Living The Dream: Do Justly (Week 1)
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DO JUSTLY
Micah 6:8 NKJV: He has shown you, O man [O mortal], what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
Today: Do Justly
Biblical justice is thinking, speaking, and acting like Jesus toward the people Jesus loves. It means seeing the mistreatment, oppression, or extreme need of a person or a group of people and choosing not to find all the reasons why they are undeserving or why it is not our responsibility to help. If we do what God does, we see them, speak up for them, join them in their suffering, and do our part to correct the people or systems who oppress them as we personally work to remedy their sufferings, even if it means laying down our lives.
I John 2:6 NIV- “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”
Philippians 2:5 NLT: You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
“When you see on earth the man who has encountered the shipwreck of poverty, do not judge him, do not seek an account of his life, but free him from his misfortune.” – St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407 A.D.)
Yes, God will make right all things, but He’s not waiting until we get to heaven to do so. He’s doing it now and His primary method of rescue is us: His body animated by His Spirit. If Jesus is “Immanuel”—God with us—and we are His body, then we are “God with them.”
“No good will come of either blaming God for our ills or sitting around waiting for God to do what we ought to have the sense and ambition enough to accomplish for ourselves. God has put the natural abilities and means at our disposal with which to make this world a decent and pleasant place to live. This is precisely the reason why he will hold us responsible for failing at the task. And all those who charge God with the evil of this world lay themselves open to the charge of insincerity unless they are doing all within their power to dispel the evil of this world.” - Dallas Willard
“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But wet Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. ‘My God,’ you will say, ‘if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.” -- Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855 A.D.)
God’s dream for our lives is that we will live mindful of doing justly towards others, which means often not having all the “justice” we want for ourselves. It’s a matter of ongoing heart change both causing and being caused by action.
Psalm 146:7-9 NLT: He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. The Lord frees the prisoners. 8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down. The Lord loves the godly. 9 The Lord protects the foreigners among us. He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.
How to “do justly”? Find someone in need and change the way we think, speak, and act toward them.
Almighty God, who hast created us in thine own image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. –Book of Common Prayer
