Justice – Practical Theology Today

Chasing after… Justice

A continuation of my experience chasing after high school track and cross country kids….

Circa mid-1980s. I was in my mid-30s, volunteering with the track team at a high school where I was also a Young Life leader. A couple times a week I was available to run with the team. I showed up for the first spring practice anticipating running with guys I already knew. There was a plethora of freshmen distance runners that year and the coach asked if I would take them out for a run. Since there was still snow on the track, the workout was road running.

When we got out on the road they all took off like jackrabbits, leaving me to chase after them at a pace faster than my normal (I think they thought I was a coach and wanted to impress me). About halfway through the run, I had chased down half of the group, much to their surprise. What I knew that they didn’t know was that the workout finished up a steep hill where I caught the rest of the group and passed them. Justice!

In the last blog post, we looked at the Apostle Paul’s admonition to Timothy to run away from the things that tend to entrap Christ-followers and…

Instead, chase after justice, godliness, faith, love, patience and gentleness (1 Timothy 6:11, NTFE)

What does it mean to chase after justice? Instead of justice, most translations use a religious term we are quite familiar with but probably unable to describe or define – righteousness. It is one of those biblical terms we often read without thinking about its meaning. What is righteousness? And how is it related to justice?

(I know there are people reading this who will immediately think of *Ferris Bueller’s Day Off* and the reference to Ferris as a “righteous dude.”)

The Greek word Paul used for righteousness is dikaiosynē. According to Bill Mounce it occurs 92 times in the New Testament, 10 times attributed to something Jesus said (e.g. the well-known Matthew 6:33 passage: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness [dikaiosynē]…). This is not going to be an exhaustive study of dikaiosynē – books have been written on this one word alone. But I do want to provide us (me included) a better understanding of the elusive term righteousness and get a glimpse as to why it can be translated as justice.

Mounce’s basic explanation of dikaiosynē using English words: righteousness, what is right, justice, the act of doing what is in agreement with God’s standards, the state of being in proper relationship with God. As typical, it takes a lot of English words to capture the essence of a single Greek word.

In Greek philosophy and ethics (think Aristotle and Plato), dikaiosynē is closely related to the idea of moral virtue and the proper conduct of individuals within a society. Dikaiosynē is often associated with the idea of treating others fairly, acting justly, and upholding moral integrity. In a broader sense, it encompasses the concept of moral rightness and adherence to ethical principles.

Since righteous is one of those biblical terms we often read without thinking about its meaning, I suspect we tend to default to Merriam-Webster’s definition that points to a connection with morality which in our minds translates into “right living,” something we must do or work at. Our individualistic Western faith can easily hear it this way – it’s about me living the right life. But it appears that dikaiosynē is much more than that.

When the OT was translated from Hebrew to Greek (the Septuagint), the translators used dikaiosynē to describe both righteousness and justice. Psalm 33:5 is a good example:

Hebrew: “He loves righteousness (tsedeq) and justice (mishpat); the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.”
Greek (Septuagint): “He loves mercy and justice (dikaiosynē); the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.”

The well-known passage, What does the Lord require of you? To act justly [mishpat] and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8, NIV), the Septuagint translates as to practice justice [dikaiosynē], and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. We can see that dikaiosynē is not limited to individual righteousness but extends to the idea of social justice. All scripture calls for believers to act justly, show mercy, and advocate for the well-being of others, reflecting God’s righteous character in their interactions with the world.

It’s something worth chasing after.

Dikaiosynē is frequently used to describe the righteousness of God. It emphasizes God’s moral perfection, justice, and faithfulness to His covenant promises. The root Hebrew word for righteous/righteousness is tsedeq which speaks of God’s loyalty and reliability and his covenant (commitment) to humanity. Psalm 50:6 is a good example: And the heavens proclaim his righteousness [Hebrew: tsedeq; Greek: dikaiosynē,] for he is a God of justice.

For humans, tsedeq is a term of relationship describing a desire to live a life pleasing to a righteous God and a desire to live a life fitting to the members of God’s family. Simply stated, God is the righteous one and human righteousness is therefore a desire, a willingness to behave toward God and his people with the same care, compassion, and integrity that the righteous God has shown us.

It’s something worth chasing after.

