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