Justice & Kindness

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Justice & Kindness

Michah 6:8 “He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

This verse says that the Lord is requiring three things from us.  The first thing He is requiring is that we do justice.  Justice is one of those words we can hear and we instantly think that we know what it means.  When you heard that God was requiring Justice from you did you discount it because of course you are a just person.  You treat people fairly, so no need to worry about this requirement, it has been fulfilled.  However, I don’t think it is as simple as that.  I don’t think justice can be boiled down to doing what we think is fair, or treating everyone equal.  I remember when I was studying to be a special education teacher, and also when I became a parent I was told that treating everyone the same isn’t necessarily being fair.  For instance, just because one student needs 20 extra minutes on a test doesn’t mean in order to be fair you have to give everyone 20 extra minutes on the test.  Similarly, if one of you children needs new shoes it is not unfair to buy them new shoes and not buy the other kids new shoes, because they don’t need new shoes.  

As a parent, and maybe in any leadership role, you will get told that you are being unfair sometimes.  I think when this happens it is important to look at the situation and decide if that is a true statement or not.  I was told that what is fair or just is to make sure that everyone has what they need.  One person may need something to be successful and yet another person doesn’t need that same thing.  However, they may need something else.  We need to look at each individual circumstance separately and understand that everyone’s needs are different.  It is not unfair to give someone something that they need and then not give the same thing to someone that doesn’t need it.  

I think we tend to think of justice as just a synonym for fairness and I think when we do that we are simplifying it a little too much.  Most of what I found online said something similar.  However, I found one think that talked about three definitions of justice.  The first one was fairness, which I just covered.  The second one is moral rightness.  I think this is an important one as well.  There are two kinds of laws.  There are the ones that we must follow because we live in a society that has laws to keep order and govern the people and then there are the moral laws.  Laws that God gave us to govern His people and to help us live good moral lives.  Sometimes these laws can conflict and that is when we can get ourselves into trouble.  There may be laws that say it is ok to do something but you know that they go against your moral laws.  

God is calling us to Justice, which we means moral rightness.  He is asking us to do what is right even when it may contradict a law that the government has given us.  For instance, Our government has given us a law so that we are free to practice any religion we like.  If we want to worship false gods, that is totally ok with our government.  However, it is not ok with our God.  He has given us a commandment to worship Him and Him alone.  Doing justice would be to follow God’s law in this circumstance.  We are called to do what is morally right instead of what the rest of society is doing.  Have you ever known something was wrong but did it anyway because all those around you were doing it?

The third definition is a scheme or system of law in which every person receives his/her/its due from the system, including all rights, both natural and legal.  Another way to say this is that people get what is coming to them.  However, the way they are using it is not the way many of us use it.  When most people say this, they are almost always talking about someone that did something bad and they are hoping that something bad happens to them.  This is one form of Justice.  God has definitely imparted some consequences that we may have thought were harsh, but were exactly what was needed at that time.  

As much as I think we would all like to say that we are just, I think it is really had for most humans to be just.  The reason I say this is because it is so hard to not let our emotions influence our decisions.  There are some people that know the laws and enforce them and don’t take into account how they are feeling.  However, I think these people are few and far between.  I am sure we have all been on the receiving end of some unjust treatment.  Whether it was a boss that was in a bad mood and over reacted when you made a mistake, or an angry parent who was tired of the same behavior and gave you a punishment that did not fit the crime as they say, we have all experienced it.  

It doesn’t always have to be a bad consequence to be unjust either. Sometimes people get away with things that they shouldn’t have and that is not good either.  Sometimes you can be in a great mood and so when someone does something you just let it go without really taking action.  However, then they may not learn their lesson.  Or, you may let someone get away with something just because you are tired and don’t feel like dealing with it.  If you want to do justice to someone then they should receive a consequence based on their action, not on how you are feeling that day.  I am torn as I write this because I don’t think that rules should just be enforced without looking at the whole picture.  I was thinking that I was wrong to say we should keep emotion out of it.  I don’t think every person that breaks a rule should have the same consequence.  I think it should be a case by case basis.  Although now that I am thinking about it, I don’t think the difference in consequences should be based on emotion, I think they should be based on all the factors.  I think someone that kills someone for the sport of it should have a very different consequence than someone who kills someone on accident.  What was the reason the person did what they did, what was the outcome, these are all factors that I feel should be weighed when deciding what justice for that person would be.  

According to the verse the next thing that the Lord requires of us is to love kindness.  This is another thing that I think we can probably all dismiss pretty quickly assuming that we all love kindness.  Who doesn’t love kindness, right?  The thing is, you can say that you love kindness all day long, but is that what your actions are saying?  How does the Lord know that you love kindness?  Can He tell just by looking at your life and how you interact with people that you love kindness?  What about in your family?  Do you show kindness to those that you spend the most time with?  We always talk about how we should be kind to strangers and we should, however, we should be just as kind, to those that we live with.  I bet we all know someone that is the kindest person when you seem him or her at church, in the store, at school or work and then when you see him or her with their family they are always yelling, or speaking unkind to them.  Mother Theresa said, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”  Kindness starts at home.

How about those that you don’t like?  Are you kind to them?  In Matthew 5:44 Jesus says, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  We need to start with kindness in our homes, but we can’t stop there.  We need to be kind to everyone we meet.  Jesus doesn’t just say be kind to our enemies, he wants us to love them and to pray for them.  This is a tall order, but with God, we can do all things.  Take a look at your life and ask yourself three questions.  First, am I kind at home, and how could I improve this?  Second, am I kind to my neighbors and friends, and how can I improve this?  Third, am I kind to those I don’t like and those that don’t like me and how can I improve this?  The lord is calling us to love kindness, how can we show Him with our actions that we do.  

According to this verse, the third thing the Lord is calling us to is to walk humbly with our God.  When I read this verse this morning the first thing that jumped out at me was the phrase walk humbly with our God.  The reason for this is because I think humility is so important and I feel God has been impressing that upon me over the last year or two.  I was sure this whole episode was going to be on humility, but I guess the Holy Spirit had another idea.  However, I don’t want to rush the topic of humility and I don’t want to make this episode too long.  So, tomorrow I am going to talk about humility either with this same verse or another.    For now I leave you with the question, How can I walk more humbly with the Lord our God?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we want to do all that you require us to do but we need your help.  As St. Paul said we don’t do the things we want to do and we do the things we don’t want to do.  Give us the strength to overcome our desire to do what is wrong.  Give us the strength to do the things that you want us to do.  Lord, we love you, help us show you that love.  You are amazing and we thank you for all you do for us.  We ask all of this in accordance with Your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.  

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  And thank you to those that have already signed up to walk with me in these next 10 weeks to grow more like Jesus.  I am excited to take that adventure with you and I will be sending out the first email in a few days.  If you have not signed up yet, I will put a link in the show notes. (Click Here) If you don’t know what I am talking about, I and members of this community, will be spending the next 10 weeks trying to grow more like Jesus.  Each week we will take one character trait and try to grow more in that trait.  I will send an email out each week so we can all work on the same trait and also there will be a link for a zoom call for those that would like to meet and talk about how it is going.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!