The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. (Psalm 103:6).As has just about everybody else, I have been reading about the Occupy groups. Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Portland, etc. the idea is that there is a body of people unhappy with the distribution of wealth in this country and they want it changed. They want to go to a more socialist idea and an equal society.
Several times, I heard God invoked and this scripture (or part of it) used. God wants justice for the oppressed, someone yells through a bullhorn. If Jesus were here today, they proclaim, he would be here squatting on this land with us. He would be angry at you for not giving me money to do what I want..
I have often thought the co-opting of Jesus when you want him and ignoring him when you don’t to be the height of foolishness. It was Jesus himself that said, in Matthew 12:30: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. He is not there to score political points or support political or social agendas. He is there to change men’s hearts.
God is a God who loves justice. And he loves the oppressed. But he also loves righteousness. He doesn’t just look to delivering oppressed; he looks to saving them.
Deliverance without salvation is useless in his eyes. He wants to occupy your heart, not just your city. He wants to deliver your heart, not just your body. He tells us that society will only change and people will only be free when our hearts belong to him. One cannot have true justice without righteousness.
The problem is, though, that those who are using him for their social agenda are afraid of him getting in their hearts. That is why they fight him and his power tooth and nail in every other part of life. They just want the part that sounds like what they want.
They don’t mind Jesus interfering with society as long as they can predict what he will do. It is when he becomes unpredictable and starts moving in their lives in ways they do not want that they get angry.
Real justice will come when righteousness comes. And not before. As Jesus said: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6)
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