May 22

Proverbs and Justice

Proverbs 24:11-12 Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

I had a huge blind spot in my life for years. When the issue of “justice” was brought up I thought this was the responsibility of someone else. My thinking went like this, “I will preach the word, and someone else can do the justice part.” I also gathered comfort in that historically the evangelical church didn’t do “justice.” The evangelical church was absent during the civil rights movement of the 60’s, and the abortion issue of the 70’s. For decades I failed to see that justice flows out of the character of God. This is not a side show to the gospel, this is the gospel.

I also had a flaw in my understanding of the word justice. The word “justice” appears in the Bible 125 times. Usually we think in terms of “retributive or judicial” justice. The bad guys are going to get what they deserve, and that is a correct understanding of a small aspect of this word. But the must larger application is the establishment of justice on earth as a pattern. Justice demands a right relationship with everything, putting things in a right order, a kind of society where judicial justice isn’t necessary. A synonym of justice is “shalom” which means peace. In the end justice means I have a proper relationship with the poor, the broken, the helpless, the vulnerable and the oppressed. Justice is more than paying back the bad guys; it is an active intervention with people who desperately need the peace God in their lives right now.

So be a champion of justice today.... go out and join God in fixing a broken world with the gospel.