Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks.

Where we connect the Bible to your life.

In the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Patrick Miller. The phrase social justice warrior has become a bit of a

shibileth. For some people it's a phrase for a bad kind of person and for others

it's a phrase for the right kind of person and on one

level I understand both sides. Modern social justice warriors often stand for causes

directly opposed to God's definition of justice, to God's vision of the good life.

And yet, God does care about justice, doesn't he?

I think I have to ask that as a question because I've had many sincere friends get frustrated with their churches and church leaders when they address issues of justice.

Whether that's racial justice or justice for the poor.

And it's not that my friends are against those things.

They just say it's the church's job to preach the gospel and not address social issues.

Several years ago I had a friend who was frustrated with a church service where the worship

leader used words like oppressed and oppression in the liturgy.

He feared that the church was abandoning her duty, maybe it was becoming Marxist. But then he went on a journey to

discover what the Bible said about these topics. And you know what he found out? The Bible frequently

uses words like oppressed and oppression and justice.

So maybe his church wasn't parroting a political party. Maybe they were just

using biblical words. I've kind of thought the same way about the phrase social justice. just reject the Bible's teaching and parade themselves under the false moniker of social justice.

I am also very aware that in the Old Testament, God is a social justice warrior.

Quite literally, throughout the Psalms and the prophets,

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