Why I believe in Social Justice – Part III

[If you missed Part I or Part II…]

I think I understand where Glenn Beck and others are coming from who don't like the term "social justice" and who think that churches and websites (like mine) that mention this term are (perhaps unknowing) foils for Communism and Socialism. In their minds, I am guessing, social justice speaks of radical restructuring of society and the Big Brother type of government that freedom-loving people everywhere abhor. On top of the usual suspicion of government, the current economic times engender a pervasive edginess among everyone, even Believers who talk about the Rock of Ages being their "cleft." Seriously.

For me the question is not, Who is the enemy (as in big government or Communism)? It is not which party to join or what cause to fight. It is not even trying to figure out which catch phrases and sound bites should be treated with suspicion.

The questions that need to be asked, the concerns we need to be concerned about, have all to do with what the Word says, regardless of what someone else is saying. And as I've written before, the concept of "justice" is a very, very good one, being one of the most pervasive in the Bible.

Buried in the heart of a Mosaic passage about good governance is this gem of a verse: "Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you." (Deuteronomy 16:20) Look all around that verse and what you see is a mix of instructions about properly structuring worship (religion) and government (politics). They go hand in hand more than we sometimes care to admit, for the expression of God's rule in our lives is as much about how we relate to each other as it is how we relate to God. Thus, Jesus says, the two greatest commandments are to "love God with your whole being" and to "love your neighbor as much as you love yourself." (Matthew 22:37-40; Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18).

Loving one's neighbor as much as one's self is all about relating to parents, children, siblings and friends. It is also all about how nations get along and how people get along within nations. Justice is part and parcel to how we express our love toward God and toward each other. Let me explain.

Many languages have word couplets. Chinese has a zillion of them. English has its share as well. Like "sound and fury" – each word has meaning; put them together with the "and" in the middle and the two-for-one phrase as a whole takes on a special meaning of its own. As with English and Chinese, Hebrew has its share of these coupled terms, what is called by techies a parallelism. One of the most striking in the Scriptures is "Justice and Righteousness" (sometimes written in the reverse).

I don't want to get too technical here because the goal is not to impress you (or to embarrass myself). So let me state it simply. The words we translate "justice" and "righteousness" are really a two-for-one that defines our understanding of God's justice, which is, by the way, central to God's vision for all that He created and called good. The word we usually translate as "righteousness" has at its root the meaning for norm or standard, in other words, "what is right". Makes sense, doesn't it? So you could say righteousness is what God intends for us. The word we usually translate as "justice" means governing or judging and has to do with judicial or governing activity at every level – or the actual act of doing righteousness or doing right. When you see justice in light of these two words coupled together, what you get is the idea that God's justice is all about putting things right according to God's way.

So, as Stephanie Mathis says, "Justice is love in action." For God is love (can't get more basic than that with God), and God's way (righteousness) of expressing that love is doing justice, or making sure that God's righteousness gets carried out properly. So justice is God's expression of love towards us.

Now I have a feeling that so far we have everyone on the same train, Beckies and anti-Beckies alike. So where does the train tend to get derailed? We'll save it for next week. [Tune in next Tuesday to "Part IV" at my "Ethics for the 21^st Century" blog or find me on Facebook.]

Meanwhile, in all soberness and thanksgiving, let's all commemorate our Lord's death and resurrection this weekend by pondering what it means to give due honor in our nation and world to what our Lord has done in bringing God's justice to earth just "as it is in heaven."

[Thanks to two great resources that anyone can check out: Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context by Glen H. Stassen and David P. Gushee (IVP, 2003) and Old Testament Ethics for the People of God by Christopher J. H. Wright
(IVP, 2004).]

To be continued…