Justice is all – and only – about the uses of power. Injustice is the mis-use, non-use or abuse of power. In the Bible justice is personal (living a righteous, just life), forensic (relating to matters of law), and social (our treatment of the poor). The Bible is full of God’s concern for justice, from his holding Cain accountable for the murder of his brother in Genesis, to a similar accountability by the secular powers persecuting Christians, described in the graphic imagery of the Book of Revelation. When Micah summarizes the essence of what it means to worship the Lord, he says it is doing justice, loving kindness, and living in humble fellowship with our God (Micah 6:8).

Jesus similarly sums up ‘the really important teachings of the law’ – ‘justice and mercy and honesty’ (Matthew 23:23) (19) Elsewhere Jesus gives us ‘the great commandment… love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength… [and] love your neighbour as you love yourself’ (Mark 12:30-31). It is interesting that evangelical Christians rarely agree with Micah or Jesus when asked to highlight what are for them the most important doctrines: outside of the Wesleyan, some Catholic, and a few conciliar churches’ creeds or statements of faith, I can find no evangelical ‘doctrinal basis’ before the Lausanne Congress (1974) that explicitly mentions justice or love!

A church that is alive is concerned with much more than persons ‘making decisions for Christ’. Mission for them is not restricted to compassion for the lost, but also for those suffering pain and injustice.

Discuss: (1) Why are white, Western middle-class Christians loath to get involved in ‘justice’ issues? Why was justice important for Jesus but not so much for us? (2) Share your reactions to this statement: ‘The Bible was written by the poor for the poor. So the rich – that’s us – will be severely handicapped in really understanding the Bible.’

Further Reading: Donal Dorr, Spirituality and Justice, New York: Orbis, 1984; Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society, New York: Scribner’s, 1932/1960; Rosino Gibellini, The Liberation Theology Debate, London, SCM, 1987; Peter Philp, Journey with the Poor, Blackburn, Victoria: Collins Dove, 1988; Justo L. Gonzalez and Catherine G. Gonzalez, Liberation Preaching: The Pulpit and the Oppressed, Nashville: Abingdon, 1980; Dominique LaPierre, The City of Joy, London: Arrow Books, 1986; Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985; Waldron Scott, Bring Forth Justice, London: Eerdmans, 1980; Walter Wink, The Powers, Vol 1: Naming the Powers, Vol. 2: Unmasking the Powers, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984, 1986.