When James needed an example of living faith, he chose Rahab the prostitute, a foreign sex worker who committed treason to hide strangers. God’s hero of faith is someone our country would put in a private prison for profit. Someone, who might be reported to ICE instead of celebrated within our Chistian Nationalist church today. How did we get here–where we’ve perverted justice so thoroughly that we prosecute God’s heroes?
When I Thought I Knew What Justice Was
I grew up believing law meant safety. Justice was simple–good people were protected, bad people were punished, and the system worked. I viewed it all through rose-colored glasses. I thought Immanuel Kant had it right:
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means.”
I assumed that was humanity’s shared goal. I somehow didn’t hear Martin Luther King Jr.’s warning ringing through history:
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Or maybe I heard it but thought it was about other places, other times. Not my world. Not my comfortable life.
The Great Perversion – How We Weaponized Holy Words
Jeremiah 22 starts with the Lord speaking. There are several times when the Lord gives a warning in the Old Testament. What has opened my eyes lately is how many times God commands us to care, protect, and love the “resident alien” along with the orphans and widows.
1 “This is what the Lord says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and announce this word there. 2 You are to say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David—you, your officers, and your people who enter these gates. 3 This is what the Lord says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from his oppressor. Don’t exploit or brutalize the resident alien, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place. [like don’t blow up boats with fishermen, fathers and children on them or don’t blow up Palestinian Christian churches] 4 For if you conscientiously carry out this word, then kings sitting on David’s throne will enter through the gates of this palace riding on chariots and horses—they, their officers, and their people. 5 But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by myself—this is the Lord’s declaration—that this house will become a ruin.’”- Jeremiah 22:1-5
Let those with ears, hear:
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“Woe for the one who builds his palace through unrighteousness,
his upstairs rooms through injustice, who makes his neighbor serve without pay
and will not give him his wages,
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who says, “I will build myself a massive palace, with spacious upstairs rooms.”
He will cut windows in it, and it will be paneled with cedar
and painted bright red.
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Are you a king because you excel in cedar?
Didn’t your father eat and drink and administer justice and righteousness?
Then it went well with him.
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He took up the case of the poor and needy; then it went well.
Is this not what it means to know me?
This is the Lord’s declaration.
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But you have eyes and a heart for nothing except your own dishonest profit,
shedding innocent blood and committing extortion and oppression”. Jeremiah 22:13-17
Jeremiah 23 is just as pertinent to the times we are living in, as God warns not to listen to the words being taught, as they are not from God. Jeremiah 23:36
“But no longer refer to the burden of the Lord, for each man’s word becomes his burden and you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of Armies, our God.”
“You pervert the words of the living God,” Jeremiah accused the prophets of his day. Those words haunt me now, watching “religious freedom” mean denying healthcare, “biblical values” mean excluding refugees, “law and order” mean arresting people for sleeping outside or merely coming into a country given to us by God. We’ve taken the vocabulary of justice and turned it inside out. Jesus said, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden,” but we pile burdens on those already breaking. James says don’t judge, but we’ve built entire systems of judgment that determine who deserves food, shelter, and/or dignity.
We pervert words for our own propaganda daily. Believe me, I was the worst at perverting what justice and love really were in the confines of scripture. Regurgitating moralistic, tribal hate to get clicks or to fit in with what I thought was Holy words and a Holy church. I regret this every day.
I was so lost the last time Trump was in office, as many would say over and over that those with opposite beliefs were “SHEEP!” I was so confused about how or why that word was chosen. Jesus literally uses that analogy for His people a lot. “I am the good shepherd!” He makes us lie down in pastures, etc. But the way it was used was so derogatory– like all of a sudden it was a bad thing to be a sheep.
Then came “WOKE” or “WOKENESS”, which everyone is so adamantly against. Why? The dictionary defines it as: “alert to and concerned about social injustice and discrimination.” The very thing God tells us over and over to be?!? But now we have Christians fighting on social media about how we need to get rid of “Woke Policies!” I do not get it. I won’t even mention how Critical Race Theory, diversity, disabilities, colleges, teachers, Taylor Swift, even LIBRARIANS, became evil? Meanwhile, pedophilia and sexual abuse are ok?!? Justice and love turned upside down.
