Social Justice: Justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.1
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CURRENT HOT TOPICS WHEN IT COMES TO SOCIAL JUSTICE?
TWO MAJOR CHALLENGES WITH SOCIAL JUSTICE TODAY:
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SOCIAL JUSTICE? We should care about what’s going on around us.
James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Isaiah 1:17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow ’s cause.
THE QUESTION WE SHOULD BE ASKING: “What is the Church’s role in social justice?”
1. WE, AS THE CURCH, HAVE TO LOOK INWARD BEFORE WE LOOK OUTWARD.
Matthew 7:3-5 3Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
2. HOW WE ENGAGE SOCIAL ISSUES IS AS IMPORTANT AS HOW AIR-TIGHT OUR ARGUMENT IS.
WOMAN AT THE WELL
John 4:1-6 1Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4And he had to pass through Samaria. 5So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
John 4:13-19 13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.”
DON’T MISS THIS: JESUS’ PRIMARY FOCUS WAS NOT ON THE WOMAN’S BEHAVIOR-IT WAS ON HER HEART.
John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
3. WHAT IS MY ENDGAME?
Mark 9:41 For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
QUESTIONS TO DISCUSS IN LIFE GROUP OR WITH YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Passages to consider: Micah 6:8; Luke 5:17-25 or John 4:1-6 &13-19; James 1:26, 27, 2:14-19