It is often asked “Where is God’s justice?” We look to God to right every wrong and to prevent every hardship. We fail to recall that God placed us to have dominion over the world and from that power He expects us to dispense justice as His representative. If there is a lack of justice, it is because of our failure not His.

We must not forget that God has given us the parameters of justice. In Romans 12:19, Paul reminds us that vengeance is the Lords. This scripture is often misused to justify letting the criminal go free without penalty. What is forgotten is that in the next chapter Paul shows that God ordained the state and her agents to dispense justice. For the ministers of the state are not emotionally tied to the act and can dispense God’s vengeance in an appropriate level. In short, they judge the severity of the crime and assure the punishment is eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth, not a head for an eye and a heart for a tooth.  When we are personally involved, we do not seek a just retribution, we want those who wronged us to suffer more than we suffered. We will search for and find justification in our extreme reprisal.

To assure proper justice is dispensed by those He ordained, God gave guidance through His prophets to them as well. In Luke 3:15, John the Baptist told the soldiers (that era’s police officers) not to extort with threats of violence or false accusation. And Moses gave more instructions. Judges were instructed not to take bribes or to ignore the weak and the poor in cases brought to them. We like to point to these commands in our search for justice, but we forget two others that are also important. Exodus 23:2 tells us not to side with the mob, and Leviticus 19:15 tells us not to show favoritism to the poor nor the rich. These scriptures teach us that justice is an individual thing that must be evaluated and dispensed on a case-by-case basis. It is because of scripture, that I cannot endorse or support “social justice.”

“Social justice” is not justice because it usually comes down to one of two things. Mob rule by intimidating justices with protests outside their homes and threats of rioting if the mob disapproves of any ruling. It is that or to always side with those they deem “oppressed.” The Bible recognized that such knee jerk reactions perverts and bends justice just as much as a bribe and perjury. “Social justice” isn’t justice, its bigotry and hatred wearing the mask of virtue. And I dear say, it is unbiblical.

#Justice