‘How kind the Lord is! How good he is! So merciful, this God of ours!’ Psalms 116:5 (NLT)
‘And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.’ Philippians 4:8-9 (NLT)
The mindset of justice is included in God’s top eight list of how to think. It’s at the core of a right perspective in life. Philippians 4:8 uses the common Greek word dikaios (pronounced dih-KAI-ahs) to refer to justice. The word dikaios refers to what is morally right, correct, and good. In Greek culture, the idea was that a right and just way of thinking would lead to a right and proper way of behaving. Mind over body.
What the biblical writers did with this word, however, was revolutionary. They added a key ingredient to the secular foundation that acted as a hardening agent to the biblical understanding. That key ingredient was God.
When we look closely at all the uses of dikaios in the Bible, it becomes clear that God’s revelation, his character, and his law are the solid foundation for what is just and right, not merely the prevailing thoughts and values of a given people at a given time. The Bible cements justice in the eternal person of God himself. The standard is God. This standard should be the basis of our thinking concerning justice. We are no longer relying on rationality alone as the basis for our understanding of justice.
God loves us enough to let us know what he thinks about us and this world. This is why he gave us his law and commands. His revelation, contained in the Bible, is the very foundation of how we are to think about justice. Everything from the Ten Commandments to the socially reforming words of the prophets to the society-shaping implications of the Beatitudes of Jesus to the moral imperatives of the New Testament Epistles now informs and guides what true justice and righteousness should look like.
We are to “think justice.” This involves having a daily mindset that is about discerning, assessing, and responding. We are to discern what things are not just (or what should be just) according to the standard of God’s Word. We are then to assess what we can and should do to bring justice to the world around us. Then we are to respond accordingly. Discern. Assess. Respond. When these three things are a part of our daily mental arsenal, we are bound to make an impact.
What would it mean for you to “think justice” in your personal interactions and your reading of world news this week?
from How Joyful People Think by Jamie Rasmussen