I Was Wrong About Social Justice

The W Word and the Bible

The Lutheranism I was raised in had a strong Evangelical slant to it—as in, it was shaped by what we now understand as the Evangelical Movement.

As is true for the Evangelical movement today, there was a strong emphasis on a “personal relationship with Jesus,” and “receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior.” If the world was going to change, it was going to do so through the saving of souls—through people becoming Christians. Social issues, if they were dealt with at all, would be remedied not by social action, but through conversion. And ultimately, would never fully be remedied until Jesus comes back (so why even try!)

In fact, social aspects of the Gospel were met with deep suspicion as I grew up.

Today, of course, mention Social Justice or Social Gospel and many cover their ears and yell, Danger Will Robinson! Danger Will Robinson! It’s been demonized as left-wing socialism and dangerous WOKEISM.

Because I had been so conditioned to read Scripture through the narrow lens of sin (see last week’s post) and personal salvation, I not only missed God’s clear passion for social justice, I often “spiritualized” it, making it an inner spiritual issue rather than an outer human justice issue.

A 4-5 minute read can’t possibly untangle the tangle I’ve been untangling for years, but here are some areas where I was wrong about the social aspect of God’s love.

First—no one can possibly read the Bible and not walk away with the clear understanding that God’s heart is for social justice right here and right now, on earth as it is in heaven.

Over and over again, when God talked about the kind of offering God wanted, justice, mercy, and caring for the poor topped the list:

“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 ten 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? (Micah 6:6-8)

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I hate, I despise your festivals,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
²² Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
I will not look upon.
²³ Take away from me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
²⁴ But let justice roll down like water
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:21-24)

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When you come to appear before me
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more!
¹³ Bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation—
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵ When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
¹⁶ Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove your evil deeds
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil;
¹⁷ learn to do good;
seek justice;
rescue the oppressed;
defend the orphan;
plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:12-17)

*

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them
and not to hide yourself from your own kin? (Isaiah 58:6-7)

*

The Old Testament is filled with verses about welcoming the stranger, caring for the alien (refugee), and feeding the hungry.

It’s also filled with warnings aimed at the rich and the oppressor.

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Jesus, as a Jew, built his ministry on that social foundation. He understood that God’s love shows itself practically in siding with the least of these.

His very mission statement drips with the call to social action:

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:18-21)

*

When the masses were hungry after a long day of Jesus’ teaching, Jesus didn’t tell the disciples to save their souls. He told them to feed the people.

*

That theme is picked up again and again by the New Testament writers:

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:27)

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What God is saying to us, and this is my second point, is that God’s love is personal and communal. Yes, God loves each of us. But God loves humanity. Jesus didn’t come just to save souls. He came to put God’s love into action through caring for the least of these.

The poor are not fed when someone becomes a Christian. They are fed when someone gives them food. Racial injustice isn’t solved by people becoming Christians, it’s solved when people put God’s reconciling grace into action and stand against systems, people, and powers that seek to dehumanize others.

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God so loved… and so loves the world. That love not only runs to us with grace and forgiveness, it runs to the the hungry, the vulnerable, the oppressed, and the forgotten with practical help.

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Grace=social justice.

It’s not WOKE.

It’s the heart of God.