{"id":4555,"date":"2019-09-24T20:27:58","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T20:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=4555"},"modified":"2021-03-24T15:45:50","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T15:45:50","slug":"word-of-the-day-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2019\/09\/24\/word-of-the-day-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are several definitions for <em>justice<\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>the quality of being just; righteousness,\nequitableness, or moral rightness: <em>to uphold the justice of a cause.<\/em><\/li><li>rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or\ntitle; justness of ground or reason: <em>to complain with justice.<\/em><\/li><li>the moral principle determining just conduct.<\/li><li>conformity to this principle, as manifested in\nconduct; just conduct, dealing, or treatment.<\/li><li>the administering of deserved punishment or\nreward.<\/li><li>the maintenance or administration of what is\njust by law, as by judicial or other proceedings:<em>a court of justice.<\/em><\/li><li>judgment of persons or causes by judicial\nprocess:<em>to administer justice in a community.<\/em><\/li><li>a judicial officer; a judge or magistrate.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.etymonline.com\">www.etymonline.com<\/a>, justice first appears in English in \u201cmid-12c., \u2018the exercise of authority in vindication of right by assigning reward or punishment;\u2019 also \u2018quality of being fair and just; moral soundness and conformity to truth,\u2019 from Old French <em>justice<\/em> \u2018justice, legal rights, jurisdiction\u2019 (11c.), from Latin <em>iustitia<\/em> \u2018righteousness, equity,\u2019 from <em>iustus<\/em> \u2018upright, just\u2019 (see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/just\"><em>just<\/em><\/a> adj. )\u201d; \u201cfrom\u00a0<em>ius<\/em>\u00a0\u2018a right,\u2019 especially \u2018legal right, law.\u2019 The more mundane Latin law-word\u00a0<em>lex<\/em>\u00a0covered specific laws as opposed to the body of laws.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Justice<\/em> is a popular word today, but it\nis often modified: we talk about social justice, economic justice, and even\nenvironmental justice. But it seems to me that the modifiers, both the\nadjectives and the people who insert the adjectives, actually distort the\nmeaning of the word. For instance, when people talk about social justice, they\nmean that there is something wrong with society, and the government needs to\nuse its power to fix it. Social justice has nothing to do with whether or not\nthe individual deserves his or her reward or punishment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One of our favorite Bible verses is Micah 6:8: &#8220;He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?&#8221; But what is it \u201cto do justice\u201d? If we follow the definition, it is to make sure that everyone gets his or her deserved reward or punishment. If a person develops a product that everyone wants, like the personal computer, it is justice if that person makes a lot of money selling that product. If a person provides a service that a lot of people are willing to pay for, it is justice if that person makes a lot of money. If, on the other hand, a person provides no service to others and sells them no product that others want, if that person makes no effort to improve him- or herself to be able to provide a product or service, then it is justice if that person is unable to make money. Yes, it is true that some people have an advantage at the start of life, but that advantage was provided by a parent or grandparent who worked hard to provide a service or sell a product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So if we are going to \u201cdo justice,\u201d shouldn&#8217;t it be that we make sure, as much as possible, that people get what they deserve?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Except\nthat we are also supposed to \u201clove kindness,\u201d and oftentimes doing justice\ndoesn\u2019t seem to sit well with loving kindness. In addition, we are supposed to\n\u201cwalk humbly\u201d with our God. How do we execute justice with our limited\nunderstanding without becoming something less than humble? We are also told,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"text-align:left\"><strong><sup>1<\/sup>&nbsp;<\/strong>Judge\nnot, that ye be not judged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><sup>2&nbsp;<\/sup><\/strong>For with\nwhat judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it\nshall be measured to you again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><sup>3&nbsp;<\/sup><\/strong>And why\nbeholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother&#8217;s eye, but considerest not the\nbeam that is in thine own eye?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><sup>4&nbsp;<\/sup><\/strong>Or how\nwilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and,\nbehold, a beam is in thine own eye?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><sup>5&nbsp;<\/sup><\/strong>Thou\nhypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou\nsee clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother&#8217;s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How do we do justice when we are not supposed to judge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I think\nthe answer is in the same Bible that we find the words about justice. The\nanswer is mercy, which is not the same as justice. Justice says that we deserve\nwhat we get, and ultimately what we should get is punishment for our sins. But\nChrist\u2019s resurrection offers us mercy, something far, far better than what we\ndeserve. It\u2019s like we invent nothing, create nothing, offer nothing and yet\nbecome very rich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe God\u2019s justice includes mercy, and what God wants from us is not to execute justice like an Earthly judge but to execute justice the way He does, tempered with forgiveness and second chances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"427\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cross.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4556\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cross.jpg 960w, http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cross-300x133.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cross-768x342.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cross-730x325.jpg 730w, http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cross-435x193.jpg 435w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are several definitions for justice: the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness: to uphold the justice of a cause. rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4555"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4560,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4555\/revisions\/4560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}