The Greatest Commandment Part 4.
Love your neighbor: Act Justly
Micah 6:8
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Luke 4:16-19
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went
into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet
Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Synopsis:
The way to respond to the gospel is to love God and our neighbors. Loving our neighbors requires not
only showing mercy but also pursuing justice and living justly. God is deeply concerned about justice in
human society. Justice reflects who God is. The best model of just living is Jesus himself. Jesus was on
the side of the poor, the weak, and the marginalized. He was the friend of sinners and tax collectors.
Jesus treated women, children, Gentiles and even Samaritans as valuable people made in God’s
image. And yet he was not afraid to confront the hypocrisies of the powerful religious and political
authorities. Like Jesus, we need to practice justice in our daily living. Just living is indispensable part of
loving our neighbors.
Introduction
One of the most polarizing issue in America today is immigration. One pastor in Chicago was
preaching about the issue of immigration. The Bible, especially the Old Testament, has a lot to
say about immigrants. But while he was preaching, one person got up to interrupt and shouted
‘preach the gospel, preach the gospel’ and sat down.
That person may have been sick with hearing the talk about immigration in the media and did
not want to hear it again from the pulpit. Or that member did not think how we treat the
immigrants had something to do with the gospel.
But the gospel has a lot to do with immigration. The proper way for us to respond to the gospel
is to love God and love our neighbors, including the immigrants and even enemies. The pastor
was talking about the implications of the gospel in our society. But just because he was
applying the gospel to the issue of immigration, he is immediately misunderstood.
When people talk about certain justice issues, many Christians throw out their gospel lense
and begin to look through their political lense. When you talk about justice, many Christians
immediately put a label on you: you are left, a socialist, a Democrat or a Green party or
whatever.
Another disturbing attitude among some evangelicals is that they think of justice as something
separate from the gospel. Pastors like Eugene Cho, who are passionate about justice, get
letters urging them to focus more on saving souls and not to talk too much about evening news
topics. One person wrote “if you are a Christian, why do you need to be concerned about this
justice business? It’s all about Jesus. Just focus on Jesus.”
Once in a while I am shocked at how narrow minded some evangelicals are. “Just focus on
Jesus.” It sounds pious and gospel centered, but it shows a failure to understand the
implications of the gospel.
Why do we need to be concerned about justice business?
We need to be concerned about justice because God is deeply concerned about it.
Examples
Micah 6:8
Leviticus 19:34
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall
love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
God’s concern for justice is not only in the OT.
James 5:1-4
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your
riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten… 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers
who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the
cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
In the Bible, justice is not a peripheral issue, but one of the central issues. God is God of
justice. Justice is a reflection of who God is. Anyone who has a relationship with God will know
his heart for justice and will be concerned about justice as well.
Gospel & Justice
In the West, two sets of ministry concerns, proclamation and service, have been split off into
rival factions for nearly a century. The conservative Christians make justice a mere peripheral
issue and say that ministry is all about saving souls by preaching of the gospel. The liberal
Christians on the other hand stress the social justice and reject overt calls to convert others.
But you need both.
Dale Brunner shares a story about a time when he and his wife visited several churches in
Brazil. Knowing that both Dale and his wife studied theology, one Seminary student asked
them what the primary task of the church was. Dale said “proclamation of the gospel.” But his
wife, said “loving your neighbors.” The century old division in Christianity was reflected in their
marriage. So whenever Dale was asked a similar question later, he says “the primary task of
the church is witnessing of Jesus in word and deed.” And that is the right balance.
The first thing people should hear at church is to believe in Jesus, not do justice. But if people
were truly converted by the gospel, it should be followed by acts of mercy and justice.
Word and deed are like a husband and a wife. They were meant to go together.
Gospel and Justice
Living out justice is a proper and natural response to the Gospel.
We respond to the gospel by obeying the greatest commandment. We love God and love
neighbors. Even the great comission is part of loving our neighbors. We tell the gospel
because we love the other person.
It is the same with justice.
Why should we pursue justice and live justly? Because we love our neighbors. If we have been
truly touched by God’s grace, we would show neighborly love by pursuing justice and living
justly. Justice is indispensable part of loving our neighbors.
The gospel is more than just salvation of an individual soul.
Our sin affected the whole cosmose. Our sin caused a break in our relationship to God, to
each other and to the creation. Everything in the universe is broken. Everything is not the way
it is supposed to be. And it is the work of Christ on the cross that began the tide of restoration
of the entire universe. And when Christ returns, the whole creation will be redeemed and
restored to its original intent.
When we look at the gospel on a macro level, justice is part of God’s plan to redeem and
restore the whole world. When we do justice, we are participating in God’s work of redemption
and restoration. Justice is the work of righting the wrongs, restoring something to its fullness
after it was broken. Justice is restoring the wholeness of a person, the wholeness of a
community, the wholeness of God’s creation as it was meant to be.
Let’s focus on Jesus.
The religious conservatives say “don’t focus on justice. Focus on Jesus.”
So let’s focus on Jesus and see how he lived. Jesus was a model of living justly. Jesus
described his ministry by quoting Isaiah.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The year of the Lord’s favor is the Jublilee year in the Old Testament when slaves were set
free, all the debts were cancelled and the land belonging to your family was returned. If you
look at the objects of Jesus ministry, they are the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the
oppressed, the ones in debt, the ones in slavery, the ones who had lost their land, the ones
who are powerless.
