Justice

Introduction

Justice sermon

May 16 2021

Good morning cornerstone family. For hours and hours of reading and studying this week I wrestled with how to present this topic. This topic of justice has brought 10s of thousands to March in the streets and even riot in this last year. The idea of justice has inspired people to change laws in our country. Justice has pulled us into wars. Justice is a crucial topic for us to wrestle with because so many are demanding justice for this person or that person.

I agree with and I appreciate the ways that the Bible project people have shown us that justice from the biblical perspective is something to be pursued. And from the biblical perspective we pursue justice because all mankind is made in the very image of God and therefore has equal value. All mankind is worthy because they are made in God's image.

And I also appreciate how they showed us that the ultimate example of pursuing justice for others righting wrongs is found in what Jesus did for us.

Jesus did not give us justice because we deserve punishment for our sins. But Jesus came to us to bring us forgiveness and to lift us up through what he did. He redeemed us. I'm not sure exactly how this is going to go today. But first I want to take a look at the story of the Good Samaritan.

Luke 10:25–37 ESV

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

–The story of the Good Samaritan

Jesus taught here that the way to live out the command to love your neighbor was to care for someone in need even if you had good reasons for assuming that person wasn't worthy of your care.

God has called us to care for those in need.

Remember what James said about pure and undefiled religion?

James 1:27 ESV

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

—pure and undefiled religion

So for us to practice pure and undefiled religion it is to care for and lookout for the justice of others.

God calls us to care for others.

Micah 6:8 ESV

8 He has told 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?

1 John 3:17–19 ESV

17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;

The foundation for caring for the poor and for caring for others in need is not just love it is faith. It is trusting God to keep his promises to provide and to bless those who bless others.

I love how the preacher Jonathan Edwards writes:

It is easy with God to make up to men what they give in charity. Many but little consider how their prosperity or ill success in their outward affairs depends upon Providence.

There are a thousand turns of providence, to which their affairs are liable, whereby God may either add to their outward substance, or diminish from it, a great deal more than they are ordinarily called to give to their neighbors.

But what is it that gets in our way of looking out for others in need?

In order to answer this I want to share with you a series of points that the great preacher Jonathan Edwards made on the topic of giving to the poor. Because I think wrapped up in this idea of giving to the poor it's also related to how we pursue justice. Because pursuing justice doesn't always look like a fight in a courtroom or a battle on a battlefield, often it is simply helping those in need.

Objection 1: if I give to the poor I won't have the right spirit and I won't get anything from it.

Honestly, you can say this about any duty of religion. We are called to obey and seek God's heart in whatever he has called us to do.

Objection 2 if I am liberal and give generously I will make it into a righteousness and it will in the end do more harm than good.

Can't you say this about any other moral duty. Have got us counseled you to do this doesn't God know what's best?

Objection 3 I've given to the poor in the past and I've never found myself better for it.

Perhaps you've taken too short of a view on the promises of God. Or perhaps you've been grudging or had a bad spirit in how you given. God promises to bless us. How do we know what we have averted in our life by being generous.?

Also, if we expect to avoid trouble in the world because we give to the poor then we've misunderstood what God's called us too.

We shouldn't say that we can't afford to give because if God calls us to give but she has he can provide.

And what about galatians 6:

Galatians 6:9 ESV

9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Objection #4. We may object to charity against particular persons, that we are not obliged to give them anything, for though they are needy, they are not yet in extreme need. They do meet with difficulty, but not so as they cannot live.

We are commanded to love one another as brothers and to show compassion for one another. They've got us called us to love our neighbor as ourselves does that fit with an attitude of saying let's wait until that person is in extreme need before we step in?

Romans 12:15 ESV

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Objection 5: We may object against charity to someone because he “deserves not that people should be kind to him.” He has a temper, an ungrateful spirit, and treated people poorly.

Christ teaches us to love even our enemies.

