“… And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Most of us are familiar with the concept of “Lady Justice” – we may have seen statues and paintings of her holding a sword in one hand and a balance scale in the other.

The sword, of course, represents punishment and justice itself, and the balance scale symbolizes the idea of fairness in the justice dispensed. And if we look closely at these representations of the figure of Justice, we see she is usually wearing a blindfold – symbolic of total impartiality in judgement.

The Bible stresses the same concepts of justice and fairness – or justice and mercy as it calls them – as we see in Micah’s words “to act justly and to love mercy” as well as the words of Zechariah “…Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another” (Zechariah 7:9), and the words of Christ himself “…you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness….” (Matthew 23:23).

But we must be careful when it comes to the blindfold.  God’s word encourages us to be involved in the dispensation of justice and mercy – to interact with the individuals to whom these principles must be applied in our roles as parents, supervisors, or whatever. Biblically, we cannot be impartial.  We cannot temper justice with mercy if we don’t look at the circumstances involved in the situation we are judging, and we cannot temper mercy with judgment if we do not look at the attitudes involved.

From a biblical perspective, we do need to see clearly what is involved in each instance where we may be in a position to dispense justice or punishment, just as we must where we might need to grant mercy or forgiveness.  Certainly, we must not judge by appearances, as Christ confirmed: “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge the righteous judgment” (John 7:24).

But we must not judge blindly – we must learn to look below the surface and judge matters of justice and mercy without the blindfold of social pressure that sometimes may lean unduly toward mercy, or conversely the blindfold of our human nature that may lean unduly toward justice.  Either of those blindfolds can obscure what we need to see.

The word of God encourages us to see situations needing justice or mercy clearly, but through the lens of its teachings rather than through those of social pressure or human nature.  We may understand this and know the importance of applying both justice and mercy, but how well do we know the scriptures that apply to doing just that?  It’s a simple enough study (search “justice” and “mercy” in a concordance or on a Bible website with search capabilities) and one we should all do at some point: preferably before situations arise needing the application of justice or mercy rather than after they do.

Ultimately, knowing the Scriptures and being guided by God’s Spirit through them is the only way we can properly hold the sword and the scale in our everyday lives as Christians. It’s the only way we can express the law of love through a right balance of justice and mercy, and the only way to do it without being blindfolded.

Scripture in Focus:  “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear …” 1 John 4:18
 
This scripture provides a classic example of the importance of context in understanding the Bible, and the problems that come when we forcibly remove verses or parts of verses from their setting.  Taken out of proper context, the words “There is no fear in love” are often quoted as a kind of spiritual “rabbit’s foot” or good luck charm – a mantra suggesting that if we have  enough love, we will have no fear. 

But if this is the case, real life experience would indicate that none of us has enough love. We can be filled with love for God and fellow humans, but still find we are afraid of heights, or roaring lions, spiders, snakes, or whatever else might cause us fear.  The answer is clearly not that we need to love heights or lions more, but that we need to see what exactly the fear is that love casts out.   The apostle John gives us the answer if we look at the context in which “there is no fear in love” is found:

“This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:17-18).

The context makes it immediately clear that John is talking about judgment and how we can have confidence on the Day of Judgment (vs. 17).  He tells us that in this regard love casts out fear because if we truly love God and others, we will have nothing to fear in judgment. That this is the only fear John is talking about is made doubly clear when we look at the rest of verse 18 – where John tells us “… perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment …”  It is the fear of judgment and resulting punishment that love cancels out.

Now this understanding of the proper context and meaning of 1 John 4:18 does not leave us without encouragement in the area of fear.   A simple word search in a Bible concordance or on a Bible website will show that there are a great many verses affirming that believers need not live lives of fear. We may still be afraid of heights, and maybe even of snakes or roaring lions (Psalm 34:4, 56:3), but many of the psalms show that God’s love for us can help cancel out fear of men (Psalm 27:1), disaster (Psalm (1:5-6), or uncertainty (Psalm 23:4) in our lives.
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A wonderful scripture to which we can turn in this regard is 2 Timothy 1:7 that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”  Here, in fact, Paul contrasts an attitude of fear with that of the love that comes from the Spirit of God, a concept that is not so different from the way many people use 1 John 4:18 – but it’s so much better to use a verse that means what we think it means, even when we look at in context. 

The Book of Luke tells the well-known story of how Jesus was invited to the home of a Pharisee named Simon.  While he was there, a woman who was a prostitute slipped into the house and, weeping at His feet, wiped her tears from Him with her hair before kissing His feet and pouring expensive perfume onto them.  

When Simon began to think that Jesus surely could not be a prophet of God, or he would have known the sinfulness of the woman, Jesus rebuked him by comparing her loving behavior with the loveless failure of the Pharisee.

The story has additional significance because if we read it carefully, we see that it actually reveals  important aspects of  true and complete love for others.  This week’s article on the Strategic Understanding page, “Three Components of Real Love,” shows what those aspects are.