Jesus was always concerned about the poor. He was born into a poor family in a poor
town of Nazareth in Galilee. In todays California, Jesus would be someone from a small town
in the Central Valley. If Jesus were to come to Silicon Valley today, Jesus would do his
ministry not in Atherton or Los Altos Hills but places like East Palo Alto or pockets of San Jose
or Oakland.
Jesus was always concerned about the sick. When Jesus and disciples went down to
Jersualem for one of the feastivals, the disciples like tourists wanted to see the market place,
the magnificent temple, and other attractions, but Jesus takes them to the pool by the Sheep
Gate, where many invalids were lying around and heals a man.
The pious church going, bible believing people did not eat or associate with sinners,
prostitutes and tax collectors, but Jesus ate and hung out with them so much that he earned
the nick name – a friend of sinners and tax collectors.
The pious church going men looked down on women and did not talk to women in
public. But Jesus talked to woman in public. Jesus calls a woman “a daughter of Abraham.”
Rabbis did not teach women, but Jesus taught women as his followers. Jesus treated women
and children with love, respect and dignity.
The pious Jews looked down on Gentiles and hated the Samaritans. But Jesus treated
women, Gentiles and Samaritans as valuable people made in God’s image.
Jesus was gentle and kind to the poor, the weak, and the marginalized. But to the
powerful and the religious, Jesus was very stern and confrontational. Jesus got crucified
because he spoke against the hypocrisies of the powerful. Jesus was strong against the
powerful and gentle toward the weak.
Jesus’ ministry was about the restoration of the whole person. Jesus was not concerned
only with the spiritual needs of people, but their physical and emotional needs as well. Jesus
preached the gospel, but he also cast out demons, healed many sick, fed the hungry, and
became friends with people who were despised, lonely or marginalized. Jesus pursued justice
and lived justly.
Application
Biblical justice is not just once a year activity we do as a church, or starting a new ministry, it is
more about the actions we take everyday. It is about our lifestyle. It is about reflecting
kingdom values in our life – how we make a decision, what we buy and eat, how we commute
to work or school, how we treat our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, strangers, and
immigrants. What we pray for and how we earn and spend money.
An organization called Micah Challenge lays out six practical aspects of living justly.
One is advocacy, challenging injust systems of our society.
Now this would be hard to do as a local church. Local churches would have to work with a
denominational agency or another organization devoted to advocacy. Bur individual Christians
can also write letters to state representatives to urge them into supporting certain issues or
laws.
Two is prayer.
We are to pray against injustices, persecutions, and racisms in our society. We may get
involved in some sort of justice work, but ultimately challenges such as poverty, hunger,
economic inequality and human trafficking overwhelm us. And we wonder if we can make any
difference at all. It is in those moments that we must remember that it is God who can bring
any change, not us. Christians cannot do justice without prayer. As we pray, we give to God
what is His to redeem and to restore.
Three is consumption.
LN Smith said “every dollar you spend or don’t spend is a vote you cast for the world you
want.” Companies that produce goods seek the highest profit and they tend to sacrifice the
workers and the earth in the process. As consumers, we have power to change corporate
behavior. When consumers become aware of how products are made and voice our concerns
about the working conditions of the workers, consumers can force the companies to do fair
trade, improve wages and working conditions.
Four is generosity.
I realize that it is very hard to be generous if you are living in the Silicon Valley because the
cost of living is so high. When our college students go on mission trips, I could not give much. I
don’t see how the Macedonians were able to give offering for the poor in Jerusalem out of their
own poverty. Paul does say that they gave out of joy from the grace they received from God.
And that is very challenging. It was costly for them to give and yet gave joyfully because God’s
love for them was so real. We will be more generous as we learn to appreciate God’s grace
more.
Five is relationships.
If we are not able to give financially, another way to do justice is to give people our time and
attention. Justice begins by noticing people around us. Acts of mercy or justice done without
relationship is just another project and people don’t want to be someone’s projects. As
Christians, we have to go out of our way to build relationship with the poor or the
disadvantagged. Just living involves building relationship with people in need.
And Sixth is the care of creation.
When God made Adam & Eve, God commanded them to take care of the garden, not just the
plants but animals in them as well.
Recyling. Saving fuel by walking running or biking to school or work. Improving the effieciency
of clean energy. Protecting the habitat for different species, improving the use of land, water,
and other natural resources through environmental sciences are part of work of justice.
Out of these six areas, the most difficult practice is building relationship with the needy. I think
the most difficult part of Jesus’ ministry for us to follow is eating with the poor and sinners.
Being with the poor or the marginalized is something that does not come naturally to us. We
can do some kind of a program as a church to meet a need, but it is much harder to develop a
way of life that makes a space for the needy in our busy life.
I think the sinners, the tax collectors and other needy people felt comfortable with Jesus
because he was not judgmental and not patronizing. And Jesus must have made it his habit to
hang out and eat with the poor and the sinners who were looked down by the society.
If mercy and justice is to be our way of life, then all of us can learn how to stop and spend one
hour a week or one hour in two weeks to just spend time with the needy. It could be one hour
at a shelter with the victimes of domestic abuse. One hour of volunteering at a hospital to be
with the sick. One hour hanging out at a train station with the homeless. We can do justice
relationally within our neighborhood as part of our life routine. Maybe God is calling us to learn
how to be with the least of these in our lives. That’s where justice starts. That’s where Jesus
will manifest himself. That is where God’s kingdom breaks in.