Finding God In The Hard Places预览

“Justice Is Not a Trend.”

It’s cool in our culture to care about justice. Everyone wants to be a hero, or start a non-profit, or raise awareness about societal issues. Personally, I am thankful people are beginning to wake up to the injustices in our communities. Still, justice is not a trend. Justice is integral to our faith.

When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments for covenant community, the instruction was given to encourage wholeness in the neighborhood. He starts with the command to have no other gods before Him. Second, we are not to make an idol in our own image or to worship any other image in the heavens or the Earth besides Him, and third, we are told not to misuse the name of the Lord. The first three commandments inform the remaining seven. 

If we can manage to leave God on the throne of our hearts, and not build a name for ourselves or worship any images (which is hard, hello? I may not build myself a Buddha, but the media images from this culture can get a tight grip on me and how I think I should look, be, and feel…) And if we can avoid misusing his name by letting what we say we believe about Jesus be different than what we do in action, we can probably avoid hurting, abusing, and using people, which is what God commands us to do with commandments four through ten.

Take a Sabbath, so you don’t use people, because if you don’t stop working, to rest, you start to feel and act like a machine. Over time, we see people as commodities, rather than those created in the image of God. Honor your parents, so you can have a long, full life, instead of allowing unforgiveness, resentment, or conformity to their ideals instead of God’s, decide your future. 

Don’t kill people, or have an affair with someone else’s spouse. Don’t steal or lie about your neighbor. Don’t be jealous of what other people have, so you don’t end up letting bitterness and envy guide your choices.

This is why Jesus sums up the law in two commands: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. At its core, this is justice. God remains our only obsession, and in Him, we find our identity as sons and daughters in the Kingdom of heaven. We carry His presence and we can live into it and release it here, in our homes, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, wherever we find ourselves, and Shalom, the peace of God, His wholeness – with nothing missing and nothing broken – reigns. 

According to a Pew Research Center report, there are 2.2 billion Christians living on the planet, which is about thirty percent of all the Earth’s inhabitants. Friend, if we just lived out Jesus’s two simple commands, don’t you think we could abolish human trafficking, reduce inequities in education, race, gender, economics, as well as develop strategies to end global poverty, terrorism, and more? If every Christian alive today focused on worshiping God alone, and loving their neighbor, we would light up every corner of the Earth! 

Christ’s love through us could win over gang bangers and pimps and prostitutes and hardheaded, prideful people and abused, discarded children and folks who are apathetic to love because they have never experienced it, and people would begin to get whole and families would be restored, and neighborhoods, cities, and nations could feel the impact. It sounds too simple, right? 

Jesus said that the Kingdom of heaven is like a little yeast that a woman worked through sixty pounds of flour until it permeated all the dough (Matthew 13:32). It might feel like we have just a little, but the Kingdom of heaven in the person of Christ, living inside of us, is potent and powerful. He modeled this for us – He didn’t build a non-profit, or an empire for Christian ministry, but he did go about doing good, and He healed, cared for, and lifted up those whom society devalued or discarded. 

Together, with God and with each other, we can permeate this culture with kindness and love and grace, so that people come to know our Father in heaven and begin to follow the way of Jesus. Justice is not a trend; it is the heart of our Father.

PRACTICE: Have you ever considered that justice is connected to the Ten Commandments? Journal, or speak with God, for ten minutes about what this means for you and your faith.