Justice, Part Two
T he word “justice” was searched on the internet in 2018 so many times that Merriam- Webster online dictionary named it the word of the year.
Justice is an ideal in the mind and soul of humanity.
Justice is so valuable and coveted ideal that it was enshrined in our U.S. Constitution, The Preamble to the Constitution, The Bill of Rights and in the Pledge of Allegiance.
America is the most prosperous nation in all human history. We have freed millions of people from the grip of death from Nazism, Communism, Socialism, Totalitarian regimes and third-world despots the world over.
America feeds, clothes, and provides humanitarian relief to hundreds of millions of people.
We distribute medicine to ease human suffering. The good from America is impossible to list.
However, the one issue that continually holds America back, haunts us, stirs discontent is the injustice of our justice system.
The chant “No justice! No peace!” often heard in demonstrations large and small is a biblical principle found throughout the Holy Bible. Jesus said, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). This explains much of the social unrest, riots, and demonstrations. When justice is unavailable or delayed, law breakers gain strength, unfettered by the fear of punishment, society breaks down. Fear rises and love falters.
The unfortunate and preventable death of George Floyd was, I believe, the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back and loosed the rage of 400 years of injustice.
Historically many of our laws in the United States were enacted for the express purpose of controlling, limiting, and minimizing the freedoms and lives of those targeted. Consider the slave laws, forced Indian resettlements (the Trail of Tears that runs through Arkansas), not to mention what we did to the those of Japanese heritage with American citizenship during World War II. We were more just in our treatment of German prisoners of war held in Crittenden, Cross and other counties in Arkansas than we were to our own American citizens!
Christians are to follow the example, teachings and commands of Jesus Christ. Jesus summarized His teachings with this, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. This I command you, that you love one another.”
(John 15:12 and 17).
“Love one another …” is, to say the least, difficult. It is near impossible to be just to someone you do not know, love, respect or see as an equal. Laws are enacted to compel us to act, or not to act, but laws cannot change the human heart. Changing the human heart is God’s work.
When I hear chants of “No justice, no peace” I understand the message, but when I see rioting, destruction of property, complete disregard for the rights and lives of others, looting of stores, and other crimes being committed during demonstrations, it is revenge, not justice. Through their actions of destruction, marchers and rioters belittle and sell-out the very cause they protest.
There is a thin line between justice and vengeance. Judges make decisions with the goal of implementing equal justice (if that is even possible in humans).
To have just laws, we need just lawmakers, attorneys, judges, police, prosecutors, but unfortunately, our justice system is corrupt.
What is required of us as individuals? “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:17).
“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?” (Micah 6:8).
“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:55). Jesus warns us to be cautious in how we judge someone, because with the same measure of grace, mercy, and judgment we judge others, that same measurement will be used to judge us (Matthew 7:2). “Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
America has largely departed from the pursuit of justice and we are closer to anarchy because justice has been corrupted. We can blame criminals and others, but, as it has been said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Clayton P. Adams, West Memphis, AR email: claytonpadamslll@gmail.com.
Clayton Adams
Time in the Word
