By Pam Hinrichs

This is the fourth installment in a four-part series examining what the Bible says about justice. In this installment, we'll offer some concluding thoughts on justice. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Concluding Thoughts on Justice

Ultimately, doing justice is an act of worship, an offering to God, in the way God wants to be worshiped by us. God declared to his people, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" (Isaiah 58:6). This verse is full of doing, an example of the action God commanded us to do in Micah 6:8.

Our work for justice reflects how well we know God. Jeremiah illustrates this in his words about King Jehoiakim: "Did not your father (Josiah). . . do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy; then it was well. Is not that what it means to know me?' declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 22:15-16). "Everyone who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker" (Proverbs 14:31). If God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, declared us righteous when we did not deserve it, the only reasonable response to honor the God who loves us that much, is to go and seek righteousness and justice for others, on earth as it is in heaven. ". . . Offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness" (Romans 6: 13). Doing justice is evidence that our relationship with God is internal, not just external.

Jesus tells his disciples that when the Son of man comes in his glory, "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me...I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life" (Matthew 25:40-46). And we know what God requires of us: "that we do justice" (Micah 6:8).