"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the
Lord require of
you? To act justly
and to love mercy and to walk
humbly
with your God." Micah 6:8
On the topic of "Social Justice", we have discussed some issues of concern. We have also seen the impacts it has on your life both present and past. Now I want to offer some suggestion of what you can do.
WHAT IS IT WE SHOULD DO?
When I (TIM
KELLER) was professor at a theological seminary in the mid-eighties, one of my
students was a young man named Mark Gornik. One day we wesre standing at the
copier and he told
me that he was about to move into Sandtown, one of the poorest and most dangerous
neighborhoods in Baltimore. I remember being quite surprised. When I asked him
why, he said simply, “To do justice.”
It had been
decades since any white people had moved into Sandtown. For the first couple of
years there, it was touch and go. Mark told a reporter, “The police thought I
was a drug dealer, and the drug dealers thought I was a police officer. So, for
a while there, I didn’t know who was going to shoot me first.” Yet over the
years Mark, along with leaders in the community, established a church and a
comprehensive set of ministries that have slowly transformed the neighborhood.
Although
Mark was living a comfortable, safe lives, he became concerned about the most
vulnerable, poor and marginalized members of our society, and made long-term
personal sacrifices in order to serve their interests, needs and cause.
That is, according to the Bible,
what it means to “do justice.”
The Hebrew word for “justice,” mishpat,
occurs in its various forms more than 200 times in the Hebrew Old Testament.
Its most basic meaning is to treat people equitably. It means acquitting or
punishing every person on the merits of the case, regardless of race or social
status. Anyone who does the same wrong should be given the same penalty. Mishpat,
then, is giving people what they are due, whether punishment or protection or
care. Over and over again, mishpat describes taking up the care and
cause of widows, orphans, immigrants and the poor—those who have been called
“the quartet of the vulnerable.” That is what it means to “do justice.” CARE FOR THE WEAK.
Why should we be concerned about
the vulnerable ones? It is because God is concerned about them. It is striking
to see how often God is introduced as the defender of these vulnerable groups.
Justice is Right Relationships
We must have a strong concern for
the poor, but there is more to the biblical idea of justice than that. We get
more insight when we consider a second Hebrew word that can be translated as
“being just,” though it usually translated as “being righteous.” The word is tzadeqah,
and it refers to a life of right relationships.
When most modern people see the
word “righteousness” in the Bible, they tend to think of it in terms of private
morality, such as sexual chastity or diligence in prayer and Bible study. But
in the Bible, tzadeqah refers to day-to-day living in which a person
conducts all relationships in family and society with fairness, generosity and quity. It is not surprising,
then, to discover that tzadeqah and mishpat are brought together
scores of times in the Bible.
Therefore, though tzadeqah
is primarily about being in a right relationship with God, the righteous life
that results is profoundly social. LET”S
BUILD HEALTHY MARRIAGES AND FAMILIES
Justice
includes Generosity
Primary justice, or tzadeqah,
may mean taking the time personally to meet the needs of the handicapped, the
elderly or the hungry in our neighborhoods. Or it could mean the establishment
of new nonprofits to serve the interests of these classes of persons. It could
also mean a group of families from the more prosperous side of town adopting
the public school in a poor community and making generous donations of money
and pro bono work in order to improve the quality of education there.
When these two words, tzadeqah
and mishpat, are tied together, as they are over three dozen times, the
English expression that best conveys the meaning is “social justice.” LET’S BE GENEROUS!
Doing Justice Plays A Big Part In the Dispensing of Final Justice (See MT. 25:31-46)