Why was it that Lot and the place he fleed to were saved from the destruction of Sodom and Gemorah?

Question

Bereshit 12:4 Lot went with him (Avraham).. 13:1 Lot with him (Avraham).. 13:5 And Lot also, who went with Avram..

After these points Lot goes on a seperate way from Avraham, but HaShem still shows His compassion (mercy) for Lot (Bereshit 19:16) and saves Lot because of Avraham (Bereshit 19:29), maybe because Lot was righteous as Avraham pleaded with HaShem to save (18:25) the righteous (even the whole city of Tzo'ar seem to be saved because Lot on his turn pleaded for it).

So was Lot righteous? Or were He and the city which he chose to flea to - Tzo'ar - saved only because of Avraham? And why so?

Answer 1

Well by the "pshat" he was saved right after the noble act of inviting in the guests despite the life-threatening dangour. Therefore by the "Pshat" he is righteous especially in the aspect of guest hosting.

I heard a different interpretation for this. By Rabbi Desler, righteously is not by obsolute measures but by what a person can overcome. For Lot, this means that he should not have been saved from such a situation since he was raised by Abraham who was famous for his guest hosting. This means Lot did not earn this virtue by himself. So why was he saved? Obviously, Lot liked money, I mean he moved to Sodom the rich city even though he was raised by righteous Abraham. So why when Lot Abraham and Sarah were in Egypt, Lot just didn't tell the truth that Sarah was Abrahams wife? If he would've done this Sarah and Abraham would've been forcefully separated and Lot would've got gifts from the egyptians as the family of Sarah. Also, this would've not been so horrible since all that he had to do is not to lie. By this interpretation, he was righteous since he overcame his nature of money loving.