Much of the modern debate about justice is a matter of definitions.
For Christians, the proper starting point in our understanding of justice is scripture.
The Hebrew word that is usually translated as justice is mishpat (מִשְׁפָּ֥ט). This word appears over 200 times in the Hebrew scripture and frequently relates to a person’s relationship to the marginalized, specifically the widow, the immigrant, the orphan, and the poor. A collection sometimes referred to as the ‘quartet of the vulnerable’[i]. These categories receive the lion’s share of the biblical calls for justice[ii]
The word mishpat is often coupled with righteousness, which in Hebrew is tsâdaqah (צְדָקָ֖ה).
This word-pair of justice and righteousness is common throughout the Hebrew scriptures and may be translated in the modern context as ‘social justice[iii].' While this term has recently become controversial as some people operating outside of a biblical framework[iv] I find it helpful as it makes a distinction between justice between individuals and justice in within a society, between groups or within systems.
True justice is not founded in natural law or man-made legal codes or political theories, it is founded in the very core of God’s character (Ps 97:2 NASB).
The scriptures teach that God has established his justice within the fabric of the cosmos (Ps 9:7-8), has intentionally revealed his justice to Israel (Ex 23:2), presently judges the nations with equity (Ps 96:9) and will once again reveal a fuller application of his justice in the future when he will judge the earth (Ps 96:13).
Justice and righteousness are not only aspects of God’s character, but they are also moral imperatives for humans to follow.
These virtues require social relationships to be lived out. Biblical justice and righteousness are the “divinely ordained way of relating to one another in human society[v]”.
God calls his people to not only believe in the concept of virtue, he also calls them to do justice and righteousness[vi].
This moral imperative is be lived out within the socio-political sphere as evidenced by the fact that the scriptures often expected justice to be “carried out by means of social legislation, initiated by the kings and the ruling circles[vii]” This included “cancellation of debts of the state and of individuals, liberation of slaves, restoration of land to its owners and rectification of other economic injustices, such as over-pricing, falsification of weights and measures, etc.[viii]”
The sheer volume of commands to pursue justice is so overwhelming in the Torah, as scripture unfolds, the later biblical authors assume it is a foundational matter, and shift the majority of their focus on putting it into practice.
Wolterstorff notices
The prophets and the psalmist do not argue the case that alleviating the plight of the lowly is required by justice. They assume it. When they speak of God’s justice, they enjoin their hearers to practice justice, when they complain to God about the absence of justice, they take for granted that justice requires alleviating the plight of the lowly. They save their breath for urging their readers to actually practice justice for the quartet of the vulnerable low ones.[ix]
Scripture provides numerous examples of how justice was applied within the biblical contexts. However, the application of justice to our modern context requires more than a ‘copy and paste’ approach.
Every culture has unique social constructs, systems, circumstances and definitions of justice and injustice. This ambiguity[x] can often lead to frustration, confusion and disagreement, much like what we are experiencing today in America today. Christians in every social location should consider afresh the proper ways to apply God’s justice in their specific context.
While the exact applications of justice in a particular context can sometimes be ambiguous, we know that the scriptures teach that godly justice involves a proactive care for the quartet of the vulnerable and others who suffer injustices within a given community. Failing to do so results in disobedience of God’s direct commands. Tim Keller argues that
“Any neglect shown to the needs of the members of this quartet is not called merely a lack of mercy or charity, but a violation of justice.[xi]”
For Christians that believe in the authority of scripture, this is a serious matter, worthy of our energy, financial resources, and leadership.
EXAMPLES OF JUSTICE IN THE BIBLE
The unfolding narrative of scripture elevates the virtue of justice, commands its readers to live it out in their personal lives, as well as within their community.
Beginning in Genesis, we find that the purpose of God to form Abraham’s family into a nation to bless the nations of the world is founded on them doing righteousness and justice (Gen 18:19).
Though they often failed, God persistently called Abraham’s descendants, Israel, to live lives marked by justice. He also condemned their failures to correct oppression, and frequently sent prophets to call people to repent and live justly (Zech 7:9-10, Eze 18:5-9, Jer 7:2-8, Mic 6:8).
When King David engaged in the unjust acts of power rape and murder, God sent the prophet Nathan to confront him. In calling out the injustice, he was not questioning the Lord’s anointing on David, rather, he was calling him to repentance and restitution (2 Sam 12:1-14).
When Israel failed to live up to its values and correct the oppression in their communities, God sent the prophet Isaiah who accused them of living unjustly and implying that they had become the pagan people of becoming Gomorrah[xii] (Isa 1:10-17).
Many of the prophets called for Israel to engage in communal repentance and to pursue justice. Obery Hendricks observes that
“The primary purpose of biblical prophecy is to effect social and political change in a society. Prophets never uncritically support the status quo... there has never been a conservative prophet.[xiii]”
In speaking of false prophets, he notes that they are notable in their silence
“about issues of social justice and function as uncritical supporters of rulers and politicians, rather than as their moral conscience and dedicated arbiters of biblical justice…false prophets either align themselves with (earthly regimes) or say nothing at all[xiv].”
In the early church, we discover that the teachings of the Hebrew scripture regarding justice were not discarded or ignored, rather, they were amplified by the teachings and example of Jesus (Luke 12:33).
The pursuit of justice was a high priority for those who followed Jesus. The young church shared their possessions, even liquidating assets to provide for those in need (Acts 2:44-45). They created social programs to care for widows (Acts 6:1). They entrusted the apostles to redistribute their wealth (Acts 4:32-35) and even engaged in providing for a relief fund for future needs (Acts 11:30).
The Apostle Paul, a prolific evangelist, gospel preacher and church planter, devoted much of his time engaging in a decades-long fundraising campaign to provide famine relief (1 Cor 8) for the Jerusalem church.
Paul was motivated by the biblical vision of justice, claiming that the giving of funds to those in need was a matter not of charity, but equity, a key component of biblical justice (1 Cor 8:13).
The early church’s emphasis on seeking justice provided a foundational model for Christians that would follow in the centuries to come.
Intro: Justice For All
Part I: Justice in Scripture
Part II: Justice in Church History - St. Basil
Part III: Justice in Church History - The Puritans
Part IV: Justice in Church History - Modern Evangelicals
[i] Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice: Rights and Wrongs (Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2008), 79.
[ii] Wolterstorff, Justice: Rights and Wrongs, 75.
[iii] Moshe Weinfeld, Social Justice in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East (Michigan, Fortress Press, 2009), 25.
[iv] Michael Novak, Paul Adams, Social Justice Isn’t What You Think It Is (New York, Encounter Books, 2015), 15.
[v] Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., Politics of Jesus: rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus' Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted (New York, Doubleday, 2007), 44
[vi] Weinfeld, Social Justice, 5.
[vii] Weinfeld, Social Justice, 9.
[viii] Weinfeld, Social Justice, 9.
[ix] Wolterstorff, Justice Rights and Wrongs, 76.
[x] Henning Reventlow and Benjamin Uffenheimer, Justice and Righteousness: Biblical Themes and Their Influence (United Kingdom, Sheffield Academic Press, 1992), 93.
[xi] Timothy Keller, Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just (New York, PenguinGroup, 2010), 5.
[xii] Ron Sider, Just Generosity, (United States, Baker Publishing Group, 2007), 70
[xiii] Hendricks, Politics of Jesus, 28.