Last fall I listened to a speaker at a conference who talked extensively on social justice. What I understood him to mean by that was basically redistribution of wealth. It caused me to think about what scripture says about justice. I ran across this blog post by an author I appreciate…
Today I return to my series on social justice. As we look at the third of the seven passages we’ll see once again the Bible says more and less about social justice than we think. More, because God definitely and clearly commands his people to do justice. But less, because what the Bible means by doing justice is not always equivalent to contemporary notions of social justice.
Jeremiah 22
The basic command for this unit is given in verse 3: “Do justice and righteousness.” So there it is: God’s people (technically the kings in this verse) are commanded to do justice. We cannot obey God and ignore the divine call to justice.
In fact, the Lord tells the kings of Judah that judging the cause of the poor and needy (rightly) is to know him (15-16). It didn’t matter their titles, their wealth, or their religious observance, if the kings oppressed the poor instead of treating them fairly and mercifully, they proved their own ignorance of God. And if they continued in such flagrant disobedience, the kings and their kingdom would be wiped away (24-30).
So doing justice is hugely important. But what does it mean? Thankfully Jeremiah 22 gives us some answers.
Read the rest HERE
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