Seek Justice...

Micah 6:8

During the height of the protests and riots, I caught a lot of flack on social media for standing against the misuse of scripture to push an agenda. At one point, I even had to address the church because one of our Sunday School lessons butchered a scripture to push a social justice message. I am not anti social justice, though I do not agree with the movements on many levels, but I am ABSOLUTELY AGAINST misusing God's word to push any agenda.

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He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

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One of my comments that garnered a lot of reaction was when I said, "The Bible is not primarily concerned with social justice of societal reform". I stand by that still today. The world in which we live, and the powers that govern it, are led by sinful men. Sinful people will sin. This means that there will be injustice in the world. The Bible says that this will be the case for all of history. It is not until we get into eternity that injustice will truly end. As a matter of fact, one of the main reasons the world mourns when Babylon is judged is because of their economic loss from the slave trade in Babylon being ended:

"...Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ “And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore: merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men" (Revelation 18:10-13).

While social justice and reform is not one of the primary focuses of scripture, that does not mean that scripture is silent on the issue. God's people are called to "Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God". This is a descriptive way of saying that we are to be Godly. There are a couple of quick points I want to make on this.

First, this is a call to God's people to be Godly. It is absolutely crazy to expect ungodly people to act Godly. That is like expecting a cat to act like a giraffe. They have two very different natures. It will not happen. There are people who are lost, who live good moral lives, but they are not Godly. They do not have God's Spirit in them to teach them what it means to be Godly. On the other hand, those of us who do have His Spirit should act like Him.

Second, it is God's people who do justice. When everyone else fails, we do what is right. We do not try to accomplish justice by acting unGodly. That means Christians do not burn down buildings and destroy property. They make Godly decisions and acknowledge faults. They reconcile with people when possible and they forgive. When wronged, they extend mercy. All of this is accomplished by walking humbly with our God.

In doing justice, we do not condone injustice for the sake of accomplishing a desired end. "The ends justify the means" is not part of our vocabulary. We do not do the wrong thing for the right reasons. In all that we do, all that we endorse, we seek Godliness. Thus, much of what the social justice movements promote, we as Christians should not stand for. We do justice where we have authority, seek mercy for those who need mercy, and walk humbly with our God. We walk humbly with our God knowing that we will suffer injustice and remember that "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).

Father, there is so much that is wrong in this world. If we spend our time focusing on it, we will become discouraged because we have taken our eyes off of You. Help us to do justly in our interactions with others, to seek mercy for others, and to walk humbly with You. We love You and pray that You make us more like You!