This week, Bec Isaacson continued on with our series “how to follow Jesus into today’s world” with the topic of justice and righteousness.
Justice and righteousness do not have united definitions within our culture, which is why we have to go back to the Word of God.
In Hebrew, the word for justice is mishpat. It means to give people what they are due, and to treat people equitably. In the Old Testament it had a lot to do with caring for vulnerable people; specifically orphans, widows, immigrants and the poor. This view of justice is also the basic foundation for human rights; the understanding that all people are made in the image of God and therefore possess inherited dignity and worth.
The Hebrew word for righteousness is tzadeqah. It references a persons behavior not only internally, but externally and specifically in the context of relationship with others. Living righteously means conducting all relationships (in family, in society, at work, everyday) with fairness and generosity. Living out daily life unto the Lord. We see these characteristics not just in the Old Testament, but also in the person of Jesus.

Justice and righteousness are paired together over and over again in the Scriptures, and God set up Israelite society in such a way that if they obeyed His laws and did what He said, then the underclass and the poor would virtually have ceased to exist.
As believers, our lives are to be marked not simply by the absence of sin, but by the presence of justice and righteousness; acts of doing that actively care for the poor, the vulnerable, the sick and the immigrant. It is a lifestyle that involves understanding mutual brokenness, living in relationship and giving not only finances but time, friendship, shelter, advocacy, support and care.