Faith

Defend the oppressed

A ‘ramble’ on justice

“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
–  Isaiah 1: 17

Over the past couple of years I have been thinking about justice. What does it mean? How should our society do justice? How should I do justice?

A basic definition indicates that justice is “the principle of moral rightness; decency. The quality of being just; fairness.” 

When I read this I’m not too sure that it helps much – I need to be fair and decent. What does that even mean? The quote from Isaiah helps some – defend the oppressed; plead the case for the widow and orphan. I know we have a lot of people that are oppressed: people who look different, or are new immigrants, or were here before Europeans came; those with very low or no income; the handicapped or mentally ill. 

We should do what we can to defend these as well as widows and orphans, but how do we do this? What does this “defense” look like? I needed more information, so I went to the books of law in what some of us call “The Old Testament.” In the Book of Exodus, chapter 23, I found the following: “Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness. Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong … do not show favoritism … Do not deny justice to your poor people… Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death. Do not accept a bribe …” OK, some of this helps, but I do not participate in our legal system very much, our “Justice System.”

So I went further: When Jesus was asked which was the most important commandment, He responded, “Love the Lord your God… and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12: 30-31).” I suppose if I want to do justice for those around me, Jesus’s second commandment, “Love others,” works best for me. If I show love to each person I meet, in the ways that love should be shown, I will be doing “justice.” This Is not always easy for me, sometimes I get grumpy, sometimes I am tired, but I know that this is not doing justice to those around me, so I will try to do better.

I pray that each of us will practice doing justice by sharing God’s love with those whom we meet.

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