“Justice is what love looks like in public.”
— Cornel West From Call and Response, a doc on global slavery.

Yesterday I received this quote from Tim & Karen Lann. Wow, it was powerful yesterday morning and still demands my attention.

Those words are easier to grasp perhaps for parents. But in any of our relationships there come moments when we are compelled to act because we are where we are—in public. “People are watching, I had better be fair.”

Don’t get me wrong, “the quality of being just, impartial, or fair” is a good thing. But being the deliverer of justice can be painful when it involves loved ones or ones we care about. So, the words from West were and are a powerful reminder that justice is a form of love and concern.

Out of curiosity, I’m going to look and see how many times JUSTICE appears in the NIV New Testament using www.biblegateway.com keyword search. Hmm, sixteen times. WOW! Here is a perfect illustration of what I am trying to say, right in Romans 3:25-26:

“God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

Talk about pain in order to deliver justice. And we are each called to be like Him each day in delivering justice. But we must pray daily, hourly for wisdom in the administration of justice, in the discerning of what is “just, impartial and fair”. I say that more because our understanding of “justice” must come from our relationship with God, not from our relationship with the world.

I leave you with these words from Colossians 4:1 –

“Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.”

If I am to be willing and able to deliver justice, I then must be willing and able to accept justice.