Martin Luther, commenting on Galatians 2:20, wrote: Paul explains what constitutes true Christian righteousness. True Christian righteousness is the righteousness of Christ who lives in us. We must look away from our own person. Christ and my conscience must become one, so that I can see nothing else but Christ crucified and raised from the dead for me. If I keep on looking at myself I am gone. If we lose sight of Christ and begin to consider our past we simply go to pieces. We must turn our eyes to… Christ crucified, and believe with all our heart that he is our righteousness and our life. For Christ, on whom our eyes are fixed, in whom we live, who lives in us, is Lord over the law, sin, death, and all evil.

Chasing after righteousness isn’t about just living rightly, but chasing after the One who will transform us, becoming like him. As we become more like Him we will live more rightly which naturally includes living justly.

It’s certainly something worth chasing after.

What is Justice?

This is a continuation of conversations started a couple weeks ago in the postings My Journey Into Racism and What Can I Do? As we continue this conversation, let me be clear as to the reasons why I decided to address racism in a blog-site focused on practical theology. My reasons are (1) to not remain complicit through silence, (2) to work through my own understanding of systemic racism and the role I play, and (3) to invite fellow Christ-followers to do the same.

The term Practical Theology implies an understanding of God, his worldview, and how that informs the way we live our lives – the way we relate to others.

What could be more practical than gaining an understanding of God’s heart for all people, not just the predominant group? We do not need to spend much time in scripture to become aware of God’s desire for justice and mercy is for all his people, not just the predominant group (thus Micah 6:8 – And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God). We do not need to spend much time with Jesus to see that he walked away from the predominant group in order to seek the outsider (see Jesus’ Mission Statement).

We cannot act justly, let alone love mercy, if we do not have a clear biblical understanding of justice. But what is the biblical/theological understanding of justice? Fortunately, the BibleProject has created a six minute video that paints a very clear picture of the biblical understanding of justice. Enjoy – it’s captivating. Then be watching for my next post, What ELSE Can I Do?

Now Let’s Go!

If you have never watched Simon Sinek’s TED talk in which he talks about “Why” before “What” and “How,” you must. Sinek reminds us that knowing what we do and how to do it doesn’t serve us well in life, individually or when we lead others.

When I quit practicing the Christian disciplines close to 40 years ago, I sensed God saying, “Do you know how long I’ve waited for you to quit? Now let’s go.” What did “Now let’s go” mean? It meant going right back to practicing the disciplines in almost the same manner as before. So, what was different?

Everything! I knew how to practice disciplines. I knew what to do. And I thought I knew why I was practicing them. It was my version of “why” that was at issue. In the context of wanting to serve God well, I focused on reading and studying scripture (as well as praying) primarily “so that” my ministry might succeed (or, not fail). Plus, I wanted to be a better Christian. A noble quest. It was after our cross-county move and with no ministry left in the equation that I quit. I lost the motivation to continue.

“Why” and motivation are quite similar. The definition of motivation implies the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way. My motivation was to succeed and to be a good Christian. Two issues with that:

God never asks us to be successful. He only asks us to be faithful. When orphans were starving in India at a greater rate than her little orphanage could serve, Mother Theresa was asked by a reporter how she could feel any sense of success. Her response? God does not require that we be successful, only that we be faithful. In western thought, we have equated success and faithfulness. The sooner we figure that out (change our minds, repent), the sooner we can get on with a full life.
God never asks us to be good Christians. Read the scriptures. Read the Gospels. It’s not there! The Pharisees – a sect of religious leaders in Jesus’ day – fell into the false understanding that it was their job to read and study the scriptures so that they could be good Israelites. All God ever asked of the them was loyalty to Him and thus his creation (this is the essence of the two great commandments of which Jesus spoke and the words of Micah, the prophet).

The Pharisees’ motivation was clear, but wrong. They knew their reason for acting and behaving in a particular way. And they were sincere – very sincere. But wrong. Their “why” did not line up with God’s. They were disciplined in their search of scripture, looking for life yet missed life when it was revealed through Jesus.

Likewise, I was sincere and disciplined in searching the scriptures, but for wrong reasons. The Celebration of Discipline was initially an unhealthy read for me. I thought I was to try to conquer the disciplines (succeed). As I strove to succeed at practicing the disciplines, it felt like I was spinning plates. At some point, I listened to a cassette tape by the author, Richard Foster, talking about the disciplines, reminding us that the purpose of the disciplines is to place us in front of the Father so he can transform us. THAT was transformative and freeing! Once again, my “why” had shifted.

Oh that we could have eyes to see and ears to hear that much of what motivates us is cultural and not biblical. Father, show us where we might be missing the mark.