Christ loved us even though we were beneath him.

Christ loved us even though we couldn't repay him.

Christ loved us even though we were evil and hateful and we didn't deserve his love.

Christ loved us even though we were his enemies.

Objection 6. I have nothing to spare

a. Some are not obliged to give by reason of their own circumstances

b. There are scarcely any who may make this objection, as they interpret it

Giving “doth not tend to poverty, but the contrary; it is not the way to diminish our substance, but to increase it.”

“All the difficulty in this matter is in trusting God with what we give, in trusting his promises. If men could but trust the faithfulness of God to his own promises, they would give freely.”

7. We may object that we do not know whether a particular person is an object of charity or not. We do not fully know their circumstances or what sort of person they are.

Or how he came to be in want, and whether it was by his own idleness and wastefulness. Thus they argue that they cannot be obliged, until they know these things.

a. This was Nabal’s objection, for which he is condemned in Scripture: 1 Sam 25

b. We are commanded to be kind to strangers whom we know not, nor their circumstances.

We are not to neglect to entertain strangers, for by such some have entertained angels: Heb 13:2

8. But we are not obliged to give to the poor, till they ask. If any one has need, let him come and make it known to me.

a. “It is surely the most charitable, to relieve the needy in that way wherein we shall do them the greatest kindness. Now it is certain that we shall do them a greater kindness by inquiring into their circumstances, and relieving them, without pitting them upon begging.”

c. This is not how we would treat our own brother or sister. And Christians are commanded to love as brothers.

d. If we heard of a people where they took diligence to identify needs proactively and meet them, wouldn’t it appear well to us? Wouldn’t we all commend that?

9. “He has brought himself to this by his own fault.”

a. Do you mean lack of a natural faculty to manage affairs to his advantage?

If so, that is to be considered as his calamity. Such a faculty is a gift that God gives to some, and not others. It is not owing to themselves. And it will be a very suitable way for you to show your thankfulness, to help those to whom that gift is denied, and let them share the benefit of it with you.

b. Even if it is by some oversight on their part, this does not free us

If we should refuse to help them because of that, it would be for us to make their inconsiderateness an unpardonable crime, which is quite contrary to the rules of the gospel, which insist so much upon forgiveness.

And we would not resent such an oversight in any for whom we have a dear affection, such as our children. We would not refuse to help them.

c. If they came to want by a vicious idleness and prodigality, we still are not excused from all obligation to relieve them, unless they continue in those vices.

If they continue not, the gospel directs us to forgive them, and if their fault be forgiven, then it will not remain to be a bar in the way of our charitably relieving them.

If we do otherwise, we shall act in a manner very contrary to the rule of loving one another as Christ has loved us. Christ loved us by laying himself out to relieve us from the misery which we brought on ourselves by our own folly and wickedness.

d. If they continue in the same course still, that still does not excuse us from charity to their families that are innocent.

And if we cannot relieve those of their family without their having some of it, that not be a bar in the way of our charity.

10. “But others do not do their duty; if they did, the poor would be sufficiently supplied.”

But we are to relieve those who are in need even though it be another’s fault.

“If our neighbor be poor, though others be to blame that it is so, yet that excuses us not from helping him.”

And notice also the parable of the good Samaritan.

11. The law makes provision for the poor, and the government

This is built on two false suppositions.

a. It is a false assumption that the towns are obliged by law to relieve every one who otherwise would be an object of charity

It was never the design of the law to cut off all occasion for Christian charity.

It is fit that the law should make provision for those that have no estates of their own. “They are in extreme necessity of relief, and therefore it is fit that there should be something sure for them to depend on,” and by this he means the government and law. For “voluntary charity in this corrupt world is an uncertain thing.”

But it was not the design of the law to make such provision for all who are in need, as to leave no room for Christian charity.

b. The town does not always in fact do this.

What did Jesus do for us?

How can we carry this proactive abundant love to others?