What Is Justice?

I read this line, in a prayer written by Ted Loder:  

“Give me the courage to …act justly with those close to me, 

 advocate justice for those at some remove,.."

                                                  (Wrestling The Light page 12)  

And I began to reflect on that statement.  What does it mean to “act justly?”

When you give this question its due; the answer become very convoluted — tangled up with all kinds of defining lines of opinion and cultural interference.

To do justice — act justly — is often a matter of opinion; depending on who you talk to.  

So I went to the Greek and Hebrew.  The consensus is that to act justly , according to the Old Testament view of God, is to conform to God’s will.

“God’s law is an order of life that cannot be changed or challenged.” (p. 168) 

So then, God’s way is the right and just way!?!?!?  

In my personal assessment it is to live together in harmony, compassion and civil cooperation for the good of all.

That is still ambiguous isn’t it?

                                               My point exactly.

So I began to do my favorite thing — besides playing  tennis — and I wondered some more.  

I wondered:  Does that mean that we should use God’s model, of Old Testament behavior, to precede through life?

I entertain the question because the stories we read,  throughout the Old Testament, would cause me to wonder about how justice was done.

Say, between Pharaoh and Moses — The Exodus.  An event that the Hebrew people still celebrate, as their sign in history, when God chose them at be his people.  His “Chosen people.”

Which I suppose is lovely.

However I would imagine that the Egyptians would argue that they were treated unjustly. Or possibly that God plays favorites.

Then there was the “Great Flood” story.  Where is the justice in that?

Or what about how the Old Testament says it is okay to abuse — stone — children?  Or ban people for ugly sores on their skin?

The list is not short.

These days, in the nightly news, we often hear the phrase:  “We want justice to be done.”

The line between just and unjust, right and wrong, good and evil is tissue-paper-thin sometimes. So thin that it is almost impossible to ever determine where it is.

And yet, there is definitely a need to find a level balance.  As the famous scales of justice symbolizes.

When we look closely at the evidence, in the Exodus event, we will see clearly a need for some adjustments to be made.  At least when it come to the habits of Egyptian behavior that is.  There was adequate information to call for a major change.  Because there was clearly abusive, oppressive activity going on that devalued the human soul.  

The need for the hand of God was fairly clear in that case.

In the “Great Flood” event we are told, according to God,  that the people had turn to “evil.”  

So it would seem that the common denominator in many of God’s disciplines was, it seems, prompted by the presence of evil.  

I could simply say then that evil is opposite of God’s ways. 

And the tissue-paper-thin line of justice has much to do with behavior that is against God’s will.

We read this clearly in Jesus’ teaching.  But it was heard also before Jesus. 

⁶ ‘With what shall I come before the Lord,

   and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,

   with calves a year old? 

⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

   with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

   the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’ 

⁸ He has told you, O mortal, 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?(Mic.6)

However, as clear as that is to me, it seems that even that simple definition of proper behavior can — and is — disputed.

So, again, what does it actually mean to “act justly.”

And, who is to say?