More About Love And Justice

Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the LORD. [Psalm 107.43]

What the Psalmist did not say in Psalm 107.43 but that is implied, is that God is just too.  Verses 33-38 shed light on verse 43:

He changes rivers into deserts, and springs of water into dry, thirsty land. He turns the fruitful land into salty wastelands, because of the wickedness of those who live there. But he also turns deserts into pools of water, the dry land into springs of water. He brings the hungry to settle there and to build their cities. They sow their fields, plant their vineyards, and harvest their bumper crops. How he blesses them! They raise large families there, and their herds of livestock increase. [Psalm 107.33-38]

What we see then in Psalm 107 is that God is both loving and just. The entire chapter rehearses instances where man's wickedness led to difficult situations and where God's love rescued them. 

It seems that Psalm 107 accurately describes life as we know it with its up's and down's. But what the Psalmist indicates that modern society does not, is that these conditions of life are the products of God's justice and love. Trials and difficulties are resultant to disobedience and sin, and blessings are resultant to humility and repentance. God's justice addresses sin and God's love addresses repentance. In a world that has forgotten God (ignored Him, really) we should remember that curses and blessings have everything to do with God and how we respond to Him!

It is important here to address the fact that Jesus did not come on the scene as a "surprise." Everything Jesus taught and did was in absolute accordance with the character of God (loving and just), was foretold in Scripture (and anticipated), and still people missed it. The reason for this should not surprise us as the religious leaders of Jesus' day had largely become focused on God's justice at the expense of seeing God's love. Therefore they misunderstood, contradicted, and killed Jesus.

Today, we have the antithetical problem that our focus on God's love has led to our misunderstanding of His justice. Unlike the Psalmist indicated in Psalm 107, we largely do not view difficulties and trials as "judgment" requiring humility and repentance, but instead religion today lumps everything under God's love sending the very unwise, confusing and contradictory message that "bad things happen to good people." Consequently, just as the religious leaders failed to see the fullness of God's justice and love in Jesus, we today fail to see the fullness of God's justice and love in Jesus. How the pendulum has swung!

Today's fucus on the love of God without proper understanding of the justice Jesus suffered on the Cross, is no less a failure than the religious leaders' focus on justice with no understanding of God's love condemning Jesus to die on that Cross. Justice and love necessarily work together because they, together, are Who God Is - and God never changes. 

Man's pride in justice with no regard for love ignorantly led to Jesus' crucifixion. Man's pride in love with no regard for justice ignorantly resulted from Jesus' crucifixion. Imbalance of justice and love is all man's pride is capable of. Only humility and repentance can rightly process the love and justice of God in Jesus Christ.

We certainly need the message of God's love that put Jesus on earth, but not at the expense of the message of justice that put Him on the Cross! We need to be better students of our history. 

Father, help us to understand our history. But first, we must know our history - help us to know Your Word! And then, help us to rightly divide love and justice. Help us to have proper focus as we see through both eyes of love and justice!