“Social justice” is a term that few of us had heard until recently. Now it’s mainstream in our culture, and even in many churches. But what does it mean?
If we look up a dictionary, the words simply mean “justice in society”, which all Christians support. We all surely want a fair society that treats everyone the same before the law regardless of color, age, gender, etc. And we don’t just want equal treatment before the law; we also seek fair treatment for all in all walks of life and oppose all bigotry and prejudice.
However, if ask our culture what “social justice” means, we get a much more political definition. It has more to do with environmentalism, punitive redistribution of wealth, reparations, anti-capitalism, positive discrimination, the redefinition of marriage and gender, and transgender rights.
I could provide a biblical analysis of this social justice movement. I could offer a constructive critique that highlights its pros (e.g. it’s desire for a better society) and cons (e.g. it’s definition of a just society and the methods used in getting there). However, this is such a political hot potato that I fear it could inflame passions and be spiritually unprofitable. I’ve linked to some articles at the end if you want to follow up on that.
In this sermon, though, I’d like to simply provide an exposition of a key passage in Proverbs that highlights the advantages of pursuing the Bible’s view of social justice. I hope to show that if we followed the Bible’s teaching on this, it would transform our society in a wonderful way. Indeed, such a just society would be a powerful argument for Christianity.
For more, see my sermon notes.