How to Form a Mature Christian View on Social Justice
Introducing Flourishing Faith and Justice with a flourish! 👏👏👏
Every Christian leader I’ve learned from has eventually taught about spiritual maturity. Although the formation of doctrine can be a vital part of our growing faith, church leaders rarely value the formation of Christian theology on social justice, despite the fact we live within the world, and among its people and systems.
How, then, do we form a mature Christian view of social justice?
An incidental offer
This winter I was trying to place an article. In the process, I ended up at the large online religion magazine, Patheos. I dinked around until I found out how to submit work. Instead of a pitch, I ended up filling out a form that seemed more like a set of interview questions. I never heard back, but a month later, through a totally different avenue, I found myself randomly filling out the same set of questions, again for Patheos. I shrugged my shoulders and hit submit.
Fast forward a month or two and those questionnaires were long forgotten. As I was enjoying meandering around Montreal in April, I received an email out of the blue. It invited me to host a weekly column at Patheos.
We’re Called To Be Spiritually Mature
In 1 Corinthians 13:11, Paul uses the analogy of growing up in regards to our spiritual lives: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” (ESV). What does a follower of Jesus look like when they give up childish ways?
There is more to this analogy of growing up than simply children transitioning into adulthood. We are God’s adopted sons and daughters (Galatians 4:4-7). In my modern American ears, I tend to hear passages about adoption to mean that we now have a spiritual family where we belong and are loved. And although this is true, there is also a deeper meaning. In ancient times, adoption was also a way of raising up an heir, a new leader of the household. The adopted heir was apprenticed, learning to govern like the father. When the heir matured, he would then guide, lead, judge, and manage the estate.
We aren’t meant to stay kids in God’s family, we are called to mature, walk in authority, and rule as heirs of God’s Kingdom. Therefore, we must begin to understand how God’s ways look as we discern right and wrong. What is God’s version of justice? Apprenticing Jesus, we model how he lived out his Kingdom. Since our faith is demonstrated by works (James 2), the evidence of spiritual maturity will appear in the way we interact with the world.
Taking on something new
If I was invited to write for Patheos at any other time, I might have just passed on the opportunity. But I was in a rare few days, with free time to use however I pleased. I didn’t have to care for anyone but myself! (A mind-boggling experience for this mama of seventeen years.) The result was that I could genuinely consider this opportunity without the press of responsibilities.
I questioned the wisdom of adding another weekly writing project to my plate. I knew it could be valuable. It would connect with a totally different audience than I’d ever written for before. In fact, it sounded like a fun challenge. What if I went all in on a topic I’d been dabbling around with—an ethnography of the American Church? (Like this article here)
Flourishing Faith and Justice
Rather love your enemies and continue to treat them well...You will receive a rich reward and you will be known as true children of the Most High God, having his same nature. Be like your Father who is famous for his kindness to heal even the thankless and cruel. Overflow with mercy and compassion for others, just as your heavenly Father overflows with mercy and compassion for all.” Luke 6:35-36 TPT
As I considered taking on this column, I heard God’s whisper. I had been reading the above verses and was internally struggling with a response to a woman who’d hurt me deeply.1 These scriptures immediately drew me back to the way of shalom, the challenge to take a step towards love, even when she made herself my enemy.
This is when I heard a God Whisper2 that went something like this:
My Church still can't do this. They need guidance to live justly and practice mercy. It might be fun and interesting for you to process your feelings about the American Church in a column. It might look cool to the faith deconstructionists, trendy even. Not that you can’t write about your experience in the American Church here and there, too.
You might have moved on from justice work, but my love for justice is something you intimately know. And my people still need equipping. Take this year to talk about the scriptural precedence for shalom and flourishing; my heart for what is good and right.
You know, the ways of my Kingdom. Like loving your enemies.
And that was how Flourishing Faith and Justice was born.
I’ve written for over a decade about doing good, justice, and Changemaking at Average Advocate to a non-faith based audience. And I’ve written about faith here at Authentically Elisa for nearly two years. At Flourishing Faith and Justice I will be intentionally merging these topics together.
This being said:
I will still continue to show up here, even if not as frequently
You are invited to follow the Flourishing Faith and Justice column by signing up on Patheos
Send me your questions on topics related to justice+faith so I can address them in this new column
Ultimately, I hope you’ll join me in this year of reanimating our faith by learning what justice means to us as followers of Jesus! I hope these will challenge you to grow spiritually, develop theology, and practice a way of life that exhibits shalom, for the flourishing of all.
To begin, I wanted share the articles I’ve already written there, which I list below with short excerpts. Click to follow the link to the one that beckons!
1. What Does Justice Even Mean To A Christian?
“…My husband was once challenged to be the most loving person in the room. It doesn’t mean others can’t join him to try to “out love” each other. But when it becomes his goal, he loves others quite well. Unsurprisingly, this leads the way for others to want to respond with love. Once I saw him get into an absurd under-bidding war, generously knocking-off thousands of dollars in a sale simply because he wanted to bless a family! Then they wanted to bless us in return. This is counter intuitive to capitalism, but a determination to love others ended up creating the most fair price on the market…
…If we are to be known by our love, and start trying to outbid each other with acts of genuine love, I have no doubt justice will take root and grow…”
Go here to read the rest of the article: What Does Justice Even Mean To A Christian?
