DIGNITY & JUSTICE

Key Takeaways

• The two dimensions of justice: The word for “justice” in the Old Testament comes from the same root Hebrew word as “righteous.” Justice is the righteous, or right, ordering of the world – both our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationship with one another. To love people rightly flows from a right relationship with God.
• Responding to the root causes of injustice: At its root in Genesis, injustice is the abuse of God-given power and authority that is not linked to the character of God that we were supposed to possess. With injustice, we become broken images and abusive rather than life-giving. Two vehicles given to us by God to restore what has been broken are human government with its rules and laws, and confession of our sins to find restoration and repentance. People are a healed, restored image of God.
• Working for justice collaboratively: Every culture, whether Christian or non-Christian, has that sense of right and wrong, of just and unjust, and that little bit of common ground is the place to build a foundation of trust and collaboration. Despite different belief systems, a partnership can still be formed around a shared goal. In some cultures, it is understood that people who are older or impoverished deserve a degree of dignity and respect, and that's a place to build a connection from
• Learning the undercurrents of culture: When entering into a different culture, we must take our time to genuinely study, learn about, listen to, and engage the nuances of that setting. Using Jesus as an example, His public ministry was about three years of his earthly nature, but there were about 30 years of earthly life leading up to that public ministry. In those 30 years, Jesus was studying the human condition, learning about the dynamics of it, and forming the message He wanted to share.
• Advancing justice cross-culturally: A lot of cross-cultural challenges would be mitigated if more of us were just genuinely curious about ourselves and the biases and assumptions that we carry from our own cultural contexts. Also, we need a genuine curiosity about the communities we engage with; we need to listen and ask questions more than we dictate