Teaching Justice

A Threefold Commandment

If the church is to grow in a healthy way, not only has she to attach importance to worship, sermon preaching, missions and pastoral care, she also needs to promote good education. Good education is an education of love.

The Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary has endeavored to pursue an education founded in love during these past eight years. Over the past several years, teachers and students have learned together about preaching, missions, and pastoral care very diligently. Last year, we particularly attached importance to Christian education by doing more in-depth thinking about this issue. I also believe that an education of love is an education of justice ― we need also to teach justice.

To understand the meaning of “teaching justice,” we need to ponder Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” (Revised Standard Version)

The background of Micah 6:8 involves an accusation long-held by Yahweh against the Israelites. Verses 1 and 2 opened the scene of a court complaint. Yahweh argued with the Israelites by accusing them of breaching the Sinai covenant.

Yet, before lodging the complaint, Yahweh asked the Israelites, “O my people, what have I done to you? and wherein have I wearied you? testify against me.” (American King James Version, v.3) Then, Yahweh narrated what He had done for the Israelites by pointing out that He had redeemed them as He brought them out of captivity in Egypt.

Verse 6 recorded the Israelites’ response as they asked Yahweh, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?” (NIV) Then they escalated the question by further asking Yahweh: Do they have to offer thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil, or even the firstborns as burnt offerings so that their sin could be forgiven?

The Israelites’ concept of atonement is wrong. They should know: Atonement is not a transaction; it is not given in exchange for offering a sacrifice. They ought to know: What Yahweh demands the Israelites is their compliance with the Sinai covenant, to be His people.

Therefore, verse 8 described a question that the Creator asked the Israelites and all of us humans: “He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?” The answer is: “To do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.”

The covenant that God asks us to comply with is a threefold commandment. To all Israelites, the first two parts of the commandment are widely known responsibilities of the covenant: “to do justice” and “to love kindness.” “To do justice” (mispat) is to take care of neighbors; “to love kindness” (hesed) is to put into practice a life of solidarity. The third part of this threefold commandment is “to walk humbly with your God.” The prophet reminds man “to do justice,” and to walk onto the path of “justice” and “kindness,” “to walk humbly with your God.” Here, what does it mean “to do justice” and how can it combine with “to love kindness” and “to walk humbly with your God” ?

To Do Justice

To do justice is often understood as an action of peace, a court decision and a group mediation.

Generally speaking, justice means to give others what they deserve and to make a fair decision. This view of justice that we take for granted originated from Greek philosophy. It is a decision worked out through a calculation process. The reality we see today is: Contemporary western countries are influenced by a Greek view of justice. In the western world, to judge whether a society is just, one always first turns to see whether people abide by the contract or the regulations and whether people can get what is laid out in the regulations. There is no emphasis on “human needs.” Our society is no exception as we adopt the same view of justice.

However, “to do justice” biblically is not just to give others what they deserve. “Justice” is not a cold, calculative decision. In the Old Testament, when justice is discussed, the needs of orphans, widows, sojourners, and the poor are also mentioned. The main meaning is this: Whether a society has justice can be seen from whether assistance is given to orphans, widows, sojourners, and the poor and whether the grace and blessings of life are shared with these marginalized people. Moreover, in Jesus’ words and deeds as well as his redeeming actions, we see that justice includes generosity, geniality, forgiveness, and mercy.

In that way, to do justice is not to make oneself happy nor for one’s own purposes but to respect others and to consider them as important as oneself because they deserve to be loved and taken care of. Justice requires a fair relationship between a person and his employer, a fair relationship between the employer and the employees, and a fair relationship between one employee and another employee. For example, in academic studies, to do justice includes treating others’ viewpoints fairly in lieu of the common goal of discovering and safeguarding the truth. Academics do not argue to achieve personal victories. To do justice also includes putting civil responsibility into practice and so one votes for the benefit of the community, votes for the benefit of other citizens, and votes for the rights of people from other nations.

To Love Kindness

To love kindness is to have a heart of merciful love (hesed), and it is connected to an action of justice. There is a lot of overlap between doing justice and loving kindness. We may say this: “If putting justice into practice does not end up with a heart of merciful love, then such a practice has not achieved its goal.”

Kindness (hesed) is Yahweh’s love and loyalty towards the Israelites. To love kindness has the implied meaning of loyalty. Although the Israelites stayed away from God and were disloyal to Yahweh, Yahweh is unfailingly faithful to the covenant with the Israelites.

