Greetings Dear Reader,
It is not just the police or courts that must be sentinels
of justice. Whether it is legal or
social justice, we are all responsible that it be made equally available to
everyone. We live in freedom under a
system that is supposed to deliver justice to everyone.
We rarely discuss Divine justice. It has been made clear that if we claim to
follow Christ then we have a deep obligation to both civil and social
justice. We are not supposed to treat
anyone unjustly. We do. We do more often than we admit. For those of you who do not share my faith,
you are always free to hold us accountable to this truth.
We have replaced an understanding of justice with an
attitude of fairness in our culture. I
have said before, I do not believe in fairness when it comes to human
needs. I believe in justice. I am not talking about this at the legal level
even though that applies. We cannot be “fair”
to everyone. There is no way to make
everything equal. We can be just with
everyone if we choose to be.
The duty to stand sentinel over justice includes tempering
it with love, grace, mercy, and kindness.
The idea that justice should be blind may work for legal issues but not
for social or moral ones. First, one
cannot legislate morality. I will leave
that there and pick it up another time. When
it comes to social justice, the blindfold has no place. We are supposed to consider the needs of
others for the very purpose of dealing with them justly.
It is sadly funny and deadly serious that when we turn a
blind eye to the needs of others, we are in fact being unjust. We have the ability to help and we choose to
walk by instead. As Christ followers, we
are obligated to care for others. We may
not be able to help everyone. We can,
however, help more than we do. We walk
in injustice more than we should.
As sentinels of justice, we wield not a sword but love and kindness. We deliver grace and mercy in the name of
being just about our debt for the grace and mercy we have received. We cannot be blind to the needs of others and
deal justly with the gifts we have received.
The church over the ages has hammered others with God’s
justice whilst failing to temper it with his love and mercy. We have beaten others with it instead of
dealing in grace. We must be just in our
application of all things. It must flow
from our standing watch over the needs of others and not our judgment of those
in need. We have failed greatly by
relegating our obligation for the social justice needs or our neighbors to our government
and then not demanding that they do it well.
We have turned a blind eye to the needs of others and written on the eye
patch is “there are government programs for that.”
Justice must be viewed as something provided to those in
need and not just a way to get what we think we are due. If I see things honestly, I owe more than I
am due, therefore, I must focus first on dealing out loving, merciful, kind
justice to others. If my faith is real,
I can count on the Father to justly meet my needs. How about you Dear Reader?
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every
writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a
homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Contacts for Aramis
Thorn:
Bookings: aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com
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