This article was originally published in the Fall ’07 issue of Revisions, The Least of These.
The best way to understand justice itself is as “righteousness”… in other words, justice is the right way of things.
You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor (Exodus 23:3).1
I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy (Psalm 140:12).
Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever (Psalm 112:1, 3).
What exactly is social justice? Thrown about in all channels of media and communication, the term has become a powerful weapon for any cause whatsoever; after all, who can stand against justice? Surely, then, social justice—a specific application of justice— can in no way be objectionable. However, Christians must object to social justice as understood by contemporary society, for it stands in large part in strict opposition to the Biblical definition. Our task, therefore, is to discover how God defines social justice, and how we can achieve it in our own lives.
As understood by today’s society, social justice is synonymous with the elimination of every sort of inequality, especially financial inequality. Any type of inequality is assumed to be unjust, and those who have more are assumed to have necessarily acquired it at the expense of those who have less. The Green Party, in its position statement on social justice, supports “aggressive steps to restore a fair income distribution of income” by advocating “income tax policies that restrict the accumulation of excessive individual wealth.”2 Jim Wallis wrongly equates the poor and the unjustly oppressed when he says “the significance of the story of Zaccheus is that he was converted to Jesus and immediately made reparations to the poor. He acted to restore justice to those he had wronged in the exercise of his occupation… The conversion of Zaccheus is a paradigm for rich Christians in the world today” (italics added).3
Furthermore, those who proclaim the message of social justice as so defined have declared that the elimination of inequality is the ultimate moral duty of the age, and that everything else is secondary. Such thinking has, for example, led Al Sharpton to say that “churches should turn attention to social justice issues like equal access to education and fighting poverty,” complaining that “we have been inundated in the faith community with bedroom sexual morality issues and not dealing with the broader moral issues of poverty, of injustice, and of healthcare.”4
The underlying assumptions behind these claims of victimhood and demands of forced redistribution not only are fallacious, but also actually harm their intended beneficiaries. For instance, as Herbert Schlossberg says in his book Idols for Destruction, “the power behind the lever of modern humanitarianism is the state, that savior through which the apostles of ontological victimhood find a poor man in the slums and shower compassion on him in the form of other peoples’ property. That ensures that he will remain in the slums living off others, despising himself for it, and beholden to his humanitarian benefactors.”5 Such socialistic policy not only forcibly takes property from one man and gives it to another; it also forces the “victim” into a position of continued dependency. The removal of initiative and work ethic can easily evolve into an entitlement mentality, for the recipients assume that they deserve the received property —and more.
Those responsible for the redistribution feel that once they have established such a system, their job is done. This mentality, of course, denies the truly needy of the help they require. And those who are labeled as victims—who are on the lesser side of the inequality equation—are harmed in another, less visible way: their very humanity is brought into question as society tells them that unless they are financially accomplished, unless they are equally represented in every group, unless they have equal power, they are unsuccessful and worthless. Any quality that does not lead immediately to financial reward is discounted as useless, and any social position that does not immediately advance secular standing is considered valueless. This is not justice.
However, there is another way to understand social justice: God’s way. The best way to understand justice itself is as “righteousness.” Isaiah 58:2 states, “They ask of me the ordinances of justice,” also translated, “They ask of me righteous judgments” (NKJV). The Hebrew word here, tsedeq,6 is elsewhere translated as “righteousness,” as in Jeremiah 23:6 (“the Lord is our righteousness”), and also means that which is right—naturally, morally, or legally right—in other words, justice is the right way of things.
God is always just: “The rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4). Justice is inherent in His nature and character. If there is injustice in the world, it is because of our own transgressions against the standards God has set. He asks Israel: “Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?” (Ezekiel. 18:25) Furthermore, He is a God who, because He is just, must punish unjust behavior: “When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die” (Ezekiel 18:26). God is exacting; justice will be rewarded, and injustice punished. Justice is served when the standards God established within the fabric of existence—in order to magnify His glory and maintain His holiness—are met. To act justly is to comply with these standards and to practice that which God has established to be good and right, while avoiding and punishing that which God has established to be bad and wrong. Our actions are just when we are accurate imagers of God, as we were designed to be.