In case you missed it above:
3 This is what the Lord says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from his oppressor. Don’t exploit or brutalize the resident alien, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place. Jeremiah 22:3
Maybe that is a one-off reference? The word mishpat appears over 200 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. Scholars estimate about one-third of the time, it is used in the sense of “social justice,” meaning justice toward the poor, the oppressed, the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant. Jesus also consistently centered those on the margins: the poor, the sick, women, children, foreigners, and sinners. This reflects the mishpat tradition of caring for the oppressed. He met with women, the Samaritans, the sick, and tax collectors. It was a deliberate act of restoring dignity and justice to the marginalized. Many theologians see the crucifixion itself as Jesus’ ultimate act of solidarity with the oppressed. By suffering injustice and aligning himself with the condemned, Jesus embodied the prophetic tradition of mishpat in its fullest sense: God identifying with the vulnerable.
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. Proverbs 31:8-9
Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. Isaiah 1:17
The Lord within her is righteous; he does no injustice; every morning he shows forth his justice; each dawn he does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame.-Zephaniah 3:5
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! Romans 9:14
Scripture has so much to say about justice. God is JUST. It is one of the many attributes of Him that we love. Why would WOKE be a bad thing? We have perverted the word.
We burden those Jesus came to unburden. We judge those James says not to judge. We do it all while blaspheming the God of heaven and earth as if God put us in charge of who shall prosper and who shall not.
Until recently, our country was a beacon of hope for the world. We were one of the most blessed countries, showing love through programs that restored health and brought food to those in need. We dominated the World Bank–economies rose or fell based on how well we were doing. We fought for the countries being oppressed. We were one of the last democratic systems. We have done without universal healthcare or free education while giving to other countries like Israel, which provides those things for its people. We showed love to others. Now we are complacent in starving and exiling a nation so a billionaire can build a resort?!?! We are ok that thousands will die in Africa without medical treatment. We are even ok with our own farmers losing their land while China buys soybeans from Argentina because of tariffs. We are ok if millions of people lose healthcare as long as it does not mean “the immigrant” is cared for or a member of the opposite political party’s policy is enacted. We cannot be a Liberal, after all.
Digital Babel – The Algorithm as False Prophet
For many, I have to believe they are just unaware of events going on all around the world, as well as within our own country. I have a hard time reconciling that people I grew up with within the local church walls are so adamant about values that seem to go against Jesus, against scripture. Then I realized the power of the ALGORITHM.
We’re living through Babel again, but this time the tower is digital and the confusion is curated. My social media feed shows families torn apart within our neighborhoods; my church friends’ feeds show dangerous criminals being stopped. We’re not just disagreeing about solutions – we literally inhabit different realities! The algorithm has become our false prophet, telling each tribe exactly what they want to hear. “Peace, peace,” it whispers to some, while screaming “Threat, threat” to others. We can’t pursue justice together when the word “justice” means opposite things in our separate digital languages.
This is where we are right now.
We can’t pursue biblical justice when we can’t even agree what happened. We are all adults throwing temper tantrums like toddlers in a cereal aisle. The problem is we are all in different cereal aisles.
I see the videos that lead to polarization and hate for those who are different from me. You see the ones that make you hate me. The words of “justice” from scripture are being perverted.
What Rahab Knew (That We’ve Forgotten)
Rahab knew the walls of Jericho would fall before the comfortable citizens did. The homeless person knows exactly how much that “hostile architecture” bench costs – the one designed to keep them from lying down. The immigrant knows which churches mean “all are welcome” and which mean “all who have papers are welcome.” If justice is measured by how we treat the most vulnerable, we’re failing spectacularly.
Closing: Faith Without Works in Digital Exile
The vulnerable see clearly – they can’t afford algorithmic illusions. James is blunt: faith without works is dead. Not sleeping, not weak – dead. So here I sit in what feels like digital exile, where the temple has been corrupted and the prophets speak lies for profit. I feel Psalm 77:10 in my bones:
“So I say, “I am grieved that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
We know God is unchanging-that is another one of His attributes. What happened to us? Psalm 77 asks if God will remember mercy. I’m asking if we will remember what justice actually means, or if we’re too lost in our separate algorithmic realities to find our way back to each other…
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God, your way is holy.
What god is great like God?
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You are the God who works wonders;
you revealed your strength among the peoples. -Psalm 77:13-14
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?
8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. 9 If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. 11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder (if you fail to love the poor, the sick, the immigrant, the neighbor), you are a lawbreaker.
12 Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. James 2:1-15
We are ALL children made in the image of God.
When we forget the humanity of our neighbors and “pervert” the words of justice and love, we are not living in the image that Jesus taught us to live within.
