Tag: justice

Justice or Abomination

pastortravislv

Proverbs 17:15

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous
are both alike an abomination to the Lord.

A biblical view of justice involves a variety of things. Justice includes the proper application of the principles of God’s righteousness in the world. Justice involves proper punishment for wrongs done. Justice involves action taken to make whole or to repair things when a person is wronged.

Here in Proverbs 17:15, we are reading about aspects of justice perverted. And I would that these were merely Old Testament problems. But they are not. In point of fact, this proverb shows us problems that genuinely exist in our world today.

Many of the proverbs are written in a form of Hebrew poetry in which thoughts are set side-by-side. Sometimes a thought will repeat the same idea. Other times, a thought will teach us by putting two opposites near one another in a balanced contrast.

Feel the balance of the contrasting points of this proverb. We see two things that might seem opposite: justifying contrasted with condemning; wicked contrasted with righteous. But we see a connection, something that ties the two contrasts together. To justify the wicked and to condemn the righteous are both abominations in the sight of the Lord. God hates when both things happen.

What is this little word to the wise telling us? There is nothing good about ignoring when wickedness is done. A just judge must properly condemn the wicked actions of people. Just punishment, right retribution, must follow if the judge is to be pleasing to the Lord. No person should be acquitted of a crime simply because he is rich, or simply because he is poor. Right condemnation should fall on the one who does wickedness.

Similarly, to condemn the righteous is an equal abomination. There is no good, no justice, no righteousness in pronouncing a sentence of condemnation on someone who has not committed a crime. Regardless of whether the person is rich or poor, man or woman, weak or strong, we do not condemn a person rightly who is not guilty but righteous.

The point of the justice system for any people should be to do actual justice. That means that impartial judgment is rendered. Condemn the wicked, those actually guilty. Justify the righteous, refusing to punish people for crimes they did not commit. A society refusing to do justice in either direction is an abomination before the Lord.

Are there nuances that must apply in a discussion of justice? Of course. But, if we refuse to start with the principle laid out here in Proverbs, we cannot even begin to properly consider such nuances. For a society to function, we must begin with the belief that justice includes condemning the guilty and justifying the righteous. Belief systems that would punish people for crimes they did not commit is evil. A system that would look at a person proven guilty and choose to ignore that guilt is wrong. One might think that what I have just written is blatantly obvious, but, as our society continues to decline, the obvious needs to be clearly restated.

False Accusations are Evil

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Most people know the basics of the Ten Commandments. Often, we assume them to include a command not to tell lies. And, in a sense, this is true. But the command not to lie has more to do with justice. The command actually says, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16).

One way to bear false witness against your neighbor is to make a false accusation against him or her. The idea is that of a person who, out of malice, decides to accuse a person of doing wrong in order to have them punished in some way. It is to tell a lie against a person so that you benefit from their punishment either through financial gain or some sort of personal satisfaction.

The commandment is clear that such an action is forbidden. Later in God’s word, we get to see just how strongly God feels about this evil. God is clear that bearing false witness, making false accusations, is a really big deal.

Deuteronomy 19:16-21 – 16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

In this passage in Deuteronomy, as God prepares the people to live in the land under his law, he makes sure they know how to deal with a false witness. When an accusation is made, judges are to seek to get to the bottom of the matter. Notice, by the way, that the judges here are interested in truth. Judges here are not employed to create new laws or to reshape society to their design. They are here to find the facts out in a situation through diligent questioning and research.

If the judges determine that a person is intentionally bringing a false accusation, attempting to do another person harm by their false accusation, there is a clear and just plan for what to do. God commands that the false accuser receive whatever penalty he or she intended that the one falsely accused was facing. So, if the false accusation would have cost the accused money, the accuser paid that money to the one falsely accused. If the false accusation would have cost the accused his life, then the life of the false accuser was forfeit.

As you think to yourself that this sounds pretty strong, notice that God says you are right. God is clear that the people are not allowed to show pity here. And here we get one of the passages that brings us the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Whatever the false, scheming accusation would have done to the innocent is to be the punishment for the one making the accusation. There are no exceptions.

Our society is full of people throwing around many false accusations. Social media has made this easier than ever. Let us learn from God’s word that these accusations matter. God takes bearing false witness very seriously. Under God’s justice, the right penalty for making a false accusation is that the false accuser face the very hardship he or she intended to cause

Christians, take two points away here. First, see that God’s law is good. God’s system of justice here is far better than what is present in our society. Second, see that your accusations are a big deal. God does care that you speak the truth, especially when you say that someone else has done something wrong.