If this is so, then social justice means God’s justice in the social sphere: that is, right relations and interactions between and among people. These may or may not be relations of complete equality. To be sure, there are ways in which we are all in fact equal: all are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). In these senses—the most important elements of our humanity—we are all indeed equal. But with regard to our gifts, talents, positions, natures, and all manner of other secondary characteristics, God has by no means made us equal. “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” (1 Corinthians 12:29–30). Of course not, and there is no injustice in this; we all are created with different purposes and abilities and, as such, will reach different ends in our life courses. God does not consider inequality in this sense to be bad. We have each been given, in different areas of our lives, sufficiencies and deficiencies in accordance with God’s purposes for us. No particular set of talents, positions, or anything else is owed to any of us. All such attributes are gifts from God; we deserve none of them.
This is not to say, however, that we can use and abuse our gifts from God for our own personal benefit. The reason He gives us those gifts is so that we can glorify Him by using them to serve God and others. Our gifts may be gifts of money, of power, or of position, but they may also be gifts of heart, or of teaching, or of encouragement, any of which may or may not be accompanied by success as measured by the world.
Contemporary society is correct in identifying financial inequality and poverty as important issues relating to social justice. In fact, the poor are referred to numerous times in the Bible as victims of injustice. However, this is not to say that they were unjustly dealt with by God, or that they were necessarily made poor through the unjust actions of their fellow men (although if that were the case, the Bible would certainly agree with contemporary society in condemning such injustice). Instead, it means that their situation may not be the right way of things. Perhaps they are not being shown the love that the more affluent ought to be showing them: “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share” (1 Timothy 6:17–18). But perhaps the poor man himself is not fulfilling his duties: “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty” (Proverbs 28:1); “aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one” (2 Corinthians 8:14–15). In either case, increased poverty can result from a failure to live as we ought, a failure to live justly. As a friend of mine has observed, when Jesus saw the widow give her last two coins as offering at the temple, He did not tell His disciples to give her food stamps or enroll her in welfare. He rather commended her for her faith that the Lord would provide for her needs.
In any case, injustice cannot be equated with mere possession of wealth, for the Bible tells us that “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18). Abraham and Job, both beloved of the Lord, were wealthy men. Rather, injustice involves the place of money in the heart: “for the love of money is as root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:9–10). When money becomes an idol, therein lies the problem, and both rich and poor can be guilty of making an idol of mammon—though it is easier for the rich man since he has more to idolize. Both rich and poor must learn to be content, for “there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Timothy 6:6–8).
The important thing, then, is the motivation behind our actions (though of course right actions should follow from right motivations). Everything must be done both in the way that God would have us do it, and for the end that God desires. The rich man who gives money to the poor man in order to assuage his own personal feelings of guilt is not acting justly, any more than justice is served by making the poor man a dependent. But if the rich man, out of love and concern for his fellow man, and in conformity with the commands and character of God, practices charity in whatever way he can— such as by donating his money, time, or talents as he is able— then he has acted justly. If the poor man works to elevate his position and makes the best use he can of the gifts God has given him, then he too is acting justly.
A person may do just acts without just motivations, but he does not thereby act justly. Whenever that which is right—as established by God—is done, whenever an end is achieved as God would have it, whenever we uphold the good, defend the weak, punish the bad, and act as God would have us, then justice is served. Wherever righteousness is practiced, there justice is done. It is therefore best for each of us to act righteously so that both our hearts and our actions may be just.
Social justice means more than merely helping the poor—it applies to any situation in which two or more people interact. Sexuality, criminality, charity, work, play, and war are all governed by the standards of social justice as established by God. These standards are not necessarily those of the “common good,” as understood by society, but rather those of God’s good—what God has decreed to be good (which is in fact the true common good, for only God truly and fully knows what is best for all). If properly understood, the two coincide in the end. But as long as the “common good” is viewed as synonymous with temporal gratification according to human standards, the two are not the same. Justice does not demand ontological victimhood, punishment of the rich, handouts to the poor, enforced total equality, or a great financial redistribution and leveling. No, true justice requires service to God and others in His name, obeying His will and laws, and all for His glory. As fallen creatures, we cannot achieve this on our own strength; but God through His grace and mercy enables us to will and to act justly. Justice is righteousness, and we must act to preserve and promote it in every aspect of our lives.
- Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. [↩]
- The Green Party. “Social Justice.” http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html. [↩]
- Wallis, Jim. “Betraying Jesus.” http://www.somareview.com/betrayingjesus.cfm. [↩]
- Associated Press. “Sharpton: Let’s Focus on Social Justice.” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/02/politics/main2143859.shtml. [↩]
- Schlossberg, Herbert. Idols for destruction. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1993. [↩]
- Strong’s Hebrew Bible dictionary. http://www.htmlbible.com/sacrednamebiblecom/kjvstrongs/STRHeB66.htm. [↩]
