The Church as Center of Reform

And I said,
“Hear now, heads of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel.
Is it not for you to know justice? (Micah 3:1)


As I alluded in a recent exposition of Micah 3, "The Cost and Courage of Christian Leadership," Christians are called to pursue change in the world, not primarily through propositions and politics, but by pursuing faithfulness in each of the spheres of influence in which the Lord has placed us.

This is not new counsel, as Pastor Edwards led his congregation in a renewal of their church covenant during the Great Awakening, a part of which included:

In all our conversation, concerns, and dealings with our neighbor, we will have a strict regard to rules of honesty, justice, and uprightness; that we don’t overreach or defraud our neighbor in any matter, and either willfully or through want of care, injure him in any of his honest possessions or rights; and in all our communication, will have a tender respect, not only to our own interest, but also to the interest of our neighbor; and will carefully endeavor in everything to do to others as we should expect, or think reasonable, that they should do to us, if we were in their case and they in ours.

- Edwards, "Memoirs," in Works, vol. 1, lx.

As we greet this post-election morning in our country, with undoubted disappointments and grateful victories on the mind of each individual, let us never forget that justice begins in the lives of those redeemed by the One who is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (see Rom 3:26). It is for us to know justice.