eternal reward (Proverbs 11:18; Romans 5:21).

Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words. CD-ROM. Nashville: Nelson, 1985.