A DEVOTIONAL GUIDE FOR “THE TEN TIMELESS VALUES FOR DISCIPLESHIP”


Value 8- Week 1                                            Justice


Word:             “For the Lord is a God of Justice; blessed are those who wait for him.”     Isaiah 30:18

                     “The Lord is just in all his ways”         Psalm 145:17


Reflection:  The Nature of God

     In James Michener’s book “The Source”, a novel about the history of religion, a wife comments about her husband, “If he had a different god, he’d be a different man.”  The point is this, how we understand God (our theology) affects how we live our lives (our actions).  This is one of the reasons good theology is so important.  That means in order to talk about justice as a discipline to practice, it is important to begin looking at justice as attribute of God. 

     In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel’s single most defining virtue of God was justice.  And because they understood God above all as just, the concept of justice affected their understanding of life itself and how it worked, as well as becoming the principle ethic from which they would live their lives.  Their basic view of life under the providence of a just God was, if you are good, good things happen to you, and if you are bad, bad things happened to you (hence the great dilemma of Job, who saw himself as good but had bad things happening and was confused by his understanding of a just God).  In their view, because God was perfectly just He would never do anything wrong, and because God is just He has a heart of compassion for those who suffer injustice, as well as a heart of love for those who practice justice in their own lives.  This is communicated throughout the Old Testament writings.  The Psalmist repeated talk about a God who loves justice and righteousness and is just in all his ways. The Law itself was seen as an extension of the nature of God and the primary ethic it demanded was to live justly.  The story of the Exodus was the story of a God who saw his people experience injustice and he delivered them from it, only to see them failing to practice justice and consequently punished them through the exile.  The prophets repeatedly spoke on God’s behalf a call to practice justice because they represented a just God.

     Justice as the nature of God is not just limited to the Old Testament.  While Jesus came as the primary revelation of God and moved us to an understanding of God as love, that love was grounded in and manifested through justice.  In Luke 4 when Jesus is beginning his ministry, he chooses to read to the people a verse from Isaiah and say it would be fulfilled in him, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”(justice)  He promised a divine reversal when the “last would be first and the first would be last”.  Jesus life and teaching reflected a God who was just, who loved justice, and who expected people to practice justice.  In the church, as followers of Jesus who appropriately ground our understanding of God in His love, it is important that we do not forget His justice and what that means for our lives and ministries as reflections of Him.



Practice:  Take time this week to think about ways I have experienced God as just and look for ways that I may be failing to live justly in my own life.

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