Who Taught Him?

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If you are paying much attention in Christian conversation these days, you will know that people are asking some interesting questions. Today, people are starting to call into question the goodness of God for his standards in a variety of areas. Some question God’s standards for gender and sexuality. Some question his standards for marriage. Some question God’s standards for social justice. Some just question God’s goodness in the Old Testament law.

In many of these instances, the questions about the goodness of God boil down to a simple thought. We believe that we understand justice, goodness, and righteousness better than God. We wonder how God can be perfectly right and put forward standards that we, in our modern and enlightened minds, find quite uncomfortable. The alternative, of course, is to say that Scripture is flawed and can only give us the best understanding of flawed men from centuries earlier.

You might say, Christian, that you do not face these temptations. You do not want to compromise the word of God. You would never consider yourself better at justice or righteousness than God. But, consider how easy it is for you to feel ashamed of God’s standards when they do not match the common, cultural expectation.

Let’s see just one simple point from Isaiah 40 that might help us as we look at the goodness and perfection of God in comparison to cultural expectation. I believe that keeping this in mind will give us a far better starting point for thinking through the things of God.

Isaiah 40:12-14

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
14 Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?

In this little section, Isaiah asks some questions. And those questions have an obvious answer. Who can scoop up the entire ocean and hold it in the palm of his hand? Obviously, no person can do this other than the God who made the world. Who can measure the universe by stretching out his hand? Obviously, again, the answer is that nobody but God can do this.

Next, Isaiah takes his questions to questions of wisdom and counsel. The prophet showed us with his first question that no human being even comes close to being able to compare with the Lord. And he wants us to keep those thoughts in mind as we consider the goodness and the justice of the Lord. Think again about these questions that end verse 14, “Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” What is the answer? Nobody taught God these things. Why? Nobody could. Justice and knowledge and righteousness are not things apart from God. God himself determines what is just, what is right, and what is perfect.

Draw the comparison so as not to miss the point. Can you pick up an entire ocean in one hand? No, that is ridiculous. Can you teach God anything about justice or about how things ought to go? No, that is ridiculous, just as ridiculous as thinking you could pick up an ocean. Do you get this? You and I have as much ability to question the ways of God about marriage, sexuality, gender, the church, worship, the law, or any of his ways as we have to pick up the ocean. We cannot come close. The concept is ridiculous.

When you see that you cannot question or teach the Lord, it should humble you. When you remember that God defines justice, it should make you turn to him to learn it rather than attempting to justify his ways to a lost world. When you recall the greatness of God here, you should turn to the word, listen to God speak for himself, and surrender to the perfect ways of the Holy One.

The sweet thing here is that God has revealed himself and his ways in his holy word. The more we study his word, the more he will allow us to understand the reasons why he has commanded the things he has commanded. WE are, of course, to obey God regardless of whether we understand his rationale for his standards. But it is glorious to know that, as we learn the word of God, we can begin to understand him, learn his ways, and find the beauty in all he has told us.

Justice

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Justice is quite popular in discussions today. People are crying out for all sorts of things they call justice. But when we look at the word in Scripture, how do we know what it means? After all, it seems like people are strongly disagreeing with one another regarding what justice truly is.

For many people, a call for justice is a call for punishment. For them, to ask God to do justice is to ask God to properly punish the guilty. This is, of course, a part of justice, but only a part.

Others consider a call to justice to be a call to take power or privilege away from one group and spread that power around to those who did not previously have it. Thus, these would consider justice to be fairness. If one group has been hurt by another, the strong group should receive equal or even greater hurt in return.

The question is, when the Bible talks about justice, what picture is drawn? Take a peek at this poetic parallelism and see what it tells us.

Psalm 106:3

Blessed are they who observe justice,
who do righteousness at all times!

God pronounces a blessing on those who do justice. This is no surprise. But what does that mean. The second line in the verse goes on to explain. Observing justice, in this verse, is equal to doing righteousness. Doing what is right in accord with the law, the word, the standard of God.

So, if we want to see justice done, we must begin with and remain firmly entrenched in the word of God. What does God say is righteous? That is what we must do.

The reason that justice is often connected to crime and punishment is that the word of God shows us God as the righteous final judge. God will properly punish what opposes him and God will rightly and sweetly reward his followers who are under his grace and obedient to his commands. Heaven and hell are displays of God’s justice and his righteous mercy. And, yes, the law of God shows us clear standards for crime and punishment as well.

