Who is my neighbor? – part 3

Our guiding question – “Who is my neighbor?” – remains not yet fully answered. We have laid the theological groundwork and explored the essential elements of justice in Part 1 & Part 2. Though it is a simple question, answering it requires a careful study of God’s redemptive work in history if we are to think clearly about justice within our own context. Ultimately, our conviction is that biblical justice begins not with outrage or reform, but with repentance before a holy God whose justice and mercy meet in Christ.

A Brief Illustration

Let’s begin by contrasting what we can see, experience, understand, and control with the scope of all that exists beyond us. Our life and perspective are like a single point of brilliance on the edge of a vast and mysterious circle, beyond our ability to see or comprehend. That single point represents our moment in time and space, our limited connection to a universe created and sustained by an infinite and glorious God.

This does not absolve us from accountability or engagement. Instead, it places our responsibility in perspective. We act faithfully within our limited horizon, knowing that we do not see the whole. Biblical justice begins with humility, because ultimate justice belongs to God as the ONE who defines and is able to enact perfect justice.

God Defines Justice

Romans 3 exposes how easily we misunderstand justice:

“But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? By no means!” (Rom. 3:5–6)

The first and most difficult truth is this: God defines justice, not us. Every one of us has transgressed His just law, and He has every right to condemn us under that law, a law upon which our very existence depends. If God were to refuse judgment altogether, He would deny His own character and cease to be just.

A false understanding of justice leads us to blame God for injustice, take justice into our own hands, or even commit injustice in His name. Yet history shows and Scripture confirms that true reform comes from within biblical convictions, not from abandoning them.

Misapplications of Biblical Justice

Justice detached from the Cross of Christ produces either coercive conformity or self-righteous outrage. When we look honestly at the history of the Church, we must admit that even well-intentioned desires to “protect” God’s truth or to bring others into His redemptive plan have often resulted in injustice. Our self-righteousness, often expressed historically through coercive conversions, racial hierarchy and religious wars, has exposed our (mis)use of power without humility, authority without love, and truth without grace.

At the same time, a reinterpretation of Jesus’ life and work as merely “freeing people from injustice” fails to define justice correctly or produce lasting good. A Liberation Theology, detached from the Cross, ultimately denies the deepest freedom Christ provides: freedom from the slavery of sin and restoration to a life of obedient worship and right relationship with God.

These failures reveal not “too much biblical justice,” but justice severed from redemption, humility, love and the necessity of repentance before the Cross of Christ. The Cross is not incidental; it is central. It is the very justice God requires for sin, a justice He chose to bear Himself. This is why God’s definition of justice unsettles us. It operates on an eternal scale we cannot fully comprehend.

“Life under the sun” and our attempts to save ourselves

Ecclesiastes offers a brutally honest account of life in a world marked by injustice, viewed from within human experience apart from divine redemption. The Preacher names injustice clearly, yet what emerges is not salvation but an exposure of our inability to fix what sin has broken through our own efforts. In Ecclesiastes 3:16–4:6 we see common human responses to injustice as we try to “save” ourselves or others.

Some respond with striving. They double down on work, achievement, control, or moral outrage, hoping effort or influence will overcome injustice. Yet striving cannot secure justice or meaning. Power remains uneven, outcomes uncertain, and death renders every accomplishment fragile.

Others respond with cynicism or despair. Seeing injustice persist, they withdraw trust, abandon hope, and conclude that nothing truly matters. Ecclesiastes gives voice to this despair, but never presents it as a solution.

Even the recognition that “a handful of quietness is better than two hands full of toil and striving after wind” falls short. Humility and restraint are essential, but they cannot save us from the weight of injustice that pervades the world.

Taken together, Ecclesiastes does not offer a path to justice or reconciliation; it reveals the limits of all human self-salvation projects. Whether through striving, despair, or resignation, life under the sun cannot produce the justice it longs for. We are still waiting for an answer that all of human wisdom and effort cannot provide.

The Redemptive Requirement

What Ecclesiastes leaves unresolved, God addresses decisively in the Cross of Christ. Only God can meet our longing for justice without destroying us in the process. In Christ, guilt is answered, shame is covered, and reconciliation becomes possible. This is justice for all and justice far beyond what any of us deserve.

Justice here, in this deepest expression of God’s grace, is no longer merely retributive, but restorative. The Cross holds together what human wisdom cannot: accountability and mercy, truth and forgiveness, righteousness and compassion. Isaiah 53 reminds us that justice and healing meet in the suffering Servant, not by abolishing justice, but, rather, fulfilling it.

Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 brings this reality into history, showing how God’s justice confronts human injustice. Peter establishes the identity and Messianic role of Christ and then directly confronts his audience for their complicity:

“This Jesus… you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” (Acts 2:23)

But Peter’s message does not end with condemnation. When the crowd is “cut to the heart” and asks what they should do, Peter’s answer is not activism nor outrage, but a clear call to repentance:

“Repent and be baptized… for the forgiveness of your sins.” (Acts 2:38)

Human injustice is not merely systemic or accidental; it is personal and spiritual. The greatest injustice is our personal and societal rejection of God’s authority and His Messiah. Every other injustice flows from rebellion against God’s law and resistance to His design. Repentance, turning from sin and submitting to Christ, is the necessary foundation for all true justice. From that repentance flows a transformed community marked by generosity, shared life, responsibility, worship, and care for one another.

This is why biblical justice must be lived out relationally and locally before it is expressed systemically. Justice that has not first transformed the heart will inevitably distort power. The principle of subsidiarity is a reminder that responsibility belongs first to individuals (Ex. 20:1-17), families (I Tim. 5:8), and communities (Deut. 6:1-9), then to the church (Eph. 4:11-16), and finally, only where necessary, to the state (I Tim. 2:1-4). Where repentance reshapes the heart, humility, stewardship, and accountability grow naturally.

What biblical justice builds is not chaos or control, but flourishing:

• restored relationships, not perpetual grievance;
• responsible persons, not permanent victims;
• communities of care, not isolated individuals;
• moral formation, not mere compliance;
• hopeful accountability, not despair or vengeance.

Conclusion: Who Is My Neighbor?

My neighbor is anyone God places within my reach. Justice is not merely something we demand from systems, but something we practice as redeemed people. The Church’s calling is not perfection, but repentance and faithfulness, bearing witness to a Kingdom where justice and mercy meet at the cross, and where repentance opens the door to lives transformed for His glory.

The question now becomes “Have I repented, and am I living as someone transformed by the justice and mercy of Christ?“