Just means to make all things right or good.
We like being right and often assume we are right even when we are not. We like things to “be just right” - our relationships, our food, our commute, our jobs, and where we live. And when they are not right, we become unsettled and may even begin to see life as “unfair.”
I can become annoyed or angered when I perceive unfairness. My sense of what is right fuels this indignation, and my need to be right can direct this feeling in the wrong direction. It can drive me to blame others (i.e. traffic put me in a foul mood) or deny truth in order to protect myself from even the possibility of being wrong.
So what do I do when faced with unfairness?
Indignation can motivate me to try to immediately make things right - sometimes with poor timing, methods and motivation. David’s prayer in Psalm 17 outlines a few good things to consider when we are filled with indignation: 1) Appeal to God as the final arbiter and rest in His protection and justice, realizing that God can use evil for ultimately good purposes. 2) Thoroughly and honestly search my own actions and motives in light of God's Word. 3) Realize what is most important. While unbelievers’ goals are normally all tied to the good in this life, believers’ end game is to become more Christlike for God’s glory and rest in His presence for eternity.
Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit! From your presence let my vindication come! Let your eyes behold the right! You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress. With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent. My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped. I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words. Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand. Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings, from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me.
What if I can’t stand being wrong?
My thirst for being right is God-given. I seek justice because God is just and I am made in His image. My fear that I will be found wrong is also valid. Everyone has been wrong and will continue in a pattern of being wrong, in violation of God's standard of righteousness, and thus is also subject to His justice. I cannot fix what only God can - to make me fully acceptable in His eyes.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
“That’s not fair!”
It’s an expression most often heard from kids, but just as often thought by adults. God's justice is consistent and always true, but fairness, like beauty, is found in the eye of the beholder. While violations of God's justice always causes harm and demands remedy, any unfairness I perceive has already caused hurt and often creates a desire for remedy. Then what I need most is to know how to truly forgive others. Desmond Tutu said, "Forgiveness is not pretending that things are other than the way they are." Only when I realize and fully accept the real hurt caused by another can I then choose to be released from my desire to punish.
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
How important is it to seek justice in this obviously unjust world?
Injustice is never far from us now. We know perfect justice comes later when God consummates the age, but rather than rest on that knowledge and do nothing now, we should honor God’s image and work to actively seek justice wherever possible. This includes violations of both criminal and social justice - both rooted in the concept that all people were created, and should be treated, as equals in the sight of God.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Only God can make all things right.
I can have a part in making some things right, but I cannot make all things right about myself, let alone the world. I can easily try to slip into God's place when I decide on my own what is perfectly just in a certain situation.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Jesus provided a way for me to be made completely right with God.
By going to the cross in obedience to His Father, Jesus dealt justly with sin - through righteousness. “Righteousness is similar to goodness and holiness, but differs in that it requires works to establish it. Something can be holy, but not righteous if good works do not accompany it. God is good, but He refers to Himself as righteous because He works the good as well. Christians are called righteous, not because they have any ability to accomplish good works, but because they reside in the good works (or righteousness) of Christ. Christ's obedience is transferred to us and God grants us eternal life as a result!” - Blue Letter Bible
God has often forgiven sinners, but He never forgives sin; and the sinner is only forgiven on the ground of Another having born his punishment: for 'without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins'. (Hebrews 9:22).
So what do I do now?
Regularly remind myself that faith in Christ is the only thing that makes me right with God. Then rest in the certainty and goodness of God's judgment on any unfairness which is not within my given authority or control. And for those unfair things that are in my control, let God use me as His instrument for good through obedience to His word.
Ask: What unfair thing has happened in my life? And what is the righteous response to it?
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Prayer
You are fully just, God. Thank you for sending Jesus, the Justifier, and for the gift of His grace given even to me, a creator of injustice for others. Help me, when I see life as unfair or unjust, to simply obey your Word and rest in You.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Where do right and wrong come from - if not God?
Human morality certainly appears grounded in our very nature. Explanations of human morality apart from God normally rest on evolutionary theory. For example, "As a species of social primates, we have evolved a deep sense of right and wrong to accentuate and reward reciprocity and cooperation and to attenuate and punish excessive selfishness and free riding. On the constitution of human nature are built the constitutions of human societies." - Jan 2011 quote by Michael Shermer in Scientific American
So has it collectively evolved to this point or is it God's image coming through each of us? I choose to trust a tested, centuries-old document that reasonably explains why I and others (in widely different cultures) respond to life the way we do. These ideals just seem more an inspiration of God than simply being the result of rewards and punishments.
Is the #MeToo movement Biblical?
#MeToo is a contemporary movement to raise awareness of the evil of sexual abuse. And most thoughtful people should and do realize that sexual abuse is indeed both unjust and evil.
Jesus radically pushed against the culture of His time and toward the right perspective concerning proper treatment of women. He publicly spoke to women many times, he taught women (specifically contrary to Jewish law), he healed women (even touching an "unclean" woman in Luke 8:43-48). He revealed Himself to many women - as Messiah (to the Samaritan woman in John 4), as Resurrected Lord (to Mary at the tomb in John 20), and as Healer (to a woman who had been "bent over" for 18 years in Luke 13). If fact, He used the never-before-used term "Daughter of Abraham" in Luke 13:6 to recognize a woman benefitting from God's covenant (previously the only term used was "Son of Abraham").
The Christian church has not always acted in line with Jesus's revelatory message, and many may still be missing the mark today. However, over 2000 years ago Jesus clearly communicated the message of what is still right and true today!
Even Jewish law from 3500 years ago was revolutionary for the dignity of women: "But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor" - Deuteronomy 22:25-26
These verses recognize rape as a violent crime - on par with murder. Before the fall of Adam and Eve, their relationship with each other was synergistic and complementary, reflecting the ideal relationship within the Trinity and between Christ and His Church. The fall resulted in much distortion and combativeness between the genders - and today's reality of sexual abuse is a testimony of this truth.
"How Firm A Foundation" - Anonymous
"How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said—
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?" - First verse