Justice is one of the great themes of the Bible.  God’s concern for justice is especially clear in the Old Testament where the prophets railed against the shallow religious environment of the Divided Kingdom.  We should ask ourselves today: Is God glorified by how we take care of the downtrodden, or should we be disturbed by the words of Isaiah?

Isaiah 1:15-17 When you spread 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. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

Isaiah 58 is one of my favorite sections of Isaiah, probably because I remember reading it when I was 19.  The chapter contains some of the best writing of the ancient world.  In this chapter Isaiah defines “true fasting” as a time to “let the oppressed go free…share your bread with the hungry.”

Isaiah’s logic is a little confusing.  Fasting is a formal religious practice of giving up food or other earthly appetites for a time of prayer.  In Isaiah 58, God redefines fasting as kindness, mercy and justice to others.  Zechariah adopts the same logic in Zechariah 7.

So by God’s definition, there is a link between formal religious behavior (like fasting) and mercy.  Here’s how I think they’re related.

Fasting is an expression of dependence on God.  It’s a focused way to worship God and confess our total reliance on Him.  In fasting we’re basically saying I don’t need anything more than God. Now, if a person is fasting, but this person isn’t loving or merciful to other people, then this person doesn’t actually love God.

Someone who loves God doesn’t allow homeless people to go without care.  Someone who loves God doesn’t hold a grudge.  The absence of love and mercy betray a spiritual bankruptcy, a deep disconnect with God and His ways.  When these kinds of people fast, it’s a “vain offering” (Is. 1:15), a “trampling of [God's] courts” (1:14).

Loving God and loving other people go together.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength…and love your neighbor as yourself.

Why do the love-of-God and love-of-others go together?

1. God’s grace is worthy of imitation.  The beauty of what God has done in the world, particularly in the lives of sinners, is worthy of imitation.  When I face the reality of God redeeming me from the pit and setting me on a high rock, then I will want to do that for other people.  Not just poor strangers, but also those who sin against me.

2. God is worthy of obedience, and He commands us to love even our enemies.

3. God’s grace is worthy of gratitude.  Remember the parable of The Ungrateful Servant.  The magnitude of what God has forgiven cannot be compared to other people’s sin against us.

All these things combine to form an inescapable truth.  If we understand God’s grace, we will give grace to others.  If we’re not gracious to people, even to people who sin against us, then we betray our unacquaintedness (I love that word – that’s a John Owen word) with the cross-work of Jesus.

1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Proverbs 14:31 Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.

The Gospel Coalition’s foundation documents express this truth wonderfully, “Secularism tends to make people selfish and individualistic. Religion and morality in general tend to make people tribal and self-righteous toward other groups….But the gospel of grace, centered on a man dying for us while we were his enemies, removes self-righteousness and selfishness and turns its members to serve others both for the temporal flourishing of all people, especially the poor, and for their salvation. It moves us to serve others irrespective of their merits, just as Christ served us….”

This should makes us reflect carefully on our approach to justice, mercy and other ministry to marginalized people.  We should be mindful of our tendency to love God in ritual only.  Here are just a few of the injustices in our country that require more Christian attention:

• Abortion.  It’s difficult to imagine anyone more vulnerable than a baby in the womb.
• Mentally ill homeless people.  They fill our cities, and they have few places to turn for serious shelter, safety or care.  It’s true that alcoholism is rampant among our homeless population, but this is no excuse for ignoring them.  Christians have an obligation to help people achieve freedom and health from every form of slavery, including addiction.
• Inner-city children.  These kids are abandoned to poor education and broken families.
• Anytime our legal system gives an advantage to the rich and famous.
• Racial and gender inequalities.
• Interrogation techniques that violate the dignity of human beings, all of whom are made in God’s image.
• Retirement homes are stuffed with lonely widows and widowers who are unwelcome in the daily life of their over-busy and selfish children.
• Wealthy, white churches spend obscene amounts of money to roll out the red carpet to guests while minority pastors and missionaries work bi-vocationally and still can’t afford to own a home.
• Global poverty, tyranny, slavery and ethnic hatred.
• Missions:  “But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” Romans 10:14-15

We need to think clearly and carefully about our impact in this world.  We need to think less about protecting ourselves from loss.  It is not enough to pat ourselves on the back because our church has this or that ministry.  The real questions are these: Are we personally committed to confronting the evil in our hearts and in our world?  Is my family bleeding, sweating, crying for hidden/hurting/lost people?  Am I receptive to God’s Word and His clear concern for marginalized people?  What can I do to bring the mercy of Jesus into the awful realities of modern pain?  Where might God send me to proclaim the Gospel?

Amos 5:23-24 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.  But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.