Reading it all at once here (link).
"Social Justice" as a term ... what is it really? These passages push me to ask myself ... why do I not live with this perspective, or moreover, with this overt purpose in my everyday life? Why am I not the "Good Samaritan?" Why am I content to walk dismissively past the poor, the hungry, the downcast, with my own directed agenda so firmly in focus?This is a frustrating read, because I want to be that man, idealistically, but the practical part of me doesn’t really believe that I can be, primarily because I’m too lazy and indifferent. (?)
And then I see it … Isaiah 58. Is it talking about me? Yes. But is it saying something more? YES! The question becomes, “Where in history have I seen this social justice lived out?” And the answer is emphatically, “Jesus!” The passage foretells its messiah with beauty and depth; addresses eternal concerns and practical ones; answers Nehemiah’s call to rebuild the broken walls in the new temple of each day; invites me to die to self and live in the grace and power of my new life.
Only in this do I find social justice realized in my daily behaviors. Without Jesus my moralism is found wanting, my sacrificial-living is self-serving, my justice-doing is only just in my own eyes. With Jesus each breath has purpose and power, and the reward and praise belongs to the one who has purchased it by his own life, death, and resurrection.
Reading it day by day ...
6th – Leviticus 19:13-187th – Luke 18:1-8
8th – Luke 10:25-37
9th – Isaiah 58:3-10
10th – Matthew 25:31-46
11th – Leviticus 19:34, Jeremiah 22:13