But there is more. Loving your neighbor as yourself is righteousness, because such is obedience to the command of God when done for the glory of God. Acting to oppose immorality of all sorts, immorality as defined by Scripture, is doing justice because it is biblical righteousness. Protecting life, preserving marriage, punishing crime, all these are justice.

When you hear a call to justice, ask some important questions. Is the action I am being asked to take commanded in Scripture? Can I conclude that the action being championed is the direct result of proper application of biblical principles interpreted by faithful and consistent hermeneutical principles? Is the action that I am being called to champion going to treat others in an unrighteous way in order to achieve what one group is calling justice? Are there biblical examples of the action others want me to take? Would Bible-believing Christians of all cultures, globally and historically, be able to affirm the actions or standards being proposed?

Christians, we want to observe justice. We want to do righteousness at all times. This honors the Lord. And the only possible way for us to do so is for us to so marinate in Scripture that we think and bleed Bible in all our thoughts. Only the sanctifying word of God will lead us to true justice, to truly doing what is right in all things.

Politically Correct or Biblical

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I would love it if my nature had never been corrupted by the modern influence of secular political correctness. The funny thing is, most who are deeply concerned about such things would assume that I have never been influenced by that idea. Perhaps you also think that the unbiblical standards of our society have not influenced you. But I wonder.

When I was reading through Psalm 104, I came across the ending. Like the endings of several psalms, it says some things that do not sound, well, sensitive in a modern context.

The psalm opens with a great deal of praise to God. The author praises God for his power in creation and in how he sustains all of the universe. Such is pretty easy to read and not feel any tension. But then the ending comes.

Psalm 104:33-35

33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more!
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!

The praising of God is generally socially acceptable, at least at the time of this writing, generally, perhaps, in some parts of the country, if you do it in a non-offensive way, well…. Either way, what I am saying is that verses 33-34 are not what most are going to notice.

Look at verse 35. It’s ending is all nice too. Bless the Lord is acceptable in our minds and does not cause us any discomfort. But how do you, Christian, deal with the beginning lines of verse 35? God’s word says, in a song, “Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more!” That, dear friends, is not socially acceptable.

But stop and ask a pair of questions. The first one is the bigger one. Are you going to sit in judgment of the word of God? God’s word is inspired and profitable. God’s word teaches us, rebukes us, corrects us, and trains us in righteousness. Are you going to dare suggest that his word, his revelation of himself and his ways, is not up to your standard? Be very careful. We are to be conformed to the image of God, not the other way around.

The second question involves the content itself. I think that many cringe at lines that suggest that it would be a good thing for God to wipe out the wicked. But what do you really want? Do you want the Lord to leave the world full of wickedness?

Have you ever considered the basic inconsistency of those who are upset by lines like the ones at the end of this psalm? Is it not interesting that the group which opposes the faith often does so for contradictory reasons? These folks express that they are mad that God allows evil people to do evil things—how can God not jump in and stop such people. They are also mad at the idea that God would ever judge the wicked so as to remove them from this world or to punish them for their deeds—I can’t believe in a God who would judge someone or violate their free will. But you cannot keep both of those objections and be logically consistent.

The world looks at lines like those in verse 35 and decries the hatred and violence of the faith. But this is an unfair criticism. Christians who are biblical do not attempt to spread the faith through physical force. Any who have attempted to use the threat of violence to force a supposed conversion are well beyond the warrant of Scripture. It is not hatred to look at actions that are opposing the standard of the word of God and call said actions sin. That is precisely what we are supposed to do. Jesus certainly did. The psalmist here has no qualms about calling wickedness wicked.

Christians, let’s be careful not to let ourselves be so shaped by the world around us that we try to explain away lines like those at the end of this psalm. Yes, we want to see people turn from sin and be saved. But we also should long for the Lord to do justice, including bringing his judgment on the wicked. This is not us thinking we are better than others. We have been the wicked ourselves. What makes us different is the saving grace of Jesus. So we do not look at anyone as if we are superior. We simply look to the Lord, see his standards, and pray, your kingdom come; your will be done.” And we who know the word know that such a prayer includes a call for his justice as well as his saving grace.

Remember the Lord Early in Life

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One mistake that people sometimes make is to assume that we have a good deal of time before we need to consider the things of God. After all, when we are young, are we not supposed to be thinking about other things? People assume that, once they are old and gray, they will be able to do the religious thing.

