CHALLENGING INJUSTICE

Justice is a complex issue. Therefore, our response to injustice should take account of many factors. First of all, Scripture places a lot of emphasis on honoring the institutions that God has ordained:

·       Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him [God] to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. (1 Peter 2:13-15; Romans 13:1-5)

When we do what is good by complying with these institutions, we silence the forces of darkness. When we resort to violence, our light goes out, and our evil brings contempt upon us.

No human institutions are perfect. Therefore, simply by highlighting some areas of their injustices should not become an excuse to disobey or to seek to overthrow these institutions. Instead, we are taught that “by doing good you should put to silence... ignorance.”

Jesus had counseled that we should obey the institutions of the land, even when staffed by evil people:

·       Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” (Matthew 23:1-4)

Our obedience shouldn’t even stop at institutions run by our own people. Peter claimed that we are to also honor oppressors, even the Roman emperor:

·       Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. (1 Peter 2:17-21)

To many, such teachings are highly distasteful, even reprehensible. However, the Word of God will never be otherwise to the unconverted. Instead, our job is to please God, not man.

However, we also have a responsibility to oppose injustice:

·       Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:11-12)

However, opposing injustice does not require us to tear down those institutions that inforce justice. We are our brother’s keeper. However, I think that several things should be noted. These verses pertain to clear instances of injustice - genocide and murder. Too often, we are apt to believe the many allegations of injustice to fuel our anger.

Nor do these verses (or any others) counsel insurrection or rebellion but the most restorative means possible, like exposing injustice and raising our voices against it (Ephesians 5:13).

Many of us raise our voices against the genocide of abortion. However, we do not advocate the overthrow of the government or even its God-ordained institutions. Instead, Christians are to work within the prescribed means.

Also, the beliefs that had once held us together have now dissolved. Consequently, what one side sees as injustice – for example, income inequality – does not look at all like injustice to the other side. Even worse, what had once been regarded as “evil” is now regarded as “good”:

·       Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)

The concept of justice has been taken captive by competing worldviews. Marxists divide humanity into two groups - the “oppressed” and the “oppressors,” based upon class and economic disparities – rather than according to the guilt of the individual who breaks the law.

Therefore, according to Marxism, justice was never a matter of restoring peace and order but the bloody matter of class struggle.

In the Bible, justice always involved an individual breaking the law of God. Consequently, it was a matter of punishing the guilty and protecting the innocent. (However, God could apply His own forms of justice, like replacing one king with another or by punishing Israel as a nation.)

Our philosophical differences have led to intense antagonism. As a result, some believe that the opposition must be re-educated or even eliminated. Jesus had warned His disciples:

·       “...Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.” (John 16:2-3)

This testifies to the overwhelming power of self-delusion. Idealistic people have been able to convince themselves that they are serving a higher good as they kill those who disagree with them. This has been the history of Marxist Socialism and National Socialism. Jesus’ warning has become very real for us, even in the USA, where church burnings and shootings have become more commonplace. As Jesus had warned, the minds of our society have become increasingly twisted – all the more reason to retain our institutions of order and justice and to look to Jesus on a personal level:

·       He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness...(1 Peter 2:22-24)

Jesus’ example should be a model for the rest of us. To our Savior, be the glory and also our unwavering allegiance.