Justice and love are two sides of the same coin. We can seek justice through love.
- Love means wanting the best for a person or group of people and acting accordingly.
- Justice means wanting to eliminate those things which do harm to the person or group of people who we love.
In seeking justice I am not taking about legal punishment of those who steal from, act violently or oppress their fellow human beings but about seeking to change the system where injustice is encouraged or tolerated. [Read more…]
If you have read any of my blog posts then you will know that I care deeply about justice for the powerless and for the voiceless of this world. The principal of justice is very important, but we need to be very careful about how we apply justice. How often have we heard people effected by crime cry out, “We want justice” when they really mean that they want revenge and to see perpetrators suffer. This may be a natural response but as followers of Jesus we should not seek revenge and retaliation. 
Compassion and Justice
The other day we watched a film about a Jew, living in America, who had escaped Austria when the Nazis took over. Before she left Austria, the Nazis stole all the family possessions, including a famous work of art worth millions of dollars. Sixty years later the painting was displayed in an art gallery in Vienna and the film describes her, eventually successful, efforts to restore the painting to its rightful owner.
Apparently, George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith have decided to cut benefits to people of working age. This will include tax credits payable to people in work and which support families on a very low income. They claim this is a part of, “making work pay“! Many of those affected will be on the minimum wage. It seems crazy to me that the government (or the taxpayer, you and me) should subsidise companies which do not pay enough to their staff to enable them to look after their families. The answer must be to increase the minimum wage sufficiently to make work really pay.
