Biblical justice is the state of wholeness and flourishing due all of God’s creation.*
It is everything we see God describe to the prophets in visions of restoration and renewal. Biblical justice means:
healing and wholeness everywhere.
seeking the peace and prosperity of the places we live
feeding the hungry
delivering the oppressed
healing the sick
defending the orphan and widow
Biblical justice is looking at the Kingdom of God as our model, and bringing that vision here to earth as it is in Heaven.
This whole, complete Kingdom of God is a bold goal. And we may not reach the full perfection of that Kingdom in our time on earth. We may not see true shalom until we get to Heaven. However this doesn’t mean we sit around in this fallen state and wait. Rather, we have a critical role to play. Our clear, urgent, and pressing task is to be the vessels through which God advances this Kingdom vision, bringing about biblical justice.
All over the Bible, we see examples of God working through humans to bring about justice: Joseph, Moses, Esther, Nehemiah, many prophets, and of course Jesus and his disciples. Each allowed God to work through them to bring about his vision of justice.
When Jesus sends his disciples out to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” he was sending his followers out to carry his message to the world: a message much bigger than just the gospel of salvation. If the disciples were to be Jesus’s witnesses, they had to act like Jesus, not just talk about him. They had to demonstrate, not just proclaim. This meant healing, dining with outcasts, and inviting strangers into the community. For us in the 21st century that still means healing, dining with outcasts, and inviting strangers into our community.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus was talking about more than just evangelism. He was talking about doing the work of justice: bringing about healing and wholeness everywhere.
The church in DC has a big job ahead of us, because the brokenness of the world is glaringly evident in the District: broken systems trapping 1 in 4 kids in poverty, the sin of racism still prevalent in the structures of society (including large segments of the church), and the crisis-level lack of affordable housing, to name a few. We, the church, must be a part of healing these injustices, beginning with an assessment of the roles we may play in perpetuating them.
God is the great Healer, Creator, and Provider, but He chooses to work through us broken, sinful humans to heal, create, and provide. He requires us to carry out his redemptive work of justice, using the vision of the Kingdom as a starting point.
What does this have to do with housing?
*Biblical justice definition from Jason Fileta, found in the chapter “The Circle of Justice” in Live Just.ly, ed. Jason Fileta (Portland: Micah Challenge USA, 2014), 35
