“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness.” Exodus 23.1

Living justly requires a kind of prescience on the part of God’s people. We have to be able to see into the future and envision situations in which justice will be compromised or maintained. And we have to recognize when certain actions, which might seem harmless in and of themselves, have the potential to bring injustice into the human situation.

The second side of the five-sided Biblical concept of justice is preventive justice. By this we are required either to take actions or avoid actions that might lead to some injustice if they were omitted or performed. Preventive justice works to prevent injustice from happening.

Thus we may prevent harm to our neighbor or his property by building a railing around our back deck or by taking care whenever we are burning rubbish on our own property. By taking precautions we prevent injustice.

But also by refusing to participate in gossip or malicious conversations, we make it harder for injustice to happen to others. Gossip and malicious conversation can lead to others being slighted, slandered, treated with scorn, or worse. If we refuse to participate in these activities we may rebuke those who do, and we may also make it harder for the harmful effects of such malice to be realized.

But, once again, we need to be thinking about such matters as they are unfolding around us. We must prepare our minds for just action (1 Pet. 1.13). The Law of God intends to train our minds to be alert to situations in which something we might do could eventuate in harm or injustice coming to others. We must foresee the danger and practice preventive justice in order to carry out the requirements of love to God and neighbor in faithful obedience to His Word (Prov. 1.17).

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.