But the wisest man of the Old Testament gives us a significant warning not to wait. Solomon tells us to remember the Lord long before we expect our lives to take a turn toward the cemetery.

Ecclesiastes 12:1 – Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

For the first eleven chapters of Ecclesiastes, Solomon has shown us just how messed up life can be. Nasty people get rich and have all they want. Kind people suffer. Whether a person is good or bad, the grave awaits them both. And thus, if one estimates the value of morality from a naturalistic bent, all is vanity.

But here, Solomon is drawing to a conclusion. And one of his final pieces of counsel is that we should remember the Lord when we are young. Then, from verses 2-9, Solomon describes the hardships people face in aging. He suggests you be right with God before your vision and hearing go, before your legs get trembly, your teeth get weak, and your sexual desire wanes. Solomon is telling us to be right with our Creator before we die, and since we do not know when that will be, we should start young.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 – 13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

While we might think that life seems meaningless and unfair, God has assured us of this: he will bring all into judgment. There is no sin that will ever go unpunished. There is no wrong that will not be righted, no justice that will go unsettled.

How? God is just and holy. Jesus died as a substitute to suffer God’s wrath for all he will forgive and to transfer to the forgiven God’s righteousness. Thus, your sin will be punished. Either God will punish you for your sin, or he has punished Jesus for your sin. If he punishes you for your sin, his infinite wrath will be poured out on you. You cannot survive that. But Jesus, God in the flesh, could take our punishment, satisfy God’s justice, and rise from the grave.

Solomon tells us to get right with our Creator while we are young. Before you get old, before you lose pleasure in life, before your mind is cluttered, remember your God. He is a righteous judge who has offered you grace in Jesus. Rejoice in that gracious justice and surrender to Jesus before it is too late.

Who Understands Justice Completely?

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Maybe it is simply because justice is such a buzz word lately, but this verse leapt out at me in my reading of Proverbs 28.

Proverbs 28:5

Evil men do not understand justice,
but those who seek the Lord understand it completely.

Here we have an antithetical parallelism. That is a poetic technique often employed in Hebrew poetry, especially in wisdom literature, in which a clear contrast is made. We often will see two opposite kinds of people or attitudes compared and two opposite results obtained.

In this verse we are dealing with who understands justice. One group lacks the capacity to understand justice at all. Another group will have complete understanding of justice. If the Bible is going to be this clear on who gets and who does not get justice, we probably should pay attention.

The comparison is simple too. We see evil men on the one hand. That should lead us to expect a polar opposite on the other. And, in fact, we get that opposite, but not perhaps what people would expect. The opposite of evil men is not good men. No, the opposite is those who seek the Lord. Of course, this would open a nice can of worms regarding seeking God. WE know from other passages in Scripture that no one seeks after God without God first doing a work in their hearts, but that is a point for another post.

How do we seek the Lord? One might seek the Lord through prayer. One might seek the Lord through sincere participation in acts of worship. But I believe we know enough to recognize that, in a biblically sound church, we understand that seekers of God are those who look for the ways and will of the Lord in his holy and inspired word. (Note: My argument here hangs on an acceptance of the fact that the way to seek the Lord and to know the Lord is through his word. I’ll not take the time here to prove that this is the case.)

Thus, we see that we have a comparison between those who cannot grasp justice and those who understand it fully. The difference in those groups is a difference of either being evil or seeking God. And if we accept that seeking God is something we do through the word of God, then we must understand that having a grasp of justice, true justice, God-pleasing justice, non-evil justice, is only available to the one who seeks for justice in the seeking of God through his holy word.

In this understanding is a warning for many modern believers. Many today are seeking for justice in people’s expressions of their experiences. Others are seeking for justice in the embrace of critical theory with all of its rejections of biblical standards. Many are claiming that the only justice they can find is the justice being sought, not by the word of God, but indeed by those who reject the standards of God at every turn.

But God’s own word and his wisdom teach us that to understand justice requires, not first a seeking of an understanding of systemic oppression or secular theories of intersectionality, but first a seeking after the Lord in his word. God has shown us who he is and what he requires. God has shown us what he proclaims to be true about every human being, every nation, every people group. And if we want to understand justice, if we want to not be counted as evil, we must seek our understanding of justice in a biblically faithful seeking of the Lord. That means we never twist Scripture to make it fit a secular theory. Nor do we read Scripture through a filter of secular ideas. Instead, we go humbly to the word, let God’s law define justice for us, and then seek with all our hearts to please the Lord revealed in that law.

