After salvation the number one dominant theme in the entire Bible both testaments is taking care of the least in society. There hundreds of verses, if not thousands, dealing with this subject. God is very clear about social justice He believes in it and instructs us to as well. Take a good long look at this verse from James cited above. It says that RELIGION God will accept as pure and faultless consists of only two things social justice and avoiding being polluted by the world. The concept of religion is man made. God did not create religion; He wants relationship. But this passage from James states unequivocally that God will accept religion as long as it is not polluted by the world and that it cares for needy people!
Discernment is so critical in these days beloved. There are political forces just dying to use you. They co-opt the name of Jesus and pretend to be concerned about doing His will but their underlying agenda is clear. It may be "fine-sounding" but it is clearly not of Christ. How important is social justice to Jesus? Let's take a look at how we will be judged when He returns:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Matthew 25: 31-33
Jesus then tells the sheep what they did for Him and eventually turns His attention to the goats:
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' Matthew 25: 41-45
The least of these. That sure seems to sound like it is going to matter to God about how we looked at social justice. We are to be the arms of Christ placing clothes on the backs of the needy. We are to be the hands of Christ serving food to the hungry. We are to be the compassion of Christ to visit the sick and imprisoned. Why? Because at one point we were hungry and someone fed us the Gospel. When we were wrapped in the clothing of the world that hate and misery someone gave us the garments of Jesus. When we were sick in a dying world, imprisoned by sin someone visited us. No social justice to Christianity? Social justice is Christianity.
How much does social justice mean to God? He realized the true depravity of man and the instinctive nature we would have to try and acquire and consolidate wealth and power. So, He created Jubilee. Every 50 years God would seek to undo what man had done by two amazing provisions all slaves were set free and all land reverted back to the original owner. Here is a portion of God decreeing Jubilee:
"'In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property." 'If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other. You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops. Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 25: 13-17
Do not take advantage of each other. But God goes even further. When God says to loan money or to help another person, we are to do so with pure motives not profit in mind:
" 'If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you. Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you. You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit. Leviticus 25: 35-37
And be careful to not fall for the parsing of language designed to sound like a fine argument but really only continues to propagate this myth that helping the poor is somehow a bad thing. Defenders of this notion have tried to say that individual helping of the poor is fine but not governmental. Once again, it comes down to a debate about the politics of man, not the ways of God. But even on this point the detractors are horribly off base and do not understand scripture:
