"Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?"
1 Corinthians 6:7
This is an interesting verse, and one that can be hard to accept, because isn't Paul saying here that justice doesn't matter? Aaah! My whole sense of right and wrong is flying apart! :) ... And although I am of course joking, it can feel like that sometimes when we are defrauded in some way. It's not an easy thing to "take wrong" or let go of that desire for heavy justice to rain down on someone else.
I don't think that God is saying justice doesn't matter. I think what he is saying is what he has said elsewhere, that it does matter, but it is HIS. God says several times in scripture "Vengeance is mine" (Romans 12:19), "judgment is mine" (Mormon 8:20), and even we are his (Leviticus 20:26, Malachi 3:17, etc.). And if we choose to be his, and we want mercy rather than judgement when *we* do wrong, then we have to give that desire for justice to him.
Because he is God, we know that everything will be okay in the end. We can trust that, but of course it is still going to be difficult to let it go when it seems to benefit other people and not ourselves. :) Today let's try though. Let's try to let go of the wrongs that are done in our direction, and accept that injustice is a part of our mortal journey. It's not a happy thought exactly, but it can be better if we realize how much that fact benefits us as we go through our own lives. Justice belongs to God because Christ suffered the pains of justice for us. And because of him, the wrongs that we have done to other people can be healed through his blood, and we don't have to endure the eternal consequences of all of our mistakes. We just have to repent.
Now of course, we should be trying to make the world better and that sometimes means stepping up and solving some justice issues together as a community and as a world, as encouraged and directed by God. However, as we work on improving the world and on our own lives, let's remember that injustice is sometimes exactly what we need in order to have the space to repent. Let's work on letting go of the wrongs that have been done to us, instead looking to the future, and working to do less wrong ourselves. :)
1 Corinthians 6:7
This is an interesting verse, and one that can be hard to accept, because isn't Paul saying here that justice doesn't matter? Aaah! My whole sense of right and wrong is flying apart! :) ... And although I am of course joking, it can feel like that sometimes when we are defrauded in some way. It's not an easy thing to "take wrong" or let go of that desire for heavy justice to rain down on someone else.
I don't think that God is saying justice doesn't matter. I think what he is saying is what he has said elsewhere, that it does matter, but it is HIS. God says several times in scripture "Vengeance is mine" (Romans 12:19), "judgment is mine" (Mormon 8:20), and even we are his (Leviticus 20:26, Malachi 3:17, etc.). And if we choose to be his, and we want mercy rather than judgement when *we* do wrong, then we have to give that desire for justice to him.
Because he is God, we know that everything will be okay in the end. We can trust that, but of course it is still going to be difficult to let it go when it seems to benefit other people and not ourselves. :) Today let's try though. Let's try to let go of the wrongs that are done in our direction, and accept that injustice is a part of our mortal journey. It's not a happy thought exactly, but it can be better if we realize how much that fact benefits us as we go through our own lives. Justice belongs to God because Christ suffered the pains of justice for us. And because of him, the wrongs that we have done to other people can be healed through his blood, and we don't have to endure the eternal consequences of all of our mistakes. We just have to repent.
Now of course, we should be trying to make the world better and that sometimes means stepping up and solving some justice issues together as a community and as a world, as encouraged and directed by God. However, as we work on improving the world and on our own lives, let's remember that injustice is sometimes exactly what we need in order to have the space to repent. Let's work on letting go of the wrongs that have been done to us, instead looking to the future, and working to do less wrong ourselves. :)
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