Isaiah 56:1 says “This is what the LORD says: ‘Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed.” In biblical terms justice and righteousness are the same. When Scripture tells us to maintain justice, it is not in the worldly sense of giving others what they have earned or deserved but rather it is living in and offering righteousness, God’s truth in all situations with all people. As God’s people how do we maintain justice, how do we partner with God in justice? I believe the answer is as simple and complex as Jesus’ revelation about Himself in John 5:19, “the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does the Son also does in like manner.” To maintain justice is to follow God closely, watch God fully and obey God constantly. Justice is whatever God says in any given moment to any given person.
Acts 3 tells us a story of Peter and John going to the temple to pray and being used by God to bring healing to a man that had been lame from his birth. In this scene we find the man begging for money and Peter, being led by the Spirit and empowered by the Father, gave the man not the money he requested but the justice that he needed.
Administering justice requires confidence in what God has done in our lives and boldness to join God in doing whatever He has promised to do in the lives of others. Peter moved in confidence and boldness, he offered healing and the removal of shame and he was used by God to glorify the Father and magnify Jesus. A harvest of salvation came that day because when justice is restored hearts and lives are opened to the truth of God.
The harvest that God is speaking over this community and yours will require a partnership of justice and that partnership will require confidence in what God has done for us and boldness in what God has promised to do through us. If we are lacking in confidence or boldness today let us pray for the Holy Spirit to renew and restore us. May our community by shaken by our prayers for boldness and may harvest be poured out through a partnership in justice that destroys shame and glorifies Jesus. May we become partners in justice so that we can be laborers in the harvest.