“House of David, this is what the Lord says:
Administer justice every morning,
and rescue the victim of robbery from his oppressor,
or my anger will flare up like fire and burn unquenchably
because of your evil deeds.”
– Jeremiah 21:12
It’s a sad and sinful reality that many Christians today refuse to have a substantive and difficult conversation about justice. When the word justice is spoken, they deflect, reject, or shout down the speaker. This cannot be! Any Christian who doesn’t believe justice, in its many aspects, is relevant to the Gospel needs to spend more time reading the Old Testament prophets!
There are many aspects of justice relevant to our society: criminal, civil, rehabilitative, restorative, economic, political, racial, and more. Biblical justice must consider all of these because they all matter to God (He said so in the Bible!) There are many perspectives on justice. Like all human perspectives, they contain varying mixtures of truth and falsehood. As the people of God, we must not refuse to have conversations with people on these topics, especially people with whom we disagree, so that we can determine or develop a truly biblical approach to issues of injustice in our society.
Every follower of Jesus Christ needs to be deeply concerned about understanding and rectifying the injustices around them because Jesus is concerned about them. We must take seriously the cries and claims of those most vulnerable to injustice (God’s Word about injustice is invariably linked to caring for the poor, the vulnerable, and the immigrant). As challenging and uncomfortable as these conversations may be, they’re necessary. Any Christian who believes 2 Chronicles 7:14 applies to this country had better believe Jeremiah 21:12 applies!