A Quick Thought on Biblical Justice

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The word justice is being thrown around so much in recent days that I fear many have no idea of its meaning. So many sources present to us so many various standards for what is just, what is right, what is required. But how do we have the wisdom to speak of real justice, not a political ploy, but genuine justice?

Psalm 37:30-31

30 The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,
and his tongue speaks justice.
31 The law of his God is in his heart;
his steps do not slip.

In my daily reading, I ran across the above psalm which I believe tells us something that we absolutely must not forget. There seems to be a person who speaks wisdom and justice. There seems to be a way to have God-honoring, God-pleasing justice just roll off your tongue. And in a messed up world where all sorts are crying for very different ends and declaring them to be justice, we need to know how to have that wisdom.

Verse 32 shows us what we need to know to get justice right when it says, “The law of his God is in his heart.” How do we find justice? The law of God is where we find justice. The holy, perfect, law of God is full of all we need to grasp justice.

It is tragic when Christians do not love the word of God. That word of God, Old Testament and New Testament, with its commands and wisdom is our only solid source for actual justice. God has told us what pleases him. God has told us how to treat each other with rightness and fairness. God has even given us an example of one ancient nation’s system of justice in all sorts of civil cases. And that standard teaches us justice.

So, today, when you hear a person call for justice, compare what they are asking for to the word of God. Are they asking for what God calls just? Are they treating others with God’s standard? Are they trusting God as the final and eternal judge? Are they seeking to please the Lord in obedience to his revealed will in all things? Is Their handling of the word of God in keeping with the clear commands and obvious principles of justice that flow from Genesis through Revelation and over every book in between?

Friends, simply put, if you want wisdom, if you want justice, if you want righteousness, you must find it in the word of God.

Perverting Justice Is Not Complicated

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Sometimes the simplicity of the book of Proverbs is what we need to straighten us out. Life feels so hard and so complicated. But the wisdom of the word of God speaks quite plainly.

Consider this thought on justice, especially in the light of the social confusion about justice today.

Proverbs 17:15

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous
are both alike an abomination to the Lord.

Here we see two things put together about genuine, biblical justice. We see two things that are deeply wrong, an abomination before the Lord. One is to justify the wicked. The other is to condemn the righteous. God hates both of these things.

Now, consider where we have gone in our society. Justifying the wicked is a popular thing. How can I say that?” First, our society has rejected God’s word and his ways. Thus, as a people, our nation has willfully rejected God’s definition of what is wicked. Therefore, when wicked people do wicked things, as a society, it is celebrated. Hollywood and politicians see things happen that God has called absolutely abominable, and these folks applaud it and demand that all others join them in that applause.

Of course, the primary focus in the proverb is one of legal justice. If a person commits a crime, it is an abomination to the Lord to pretend it did not happen. Sadly, in our society, we are hearing a regular call to allow criminals to be justified. If a person commits a crime, but they have been somehow socially oppressed, we want to ignore their wrong in order to continue to push forward a political narrative.

How about the idea of condemning the righteous? Do we do that too? You bet. A person might be doing things that are absolutely right in accord with the word of God or even the law of the land. But we are seeing them condemned in society today. Perhaps we see them condemned because they are of the wrong class, the descendants of privileged oppressors. Perhaps we see them oppressed because they refuse to applaud the actions that God has declared to be wicked.

Again, allow biblical justice to speak to us. It is evil to look at a person who has done evil—evil as defined by the word of God—and say to them that they are OK. It is also evil to look at a person who has not done evil—evil as defined by the word of God—and declare them guilty because of their ethnicity, their wealth, or their refusal to applaud that which God condemns. May God save us from our twisting of justice to call good evil and evil good.

Some Thoughts on Justice and Accusations

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When significant accusations are made against a person, especially when issues of loss are involved, how do we deal with them? Do we take the modern legal motto of innocent until proven guilty? Do we use the criminal justice standard that says that guilt must be proven beyond doubt? Do we take the civil standard that guilt must be proved simply by preponderance of the evidence? Do we take the line of the #MeToo movement in which we believe all accusers regardless of evidence?

The problem here is that none of the above standards is the best standard. Why? None of those is the standard of the word of God. It may surprise you to realize that the Lord actually spoke quite clearly to his people about what must be the standard met in a case of accusation. And the Lord made it clear that there are also consequences for malicious false accusations.