Kindness also means the faithful, human love towards one another, as we stand by one another in solidarity to face rough times together. For example, on the seminary faculty team, everyone is willing to understand justice and do justice. We can see that there is faithful love and gentle kindness among us. This has been shown from our faculty meetings over the past months and years, from teachers who promote and engage in writing for the seminary’s academic journal and from teachers who tirelessly teaching and ministering to students. Throughout all these months and years, I have witnessed all the seminary teachers serving and growing together in teaching, going through trials and tribulations and gradually becoming faithful friends. This is the kind of kindness described by Micah: A kind of faithful affection which is gentle and tough that enables us to rise to challenges and face the rough patches together.

Similarly, in our churches, we teach brothers and sisters both to know and do justice and to be merciful and have loyalty. Let us exhort one another: Call a meeting for an open, just discussion, to do church ministry justly, to teach and exhort brothers and sisters justly. On the other hand, we have to sustain solidarity, to build an unfailing loyalty as we treat one another with love and kindness. In society, we have to treat others with mercy and loyalty, and we cannot leave someone behind when they are in need, nor can we turn a blind eye to someone in trouble while indulging ourselves in eating, drinking and merry-making. We have to love with loyalty, help those who have nowhere to stay, who have no job and who are experiencing depression. Otherwise, perhaps inadvertently we may support oppression and as a result more and more people will be drawn into the cycle of despair, hunger, poverty, and war.

To Walk Humbly with God

Besides justice and loving kindness, God’s third requirement is to walk humbly with God. This is the uppermost sacred requirement.

As the words suggest, to walk humbly is not to walk arrogantly. To walk arrogantly is to walk chivalrously, being conceited and self-righteous. The self-righteous only seek to subdue the other to an extent that they are unable to lift their heads. Rather, the humble are concerned about the other in every way and walk shoulder to shoulder with them. According to Micah 6:8, the other is God. God is the God of justice and kindness who is mighty, reconciling man to man and man to Himself. He also heals, forgives, feeds, and transforms those who walk hand in hand with Him.

In this way, to be humble is to be humble to God. On the one hand, we have to keep in mind that the God who walks hand in hand with us is definitely different from us. He is the Creator, Savior, and Transformer. On the other hand, God is also co-walking with us in the dark. God can appear as widows and orphans, tax-collectors and sinners, and also as the disabled, the poor, and the sick. Do we often think of those seemingly insignificant people? Jesus Christ says, “. . . whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matt 25:40) Actually, as we walk through life, many co-walkers are the insignificant others at times. When we do justice to them with a heart of mercy, we can then walk hand in hand with God.

True humility allows God’s justice to enter into the depth of our hearts so that our justice lies underneath God’s justice as God’s grace helps us to extend beyond our own limits. We then confess that we have not done justice, have ignored the needs of the people around us; we then confess that we need God’s salvation because we live in this broken world. That is why we will experience God’s forgiveness together and be released from the bondage of guilt.

Cultivating a Faith Community That Practices Love and Justice

Because of this, we must resolve to do justice and fear justice no more. We need to study questions about justice, the strategy and structure of justice, and pay attention to social strategy and structure. We need to know what justice is before we do justice. Together we exchange ideas, together we face our weaknesses and prejudices, and together we deal with and overcome our fear. On the other hand, we must know this: We can do justice only because of God’s grace and not because of our own wisdom and strength. Many people have the misconception that to love kindness and to pursue justice are opposites that cannot be reconciled. But when we count on God’s grace to do justice, we will come to realize that the two complement each other and we can walk forward shoulder to shoulder.

Then, we must nurture a faith community which practices doing justice and loving kindness. This community differs from those organizations and professions which are imbued with jealousy and emphasize competition. In the seminary, we hope that faithful friendship is an important part of our mutual relationship and the spirit of Christ can be seen as we get along with one another faithfully. I pray that the Lord continues to guide us so that the loyalty of “loving kindness” is displayed in the midst of the whole seminary community as we live and act in solidarity.

It is our hope that HKBTS provides excellent theological education to equip excellent pastors who are useful to the family of God. However, behind the seminary’s excellence is a heart of humility. Owing humility to God and to man, the seminary is a safe haven for opening our minds in the world of ideas, stretching our imagination to tackle thorny problems and growing together in our intellect, emotion, and spirituality. We also aspire to promote the Christian spirituality of humility, to live lives of prayer and worship, and to reflect the diversity of the Christian life.

Dear brothers and sisters, Yahweh has already told us what is good. He also put forth a request. Jesus Christ is the Lord who does justice and loves kindness. He humbly walked with God and now walks with us. We have to follow such a master and follow his role model and we ourselves have to be a good example for the next generation. My prayer is this: May the Lord help us realize that “to do justice” actually combines with “to love kindness” and “to walk humbly with your God.” May the Lord help us put this into practice and teach justice in this way.

Nov 2016