Justice as Worship

“…for I, the LORD, love justice…” (Isaiah 61:8)

We stand up. We sing a few songs. We raise our hands high in the air. We express to God how great he is, and how we want to live for him for 20 minutes or so. We make a righteous noise. Is this all there is to worship?

Not according to the Bible:

“I, the LORD, hate and despise your religious celebrations and your times of worship. I won't accept your offerings or animal sacrifices-- not even your very best. No more of your noisy songs! I won't listen when you play your harps. But let justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry.” (Amos 5:21-24)

“Do you think the LORD wants you to give up eating and to act as humble as a bent-over bush? Or to dress in sackcloth and sit in ashes? Is this really what he wants on a day of worship? I'll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD. Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly. Free those who are abused! Share your food with everyone who is hungry; share your home with the poor and homeless. Give clothes to those in need; don't turn away your relatives.” (Isaiah 58:5-7, CEV)

In fact there is a clear thread running through the Bible making it quite clear that God is quite a fan of the idea of justice. Obviously God wants more from us than just our vocal chords on a Sunday morning – in fact these Bible passages suggest that he’s not particularly interested in our corporate worship or fasting unless we’re fighting for justice in the world.

God has a serious passion for justice, and it’s a theme that keeps coming up in the Bible. In the book of Jeremiah, God reveals something of his nature to us:

“What I like best is showing kindness, mercy and justice to everyone on earth.” (Jeremiah 9:24b)

If we are striving to be imitators of God, then this is a value that we also should be striving for.

Often in Christian groups the issue of social justice is seen as an add-on: something for you to get involved in if you want, but not a priority. I would argue that, actually, the Bible’s teaching suggests that fighting for justice is an activity that all Christians should be involved in, rather than just a fringe activity. In other words, less singing about how we’re going to dance for God for 10 minutes, and more singing about how we’re going to feed the poor and embrace the broken, and then going out and doing it.

‘Justice’ is a fairly abstract concept though – what does it mean for us in the 21st century? Dictionary.com (always a good destination in times like these) says that it’s “The quality of being just”. Not the most helpful progression ever. Looking around us, though, we can see that the way the world works is certainly not just. The gap between the rich and the poor is growing all the time, and we are often unknowingly supporting regimes that oppress people.

This site contains information about some of the specific issues which SPEAK focuses on, and how you can make a difference in them – sometimes by taking specific action, and sometimes just by things that you do in your everyday life. And a good approach, which all of us can take, is to learn about these issues and pray for them. God can work infinitely more justice in these situations than we could ever ask or imagine.

Article written by Carl Baker.