What does it mean that Job was blameless and upright?

Here we have Job spoken of not merely by the writer, but by God Himself in the strongest terms. The writer says, "There was a man in the land of Uz" (which you know was near Edom, on the borders of Edom, and apparently the friends of Job all came from that quarter more or less), the great desert on the eastern side of Palestine, between Palestine and the Euphrates, where the Bedouins are constantly moving up and down — the nomad races, some of them descendants of Abraham, indeed some of Ishmael. And it is said, "that man was perfect" — meaning by that, not that there was no evil; that is not the meaning of "perfect" in Scripture at all, but in the Old Testament it is the word for a man being thoroughly sound — a sound man, not merely a moralist, but a man who was right with God. And besides being sound in that way, he was "upright" with man. "Perfect and upright" showed relations, one to God, and the other to men. Both ought to go together. The great feature of it was, "fearing God." Another great feature was that it answered to these other terms — refusing or shunning evil. "Eschewing" you know is the old English for shunning. He avoided it; he would have nothing to do with it. So that there you have the fear of God, the great root of his being sound or "perfect"; and refusing evil, the great mark of his being "upright." And then we have his family description.

Here, then, we find Job in the most marked place of a man blest of God in everything that heart could desire. It is needless to tell you that without one divine element there could have been no stable blessing according to God, but only a deception and a snare. And what was that? He was a man of God, "perfect and upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil." He was not an angular or one-sided man, not defective in some and remarkable for other qualities. He had whole-heartedness and integrity; and this based on the fear of God and marked by the refusal of evil. The inner and the outer life were right all round. The word "perfect" gives no countenance in any degree to the foolish dream of the extinction of sin in the flesh. This is not the force of "perfect" in Scripture, but completeness of character spiritually with integrity. He "feared God and eschewed evil." There we come to the roots of things. He was one who gave God His place, and abhorred the evil surrounding him here below which was contrary to God. He was clearly a man born of God, one who walked in simplicity and trueness of purpose before God. Nor was this said of him in a merely general way. His position is brought before us, his family life, with remarkable beauty; his zealous, nay jealous, piety; for even if sons and daughters met together on a special occasion, of what was Job thinking? He had his fear. How often is such a gathering a moment of danger for the soul! How it affords an opening for Satan! And so Job dreaded lest anything might have crept in and be a virtual renunciation of God, lest, as it is said, they should have cursed [literally, blessed] God in their heart. We need not suppose anything formally uttered or done, but the heart thus failing at such a season in an unguarded moment. And this too was not merely on some particular occasion, or at a peculiar crisis when his sons stood exposed to the enemy. There is a still higher feature that characterises him: "Thus did Job continually." It was the tenor of his life. Such was the man whom God could single out in love; that He did so the book shows us.

The meaning of the name Job is "persecuted" or "afflicted." His character is described as most excellent. He was perfect, which of course does not mean that he was sinless, without any flaw in his character. He was a whole-hearted man with a well-balanced solid character. In his dealings with others he was righteous, always upright and doing the right thing. He feared God, walking in the fear of God, which proves that he was a child of God, born again; and therefore he shunned evil in every form. This brief description of Job shows that he was an unusual man. The Lord Himself bore witness to this fact, for He said to Satan, "there is none like him in the earth."

I suppose you could hardly find a man freer from the grosser excesses of sin than Job was. God Himself bare record that there was "none like him in the earth," and that he was "a perfect and an upright man" (i.e. in his outward conduct), "one that fears God and eschews evil."

Then, he feared God; this is the "beginning of knowledge," and must be taken at its full value. Job was not, as some have thought, an unregenerate man; there was life in his soul. He was a child of God, not a sinner away from Him. Unless this is seen, much of the exercises through which he passed will lose meaning. Lastly, he "eschewed evil;" his outward walk corresponded with the state of his heart.

All this was morally excellent; it was not the false pretense of the hypocrite, but the genuine character of one of whom God says, "there is none like him in the earth."

"Perfect" here simply means as in Job 1:1, 8, Job 2:3, etc., one of integrity or blameless. The evaporation of the old man, or absorption into the new, even with the richest N.T. privileges, is a dream, and a dangerous one.

Uz is considered to have been in the area between Syria and Babylon. There Job lived with his wife, seven sons and three daughters. He is first spoken of as "blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil." Thus there is no doubt he was born again, though, as with many believers, he needed to know the heart of God as he did not know it (vv.1-2).

“Perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” Such was Job’s character, given by God—no mean one, especially as it was earned in what we believe were pre-Abrahamic days, with no general light of revelation.

What was Job's repentance? Was it a change of mind from paths of drunkenness and uncleanness? Was he deeply sorry for a life of open sin and immorality? Oh, no! this was not Job's case at all. He was a true man of God; and had spent one of the most moral and upright lives on record. Like Paul, as touching his life among men, he had a blameless life, such as not one in ten thousand can speak of.

The testimony of the inspired word respecting this man of ancient days, Job, is, that he was a genuine man of God, “perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” (1:1.) His substance was very great, for God had blessed him with earthly blessings in earthly places. It is important to notice this, before Job is put in the furnace. The genuineness of his character is a settled question, on the testimony of God.