The God of Social Justice

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,  is God in his holy dwelling. (​Psalm 68:5)

When we meet someone for the first time, our knowledge of them often falls into one of two categories: either we have heard about this person from others and feel we know a bit / a lot about them, or they are a complete stranger who we have never heard of, and we know nothing about them. Whatever we know about them, some people have something attractive about them that makes us want to know more.
 
This is certainly the case with Christ. When we accept Him as our Saviour, whether we knew a little, lots or nothing about Him previously, we find a deep desire to get to know Him more. One way we can do this is by reading the Bible and finding out what moved His heart with love?  We discover many issues that were dear to His heart. At the beginning of His earthly ministry, we find Jesus standing up to preach in the synagogue in Nazareth. He identifies Himself as the one mentioned in Isaiah 61:1-2:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, 
because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
 to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour
    and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.

​His heart yearned to help the poor, the broken-hearted, captives, prisoners, mourners in a way that was quite different from other rabbis and religious leaders of His time. In our title verse we see that being a father to the fatherless and defending widows is what God longs to be and Tim Keller tells us “This is one of the main things he does in the world. He identifies with the powerless, he takes up their cause.”
 
But perhaps one of the places where Jesus most eloquently puts his priorities on show is in his discourse in Matthew 25:32-46, shortly before his death. Here we read of the final judgement when, “All the nations will be gathered before Him” (v 32)
 
We read the criteria for inheriting the kingdom.

•  I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat
• I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink
• I was a stranger, and you invited Me in
• Naked, and you clothed Me
•  I was sick, and you visited Me
•  I was in prison, and you came to Me

 
No, this isn’t a ‘salvation by works’ gospel, it’s the ‘fruits of salvation’. Love is not just a warm feeling, a romantic emotion, it’s the practical outworking of the beating of the heart of the Saviour as you become His hands, His feet, His body, and His heart to the downtrodden of humanity.
Can you feel it?  Can you sense the loving and longing in God’s heart for ‘social justice’?  We don’t have to look far to find those who need the love of God demonstrated to them in practical ways. 

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.
(Micah 6:8)

​God grant that many today will hear the call of God to rise up from a life of ease, pleasure and indulgence and join God in His work of service to those in need. 

Pauline Anderson