What is Just?

Justice is a strange thing in that everyone believes that they are just in their actions.  Most no one believes they act in an unjust manner.  Each and every man can justify their seemingly ill conceived response based on some thing, occurrence or past tragedy.


Justice is tricky in this day and age as it has been watered down, like bad scotch, to make it increasingly more palatable to the masses.


True justice is that which treats every human, as of equal value.  This really should be easy, but our culture seems to have forgotten this and replaced it with, get what you can, trample who you need to and build your empire so that your future and those of your lineage will have security.


Discernment on this issue is more tricky than I would like it to be, it seems so obvious, yet the call to go against the cultural norm is a hard one to take up.


I offer you this story from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12 from the ESV

You Must Be Ready - Luke 12 (ESV)

 ³⁵ "Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. ³⁷ Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. ³⁸If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! ³⁹ But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. ⁴⁰You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." ⁴¹Peter said, "Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?" ⁴²And the Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? ⁴³ Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. ⁴⁴Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. ⁴⁵But if that servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, ⁴⁶the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. ⁴⁷ And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. ⁴⁸ But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

I understand the first half pretty well, be ready.  But questions, not seen before begin to rise, am I the thief?  Have I beat the master's servants?  Am I drunk on desire, material wealth that is not mine, but that which I have been entrusted over to steward generously and justly.


Now, I never before saw myself beating the servants.  But I question it now.


We (Team Awesome, TnT and C-Fresh) recently, went on a vacation with another couple to the Chicago area.  The boys attended the TGC11 conference, which was extremely edifying.  We drove there, the ladies and little men, stayed at a swanky resort in Lake Geneva, which we got at a cut-rate deal.  The guys stayed with some great friends in the "Boystown" area Chicago.  I felt really good about how we were doing this whole trip on the cheap, I'm dutch after-all so spending less money is like a game, a game worth winning.


While we were away, we entrusted our pooch to some friends.  The day before the conference was to begin we received a phone call, said pooch was at the vet, vomiting up blood, a turkey neck (we raw feed) lodged in her oesophagus  right before the stomach.  As many of you know vet's are not cheap, vet's I believe are predator's, much like real estate agents and car salesman, who prey on your emotion's for maximum monetary outcome.  So long story short, by the time of the phone call we were in for about 1G, options were, 1 to refer her to a hospital for scope and surgery for 5-6Gs with a 50% positive outcome, or 2, to allow this vet to call in another and try to force it through for about 2Gs.


We cried.  T recalled how she made fun of me for how I specifically went outside to say goodbye to Monster before we left, to give her a hug.  Yes, she's just a dog, but for the last 2 years she has been family.  T regretted that she hadn't done the same now.  After some quick deliberation, we concluded that we would go for option 2 and should the obstruction not be removable, Monster would simply not be woken up.  We cried some more.  Then we waited.  It's hard to be so far from the action yet held in such suspense.


We would say that "it is only money," but really it's not, it's God's money!  I struggle to justify whether it was well stewarded.  To spend 2Gs in an attempt to keep a dog alive.  A dog.  Our dog.  It's not only money, it's a lot of money.  Is it money that could have been better spent? Undoubtedly.  I am not just.


Last night I concluded reading Generous Justice by Dr Timothy Keller.  All things said, Tim Keller's writing is easy to read, easy to comprehend, yet hard to live out.  He has a style which to me strikes so deep at the heart it's hard to walk away unchanged.  


My wife knowing I had just finished reading it asked, "What does it make you want to do?"


I responded, "Can't i just read it?!"


No, I can't just read it.  It makes me want to do many things, but I think the larger question would be "What does it make you NEED to do?"


I need to stop beating the poor, the widow and the immigrant.  I need to steward the abundance I(we) have been given with generosity and integrity.  I need to live by faith.

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith - Galatians 3

 ¹⁰For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." ¹¹Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith." ¹²But the law is not of faith, rather "The one who does them shall live by them." ¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— ¹⁴so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.


At this time of year, it is a great reminder that God hate injustice, He deplores our sinful desires.  Yet, He so wants relationship with me, you, us; that He sent His Son, from the incomprehensible riches of heaven to the filth of a stable in rural Bethlehem some 2000 years ago to be swaddled in rags at birth, to live the life we could not live, to die the death we could not die, to pay the ransom for our sin on the cursed cross, to lift the curse of Hell by conquering death and raising us to life, a life of abundance, a life with God.


Praise be to Him, and Him alone.  Him who's sacrificial love makes me long to seek that which is just.


Seek Justice.  Love Mercy.  Walk Humbly.