By Pam Hinrichs

This is the third installment in a four-part series examining what the Bible says about justice. In this installment, we'll look at how Christians can do justice. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

How Do We Do Justice?

The Lord instructed Zechariah to "Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other" (Zechariah 7:9-10). God calls us to action. Administer is a verb, it is doing something about injustice. The Lord also tells us something about the nature of the justice to be administered. It is to be "true", genuine, not just in form but in substance. The Lord is calling for deeper investigation and thought. Acting justly is thinking critically and deeply about the marginalized, asking how the system, law, or policy affects them and what is equitable.

For example, Deuteronomy 24:17 says 'You shall not take a widow's garment in pledge." Why is that mentioned? In those days, when you made a loan, you would take something in pledge until the loan was paid back. So, you might take something like a piece of furniture or a cloak as collateral. But a widow, who very often was poor and at the margins of society, most likely only had one coat. So, while a pledge of a coat for someone else would not be a hardship, for a widow, it was the only one she had. Subjecting her to the same policy as everyone else was not treating her equitably. In other words, if you treat her the same way you would treat somebody else in your loan practices, you are perpetuating an injustice, not taking into consideration her lack of power.

In another example of doing justice, God calls us to be advocates - to stand up for the vulnerable, the marginalized, those who have no power. "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and the needy" (Proverbs 31:8-9). Nowhere in the Bible does it say to speak up for the rich and the powerful. They can speak up for themselves. "Blessed is he who has regard for the weak…" (Psalm 41:1).

God does not limit who is to do justice. There are no caveats, no subgroup justice is assigned to in scripture. His call is to each of us individually and to his corporate body, the church. We are each one of us made in the image of God. When one of us hurts from injustice, we all hurt individually and corporately. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the church as the body of Christ. Each Christian is a member of the body, and we all need each other to be complete. "On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor" (1 Corinthians 12:22-23). "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it…" (1 Corinthians 12:26). Galatians 6:2 says, "Bear one another's burdens and in this way, you fulfill the law of Christ." Again, each of us and all of us. When considering our corporate responsibility, the Bible gives us the example of Daniel. In Daniel 9, Daniel is confessing not his individual sins, but the sins of his people as a group, the corporate body. And it is noteworthy that he was not yet born when his people were doing those sins, but he confesses them and feels responsible to God for them.

We are to go out of our way, in our love of each other, to do justice. Philippians 2 calls us to imitate Christ by putting others before ourselves. "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vanity, but humbly regard others as better than yourselves. Be concerned not only with your own interests but also with those of others. Let your attitude be identical to that of Christ Jesus. Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness" (Philippians 2:3-7). God does not limit his call to do justice to those evils we are involved in personally. In talking about evil and injustice in Jeremiah, the Lord addresses those who may not be actively perpetrating injustice, but who see it and do nothing, those who maintain the status quo. And he calls that inaction evil. "'Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not seek justice. They do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor. Should I not punish them for this?' declares the LORD?" (Jeremiah 5:28-29).

God does not place limits on which injustices we should be righting. As seen in the numerous scriptures that have been referenced, God names some marginalized groups of people who all too often bear the brunt of our individual and society's injustice and oppression. For example, the poor, widows, orphans, aliens, immigrants, and prisoners. But God's call to justice is not limited to these groups. These groups are examples, not an exhaustive list. He repeatedly commands that we do justice for all those abused by the powerful and all those subjected to injustice, all who are not treated equitably.

We hope you'll spend some time this month reflecting on these verses about how Christians should do justice. Next month, we'll offer some concluding thoughts on justice.