The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1958-07-11

. situation. And - -
y th.r- are an DR.. Foreman
many as two. you have a social
situation apd any justice there Is
social justice. Furthermore. the
kind OF justice that counts Is So
cial. Courtroom justice isn't
worth mulch IL II docs not produce
social justice.
nethlng Cancels Ont Justice
Some people have supposed that
living in the New Testament light
We have outgrown the need for
justice that Christians live by
love, or grace, or faith. or mystic
vision, or something else. any
thing else but justice. Some people
viii tell you that the gospel can
cells out justice, that justice - A
Old Testament word and we Chris
tians have outgrown it. This u not
true. Nothing cancels justice. For
one thing. most OF Jesus' teaching
dealt with right relationships
among men, and the short name
for that u Justice For another
thing Jesus did speak directly OF
this thing. He condemned the
Pharisees severely because they
had forgotten IT. According to
Luke's account, Jesus said the
Pharisees had neglected Justice
and the love OF God. In Matthews
story, Jesus said the Pharisees
had neglected justice and mercy
and faith. Note in both cases:
Justice and He mentions tls-
tice nrst alwayA
u Jvsties I1psssibis7
About the only way to get
around this Tor to try to do so
is to fancy that somehow or other
Jesus teachings do not apply to
VIZ. All one need say about that
point OF view il that when .
'Christian" reaches the point
where he will not take his orders
from the Lord Jesus, he had bet
ter consider whether he rates the
name OF Christian after all. How
ever. there are a pair OF further
objections we should consider One
is that since only God knows what
is finally fair. we must leave all
matters Of social justice to him.
He alone is judge OF the whole
earth: and our own Justice" can
never be based on fun knowledge
Of all the facts, as Gods is. So
let's give up the whole thing, shall
we NO! Such talk is unadul-
terated nonsense. The grain Of
truth in that argument is that
perfect justice like perfect mercy
or faith or love Of God is not
attAinable in this life by us NOR
tails. Nevertheless, mercy and faith
and love are the Christians bust
ness and 50 is justice. We need
Gods forgiveness for the injus-
tees Of our Justice" but we
would need his forgiveness far
more il we never tried to be just
at an.
lss't 0srs ! .DiffeTsnt" Merid7
Another way people try to by
pas jesus teaching is to point
out that we arc living in a diff
ferent world from his. One very
important difference Is this: Most
OF the people we deal with, in our
complex. industrial, urban civili-
zation, we never see and do not
even know who they are: where
AZ m the world Of Jesus time a
man knew all his neighbors and
he never dealt with any one else.
It ID : difficult business just to
live right with people you know.
But how Is a dairy farmer going
to be fair with the consumers in
q distant city he never sees ? How
IL q stakeholder in General Motors
going to live right with, and do
hight by, Mr.. Reuther? How - :
plain citizen Of the U.S.A. going
to do the right thing by a plain
citizen of the U.S.S.R. /? These are
terribly dimcult questions. Any
reader can write out a page full
Of such problems between now
and church time. He will not find
all the answers in the book. Per
haps no one knows the answers
yet But remembering how our
Lord put justice first, we cannot
dodge the duty Of thinking hard
and long on how we IN our time
can make justice . real thing.
(nased - outiinas oopyriEhted ~
n Division ~ Christian Education.
Nat3eHal Co0ncn Of the Churches ~
Christ IN the o. s. A. Released BY
Community Press Serviea.)