To kick off our time together, I want to look at two words and talk about what comes to mind when you hear them. So, grab 4 or five people around you and gather into small groups and let’s start with the first word. When you hear the word “righteousness” what do you think about? What does the word mean?
***Give them a few minutes to talk amongst themselves and then have a few share their thoughts***
Great, now I want you to do the same thing with the word “justice.” What comes to mind; what does the word mean?
***Give them a few minutes to talk amongst themselves and then have a few share their thoughts***
I think typically, when I hear the word “righteousness”, the things that go through my head tend to be personal things, my moral actions, “me and God,” and religion/spirituality or faith. Righteousness in my mind tends to be about inward change, about the heart and emotions, and again private. When I hear the word “justice,” I tend to go the opposite direction and think social interactions like a court or judge. But I also think physical, concrete interactions, “me and others.” I think of things like the 30 Hour Famine and fighting hunger, things like community service, healing the sick, and again, anything involving the physical realm and other people.
As I was thinking about these words yesterday, I was curious of how the dictionary defined these words and here is what I found:
right•eous
1) Morally upright; without guilt or sin: a righteous parishioner.
2) In accordance with virtue or morality: a righteous judgment.
3) Morally justifiable: righteous anger. See Synonyms at moral.
jus•tice
1) The quality of being just; fairness.
2) The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.
3) Conformity to truth, fact, or sound reason
Not surprisingly, the dictionary goes to the same place. “Righteousness” is more personal and emotional where “justice” is more about others and something that is physical.
When it comes to being a Christian and having a relationship with God, which is more important to Him? What is more important for us to focus on? Righteousness or justice?
To help us answer that question, I want to spend a few minutes looking at two different passages in the Bible. So, if you have a Bible with you, let’s open to Luke 4:16-21. ***Read Luke 4:16-21***
Just for a little background, this passage comes right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and right after he began to preach in public for the first time. What Jesus means when he states, “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day,” is that this summarized the purpose or meaning behind everything that Jesus would do. Let’s look a little closer at what Jesus read, which is actually found in Isaiah 61:1-2, and find out if Jesus’ mission and purpose was about righteousness or justice.
The passage starts off saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” just again stating the fact that this is God’s mission and what Jesus is supposed to do. After this there are five parts to Jesus’ mission:
Part one says, “for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.” Is this about bringing righteousness or justice? Really it can be taken both ways. Part of what it means to have a relationship with God is that we are to treat one another like brothers and sisters and should take care of one another in a physical way, so thus the Good News that justice is coming and that no one will have physical needs. On the other hand though, in the Bible the word poor is used to take about being spiritually poor. In the book of Matthew, Jesus says, “God blesses those who are poor [in spirit] and recognize their need for Him.” So thus, Jesus is also meaning hear that the Good News of Jesus’ death on the cross would provide a spiritual richness.
Let’s go on to the second part, “He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released.” Which is this, righteousness or justice? Again, really it is both. Jesus wanted justice in the law to be served and be fair but at the same time the Bible talks about being captive towards sin and the freedom that again comes through Jesus’ death on the cross.
Alright, part three, “the blind will see.” Justice or righteousness? Surprise, surprise, again, it is both. Jesus healed people physically of being blind multiple times. But blindness was also used to represent spiritual blindness and seeing the things of God.
We’ve got a bit of a pattern going on here…let’s look at part four. “The oppressed will be set free.” Do I need to ask the question again? Again, we have both! Jesus physically released many people from oppression and cast out demons but again, oppression was talked about to represent a spiritual state of not having God in your life and God setting people free through a relationship with Him.
And then lastly, part five, “the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” Again we have both meanings here. This line actually refers to what’s called the year of the Lord or jubilee in the Old Testament which was a time every fifty years where debts were canceled, land went back to the original owners, and crops were to be shared and no work is to be done so the people could rest. So, very justice oriented. This line though was also referring to the fact that soon Jesus would be dieing on the cross and making it possible to have a relationship with Him thus allowing us to find favor in God’s eyes.
So, what was Jesus’ mission on earth, righteousness or justice? It was both! And God calls us to the same thing. In James 1:27, James, who was Jesus’ brother, writes “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress [justice – social and physical] and refusing to let the world corrupt you [righteousness – personal and spiritual].” A little further along in James’ letter he makes the comment that “faith [typically understand by righteousness – personal, knowledge, emotional, spiritual] is dead without good works [more in the justice category – social and physical].” We can not have one without the other.
Taking this relationship between justice and righteousness one step further, what’s interesting to find it is that English is one of the few languages that actually separates these two issues. In French, Italian, Spanish there is only one word to express both of these issues. The same is true in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, the languages that the Bible was written in. In fact, in a lot of the places where righteousness or justice is written in our Bible’s there is a little note that references the other word – meaning if the verse reads justice there may be a note at the bottom of the page that says or righteousness and then the other way around.
In our culture, we tend to prefer an either/or kind of mindset. Generally, we tend to focus on the personal morality or on helping others, the spiritual experience or the physical experience and we prioritize one over the other, when really, they are equally important, they go hand-in-hand. When it comes to these issues, or maybe I should say the issue of righteousness and justice, they are really just two different sides of the same coin: God cares about justice, the physical and social aspect of the world AND the righteous, the personal and the spiritual aspect of the world. One is heads and one is tails but they both make up a coin. Throughout the Bible, righteousness and justice are equally important to God and should be equally important to us as well.
What I want to do now is ask you guys to get into small groups and I have a few questions for us to think about.
1) What are some specific examples of how you see Christians and churches fulfilling this mission of both justice and righteousness?
Re-read James 1:27.
“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress [justice – social and physical] and refusing to let the world corrupt you [righteousness – personal and spiritual].”
2) In Jesus’ day, orphans and widows were among the most vulnerable people of society. Who are the most vulnerable people today in
• your town?
• Fairfield County?
• Connecticut
• United States?
• Worldwide?
3) How are you caring for today’s “orphans and widows?”
4) How are you keeping yourself from being polluted by the world?
