by Danielle Zinn

Created on: June 02, 2010

Social justice. Many hear this word and don’t know what to think about it, because it seems too big, too broad to wrap their minds around it. However, social justice can be explained in simple terms, even if it takes a long time to reach. Social justice is having one person change the lives of the people in the community around them. This may seem different or unusual, but it is truth.

So let’s think more on how one person can bring about social justice in a society. For starters, I believe there needs to be a radical change in each individual that strives to put social justice into practice. I believe this radical change only occurs as people develop a relationship with Jesus Christ—the Lord God. Just as in a person to person relationship, getting to know each other cause you to start acting like the other person, the same goes for a person to God relationship—the more we take time to get to know God and love Him, the more we become like Him through His grace. This transformation starts on the inside, and over time moves to the outside too. As believers live out their relationships with God, the people around those believers will be changed.

It’s kind of like a ‘pay it forward’ kind of concept. Where one person does something to help another, and in turn those people each help three more, each of who help three more, and the circle of community (both the influencers and influenced) just keeps growing. Over time—time which is not specified, but in God’s right timing—many of the members of that individual’s community begin to change. Theirs too, will be an inside-out transformation.

Let’s take a closer look at this community. It seems to be a big word that many people use ambiguously. To explain this concept of community, let’s say you are the first individual in the discussion to transform. The community, then, would be all the people you see each day—both those you do and do not know—whom you influence simply by living out God’s change in you.

The change knowing God makes in a person is huge. We learn to be people of love, people of relationship, people of service, of care. Yes, there are plenty of times we fail and don’t represent Jesus well, but Jesus stands for love. He stands for the importance of relationships, of service, justice, of care. So, as believers of Jesus Christ our Lord, we need to strive and run hard after the things of God. We run after

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>