Opus 2012-128, Discernment Watch: Vengeance and Justice, Part 2 of 4

Justice is also a Biblical concept.  Before you can understand the Biblical concept you need to flush your mind of artificial substitutes for Biblical justice.  What are those substitutes?  I am talking about terms like “social justice.”  Social justice is a man-made idea that is really the opposite of justice.  It is demanding special treatment for groups that have been judged as deserving more than others because they are a part of a group.  The judgement is usually made for political reasons to buy support and votes.

Biblical justice has the idea of equal treatment.  It is rooted in ideas such as honesty and truth.  It means that people are to be judged according to a standard that is the same for all.  Biblical justice is individual, not group.  It involves a judge looking at one situation and coming to a decision based on the facts of the case.  It is not a blanket indictment of a vague group designed to fit the next election and win votes.

We are used to hearing people talking about the sins of the rich and powerful.  It is true they are often called to account in the Bible.  The reason that the powerful need to be warned is not that they are any more evil than the poor, just that they have the means to ignore the controls that are normally in place to keep the poor and weak in line.  People who don’t have any money do not need to be warned about loaning money at interest.  They need to be warned against borrowing money, and they are.

(Proverbs 22:7 KJV)  The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

“Servant” isn’t strong enough.  In modern terms you need to think of the position as being slavery.  It means that you take orders and have few choices.  It means you jump through hoops and toe lines.

To be continued...

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