Introduction and Overview

Historically, Christians have been at the center of many social reforms and peaceful justice-seeking in the world. Such endeavors arose alongside the work to preach the Gospel and bring the message to people around the world. We did it because we cared for those we were reaching out to as we aimed to represent Christ.

Nowadays, the term “social justice” often sparks intense debate. When I first encountered it, I understood it as a movement focused on addressing societal wrongs, such as racial discrimination and other forms of injustice. At its core, social justice aimed to confront and correct the social ills that affect communities.

Justice is the right thing to seek out. God is justice and, being joined to Him through Christ, will make us want to see what is right done.

The problem comes with social justice (today) having become more than what I had first thought years ago. Yes, it faces down discrimination like racism, sexism, etc. but it has also become very intertwined with worldly ideas of what is “wrong” with society. An example would be a twisting by Marxist frameworks like Cultural Marxism–which has its own end unto itself. Despite the term “social justice” still carrying a positive connotation, the term has become quite tainted by such views.

What social justice as a whole now espouses and what scriptural Christianity stands for in the gospel are not one and the same thing. Therefore, seeking social justice cannot be conflated with preaching the gospel. The Gospel is filled with God’s good light and social justice too often divorces actions from God’s Gospel.

Regardless, seeking justice is related to Christianity; this I will not deny. (Though we should seek it out peacefully–not in rebellion.) If I stand and say that all are one in Christ, then this is going to have profound implications across culture, race, ethnicity, national identity, subculture, etc. At His feet, there is no division. We should be united in our call to Christ and united in the call to proclaim Christ.

Social Righteousness

We have established that justice is the right thing to seek out–particularly for Christians. However, this does not warrant vigilante “justice.” Such a thing isn’t justice but rebellion and chaos.

Let’s be clear . . .

Racism is wrong. Sexism is wrong. Classism is wrong. Any other discriminatory “ism” you can think of is wrong.

We are all image bearers created by God to reflect Him throughout the globe. It is only amongst the followers of Christ that God gets truly reflected. As such, others are reflecting themselves, promoting their own greatness, affiliations, etc. instead of Him.

There is no room for hating each other for so many superficial things.

We seek to bring more and more people to Him through His Gospel to do exactly that–reflect Him.

Along the way, we reach out to the poor, feed the hungry, and clothe the needy. Why? Because we’re great? Absolutely not!! We do such things recognizing that everyone we reach out to is one of God’s apex creatures and can only find their greatest joy when they are reflecting Him.

God is the reason we reach out.

God is the reason we spread the Gospel.

God is the reason for everything we do as followers of Him.

If we do this rightly, we portray social righteousness toward our fellow human beings. Our actions speak of God’s justice and our desire to glorify Him in all that we do.

We should always seek to be socially righteous in God’s eyes.

As Christians, it is this calling we must carry out as salt and light unto the world.

Social Righteousness is God’s social justice done His way–not the way of the World’s.

Other Items For Further Reading and Understanding:

There are a number of good sources to look and to dig into regarding the larger topics involved with the terms Social Justice, Social Righteousness, Cultural Marxism (as it relates to current incarnations of “Social Justice today), etc.

• Voddie Baucham is one such individual that would I recommend looking into and what he says on the matter.
  • Here’s an example from YouTube (where you can find many others as well): (37:20)

The above gives more of a lengthy definition but the next gets more specifically into Cultural Marxism on the topic. (1:05:45)

However, there are those who will side with the Social Justice movements and terminology while still attempting to draw a line that points toward Christ. The following video digs into that: (28:30)

If you wish to see more material on this topic, there is even more on YouTube (YT) by leaders such as John MacArthur.

As the author of this article, I don’t like the twistedness social justice has become. As such, I prefer to break from that term and insist on social righteousness to reflect the strong biblical basis that should be taken in all that we do.