Fully Devoted Followers(5): Justice

One of the speakers at the 2008 GLS said this: If you want your leadership to matter, lead in the things that matter to God. He then went on to talk about his particular passion for justice. Perhaps we could paraphrase this quote:

If you want your discipleship to be true to God's call on your life, then follow Jesus in the things that matter to him.

That list would almost certainly include issues of justice. Jesus announced his ministry in Luke's gospel with a quote from Isaiah about good news to the poor, freedom to the oppressed. A concern for the poor and marginalised would seem to be a concern that Jesus would expect his followers to share.

In the Old Testament the people asked:

With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

And God's reply through Micah was:

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

It would seem then that to be a wholehearted follower of Jesus will mean that in some way will be concerned and active in the area of justice.