2. Are Kindness and Justice the Same?
“….I don’t think this push back is entirely unfair, though. People don’t receive kindness for a variety of reasons: fear, pride, and entitlement might be at the top of the list. But there are other reasons, too. Often, our “kindness” is too random; we aren’t meeting people with an actual need or desire they have. We begin asking questions to pivot our efforts. We even begin asking what factors leave people unhoused, why someone else is disgusted by balloons, and why the orphanage might not want the toys.
In addition, sometimes these moments show us that our random acts of kindness have become about us and our happy moment of giving. Or that we’ve lost the vision of blessing someone whether they deserve it or not.
When we begin diving into how to effectively bless others with kindness, we start moving into the work of justice, where we practice methods that are ideal, good, and right.”
Go here to read the rest of the article: Are Kindness and Justice the Same?
3. Shalom and Flourishing For All
“…In Eden, humankind was tasked with globally expanding the cultivation of a garden likely much more magical than the one outside this window. Jesus too tasked his followers with multiplying, so that those who’d trust in him and live out his ways would extend through the earth. What type of garden is God cultivating globally today? And how can it flourish? I can only give you a snapshot of moments of shalom, and even these don’t come without a gardener’s intention to bring it about.
For example, let’s use this moment of peace to pray here, by this window. To be here, I had to ensure a babysitter. I had to have the miracle of my physical recovery, so I could leave my hospital bed. When I was still in a wheelchair, the room had to be wheelchair accessible. I’d have to be pushed, as I lacked the strength. To be in this space, right now, I have to live in a governmental system that gives me the freedom of speech and movement to meet with other believers. I had to have access to resources to travel…”
Go here to read the rest of the article: Shalom and Flourishing For All
4. Why We Shouldn’t Pit Biblical Justice vs. Social Justice
“…I began noticing that if I slapped the word “Biblical” in front of my conversations with others and teachings about justice, the term “justice” would suddenly become palatable to the Christians around me! I wondered, though, if it was possible for any American to really be able to grasp what Biblical justice was without deconstructing and examining their faith significantly. I would challenge other Christians to do just that, asking them to study the Bible for themselves to grasp God’s compassion and heart for justice.
Even though defining the term “Biblical justice” is easy, it isn’t so simple to name what is Biblical. Although I could see in scriptures what I thought God cared about and he didn’t care about (in regards to the treatment of people and the way society was run), it was evident Christians couldn’t agree on this. I’d follow a podcast on Biblical justice and they might promote the entirely opposite things I thought they would!
And if we were unable to agree on what was important, how could we begin to act on what is good and right for all? Biblical justice turned out to be confusing and subjective in practice…”
Go here to read the rest of the article: Why We Shouldn’t Pit Biblical Justice vs. Social Justice
5. How To Form A Mature Christian View Of Social Justice
“…Remember how I shared that most of my doctrine on justice was formed by the Christian environment I grew up in? I didn’t realize it at the time, but much of this wasn’t as much Christian as it was political. You can imagine my surprise when I often saw Christians demonstrating maturity while also ascribing to the political party I believed was evil. They used liberal terms, like woke, anti-racist, anti-colonial, collective liberation, and feminist, while genuinely using these terms to display God’s Kingdom.
Regardless of the labels they wore and the terms they used, their love for God and their desire for his ways to prevail were one and the same as mine.
I’m not saying one political side reflects God’s Kingdom and the other doesn’t. I am stating that the Kingdom of God and how it relates to social justice extends far beyond any political spectrum. If being citizens of God’s Kingdom isn’t our primary purpose, we can remain stuck, with our only theology on these topics formed by the Christian subculture around us. That culture might hold to some aspects of God’s Kingdom, but in no way can it be equated with the spiritual formation that comes by studying scripture, listening to God’s Spirit, and imitating the lives of mature apprentices of Jesus.
In Hebrews five and six, we are told to stop going over the basic tenets of being believers, which the passage refers to as infants’ breast milk. Would I have seen what the Kingdom of God on earth could look like if I was still suckling? Probably not, for we don’t reach spiritual maturity by drinking milk. On the other hand, spiritual food is described as training in the difference between right and wrong. This then leads us to love others. This is what reflects the Kingdom of God.
Go here to read the rest of the article: How To Form A Mature Christian View Of Social Justice
If you found this topic interesting, please tap the heart 🖤 icon. How have you been formed in your theology about justice? I’d love to hear in the comments! Your engagement encourages me greatly. And when you engage here, it helps these words reach others waiting for them.
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These “God Whispers” I describe more in depth here and another example is here. They’re always loving, gracious, even if sometimes corrective. They typically guide me to something in my innermost being I haven’t even put words to but I know is true as soon as I hear it—like in this case I wanted to feel cool writing about trendy deconstructionism.