"But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" Amos 5:24
Being involved in social issues is an important part of living out our faith in society. God loves justice and his kingdom is built on righteousness and justice. If we want to bring heaven to earth then it will need to touch the messy, ugly, sinful, broken, and unreformed issues of this planet full of sinners.
The call for justice comes with a few caveats. First, justice is not what you say it is. Justice is not what I say it is. Justice is not what we say it is. Justice is what God says it is. There’s no way to talk about justice without talking about who defines it and what it means. There’s nothing more perverse than invoking the name of God to perpetuate injustice—a.k.a. American slavery before the civil war.
As believers we need to carefully define the problems with God’s definitions and develop appropriate solutions with God-honoring strategies. In John 5:30 we learn that just judgment begins with pleasing the Father and not pleasing self. Jesus commented, “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgement is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” Many people today plunge headlong into the frantic rush for justice. They are moved by emotions, outrage, prejudices, prior assumptions, or bad information. But a misguided approach quite often has caused greater harm than good.
Secondly, when getting involved with these complex issues it is important to be extremely discerning how and who you get involved with. Not everyone approaches them with the same God-honoring value system. There are a lot of groups with bad agendas, and a lot of unhealed people filled with offense and even rage. It’s easy to be affected by these emotions or to be persuaded by information that may be true but isn’t complete. We need to be discerning and engage the issue with wisdom and with God's value system and not someone else’s value system.
These days everyone seems to have an opinion on any number of issues and if you do not rush to their conclusions with them you’re standing in the way. My objective here is not to be another voice in your life lecturing you what to think. Rather, I wish to give you a few skills to know how to think for yourself. Here are some questions that will help you test the veracity of the social justice issues you are involved in, and the people or movements that you get involved with.
- Does God define this as a problem, or is it mankind who is redefining this as a problem?
For example, no where in the scriptures is economic inequality defined as a moral problem. Oppression is a moral problem, but never inequality. So, for example, wisdom would be to help elevate the poor out of poverty instead of punishing the rich down to the level of equality. The second solution creates an injustice by mis-defining the problem and stealing property.
- Does this group or movement call for me to love my enemies or is it trying to punish my enemies? Is it nursing empathy towards my enemies, or offense towards people?
God’s heart is always to restore people and not punish people or destroy people. Listen to Jesus’ words, “I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven” Matthew 5:44-45. A truly Godly perspective will always lead us to greater compassion for our enemies even while justice actively calls for us to resist the injustice they perform, such as abuse or pedophilia.
- Does this group or movement recognize the mutual and inherent dignity of all people?
Equal worth and dignity have to be the foundation of civil relationship and legal justice. The dehumanizing of our enemies leads to enmity and division.
- Does this movement call for the equal standard of everyone under the same law, or does it discriminate treatment based on biological or social preferences?
There should only be one law applicable to all people regardless of their race, religious background, or socio-economic status. The Lord gave the ancient Israelites this command, “You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the Lord your God” Leviticus 24:22. Discrimination and reverse discrimination are still both discrimination.
- In the act of liberating others, does this movement lead to the oppression of some?
We can unknowingly harm others in the name of setting someone free. We need to seek non-discriminatory laws. And each person is held responsible for violating the law in specific situations. Collective guilt, punishment, or privilege is not justice, rather it is discrimination. Justice must be an exacting scalpel and not a bludgeoning sledgehammer.
- Does this movement demand their solution (agenda) or are they open to working together in mutual respect?
It should raise red flags any time someone is pushing for a single response or a single solution to a complex problem. That is an agenda. And usually agendas are self-serving and not interested in the greater social harmony.
- Does this group or movement suppress information or suppress listening to the “other side”, or does it truly want to know the truth that leads to freedom?
We must always strive to land on the side of truth and not on the side of one people group or another. It’s easy to feel magnetized to a cause, a movement, or to empathize with someone’s pain. But perfect truth loves all people and brings correction and guidance to all people. Information, knowledge, and wisdom are essential to the truth. We need to constantly reevaluate our presuppositions and assumptions about what we know and who we listen to. God gives us the tools to search for the truth and discern the truth and refute false accusation without suppressing free speech. Only the truth sets you free. The free flow of information is vital to arriving at the truth.
When getting involved in social issues it’s important to slow down long enough to be wise and prayerful in the way that we seek to assert God’s kingdom of truth and justice in the earth. God’s justice is built on protecting mutual dignity and restoring people in healthy relationships to God and one another.
Tags: truth, love, compassion, wisdom, empathy, social justice; justice
