Sunday, September 25, 2011

What is Justice?

Sorry for the delay. Teaching Greek for a year gets me out of the habit of posting relevant comments.  Now we are in the Minor Prophets. What a refreshing change, both for myself and for my students. I think some are adding to their view of God every day.


What is Justice? Great question.  It is NOT social justice, it is NOT economic justice, it is NOT (add your modifier here) justice.  Those are small subsets but are NOT justice. Amos 5-6 is a great place to look for justice. Amos 5:7 starts, "You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth" while Amos 6:12 ends "But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness." If all the parallelism of Hebrew Poetry hasn't made it clear, this inclusion passage should make it clear: Justice IS Righteousness.  


God is righteous, God is just.  Righteousness and Justice are what the righteous and just ones do.  Justice is what God does.  The people of God are to act like God. It really is that simple.


What's the problem? Views of God held by an individual that are contradictory, especially to the biblical text.  More on that later.