Deuteronomy 19:15-21 – 15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. 16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

First, note that a charge will not be established without a witness (cf. Num 35:30; Due 17:6-7). The idea of a he said she said or a she said he said claim is simply not admissible. I’m not going to deny that, in our era of modern technology, video surveillance, DNA evidence, and all the rest perhaps this model could shift a bit. There are methods of proof that were not available to the men of the second millennium BC. But it should be a normal standard that we do not attempt to adjudicate claims of one person against another person without a witness and without any sort of physical evidence. Something other than the claim of the accuser has to point toward the guilt of the accused.

Note, in the issue of witnesses, the Scripture is also very clear that any person with evidence regarding a crime is obligated to come forward. It is a crime to conceal a crime in the biblical standard (cf. Lev 5:1).

But, if a person makes an accusation, particularly one that includes consequences for the one accused, the accuser also is to be held accountable for their actions. There is no such thing as a free pass at making a charge against someone if that charge is intended to do the accused harm. Deuteronomy 19:19-21 above shows us that one found to be bringing a false accusation was actually subject to the penalty they attempted to have imposed on the one they accused if they are found to be a malicious witness (cf. Due 5:20). Deuteronomy 17:6-7 adds the provision that one who accuses another of murder must also be the first one to begin the execution of the murderer. Thus, God intended to dissuade people from making false accusations by making it impossible for a person to simply accuse and then walk away.

You might wonder how it could be that God would speak so strongly seemingly on the side of the accused. Obviously the Lord does not want victims to not see justice. Obviously God does not want people to be afraid to speak out and tell the truth. So why would God make this seem so hard?

The answer is one of ultimate justice. When dealing with fallen humanity, we must understand that mistakes are going to be made in our criminal and civil courts. And we must make a decision as to where we err. Will we err on the side of punishing the innocent or acquitting the guilty? Obviously we want to do neither, as both are injustices. But the Lord has shown us in his word that it is better to err on the side of not punishing someone than to err on the side of wrongly punishing someone.

Why would that be? The answer lies in the truth of the absolute justice of God. Even as we are prone to error in our judgments, the Lord our God never makes a mistake. God will perfectly do justice. No one who appears to get away with a crime in their lifetime will find that their sin goes unpunished. God is just. He will always see to it that justice is done.

If we punish someone wrongfully, we can do nothing to give back to them what they have lost. But if we fail to punish a person who turns out to be guilty, the Lord will perfectly do justice. Thus, a belief in the Lord and in his word is what helps us to see exactly where to risk erring.

Let’s also remember that biblical justice, as a friend pointed out to me recently, is more than punishing the guilty. Biblical justice is about the glory of God. Justice is about restoring as much as possibly can be restored when wrong is done or crimes are committed. Justice is also about sanctifying people, preventing future crimes, bringing about purity in a land, and teaching all people to treat all people as image-bearers of God.

The hardest part of this concept given our social and political environment is that I would never want a man or woman, a boy or girl, to be afraid to tell the truth. If a person has been abused or attacked, they need to know that it is safe for them to speak out. At the same time, we must not develop a culture in which every accusation is so completely believed as to destroy a person’s career and reputation without any form of evidence.

What then must we do? IN general, we love those who accuse and love those who are accused, protecting the dignity of all humanity—people created in the image of God. We do not pretend that any person’s accusation is not a big deal. We do not make anyone think we will not take them seriously. And we counsel, and we apply the healing grace of the gospel to all our wounds. But that cannot mean that we automatically pre-judge all who are accused. As we see in Leviticus 19:15, “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” We do not defer to the strong or the weak, the rich or the poor, the accuser or the accused.

We love the accused by seeking genuine, biblical justice. Are they guilty? Is there real evidence? Are there witnesses? If there are , we love the guilty best by doing justice so as to punish crimes and to call for repentance. WE preach the gospel to the guilty and point them to the Savior. That may not get a woman her job back or keep a man out of prison, but eternal life is worth far more than any loss in this present world.

But what if the accusation is proven false? Then we must consider biblical justice there too. False accusers are attempting, for some reason, to damage other people with their words. Can we discern intent? Can we find out that a person was malicious in their motivation? IF so, then we should enact just penalties for that crime.

What if we cannot discern intent? What if there may be a genuine false belief based on a problem with memory or simple misunderstanding? Or what if the one accused might be guilty but we just cannot prove it? Is justice thwarted? Of course not. In such a situation we entrust the situation to the eternal justice of God, we strive to biblically comfort the hurting and the oppressed, and we move forward knowing that, at the final day of judgment, the Lord of Heaven and Earth will do rightly.