“You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land the LORD your God is giving you.” Deuteronomy 16.19, 20

But what is justice? In brief, justice takes the form of policies and practices which embody the character and purpose of God. A society is just when its laws and ways reflect the goodness, wisdom, compassion, and honor of God.

Our text relates justice to honesty, fairness, wisdom, and righteousness. Each of these qualities, in turn, has its origin in the character of God. God cannot lie and does not deceive. He is all wisdom and understanding and knowledge. And God is righteous in all His ways. In the Trinitarian relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, honesty, wisdom, righteousness, goodness, and love obtain at all times, and evidence a Being full of glory and abounding in blessings.

God intends people to live in a way that reflects His own goodness and redounds to His glory and honor. A society is just when it manages to do this.

But how can a just society, one which reflects the very being of God, be achieved? By obedience to God’s Law and attendance on all His counsel and ways. Our text begins with the command to appoint judges and officers in all the towns of Israel (v. 18). These men were responsible to see to it that the holy and righteous and good Law of God provided the policies and guided the practices by which their community existed. These officers would sit in the gates of the city to consider how best to bring the requirements of justice to bear on particular situations or circumstances affecting the wellbeing of their community (cf. Ruth 4). By turning to the Law of God and thinking through situations according to the demands of love (and honor) for God and neighbor-love, the judges and officers could expect to make just decisions and enact just policies for their community.

We cannot have just public policies as long as the Law of God is ignored or despised. Only people can introduce the Law of God into the public-policy arenas of our society. Each believer bears a responsibility for seeking to affect public policy, as we have seen (the loci of public policy). And believers should encourage their political representatives to consider the holy and righteous and good Law of God, and must be ready to assist them by every means to make policies that are agreeable to the requirements of justice.

But what are the requirements of justice? What forms does justice take in the Law of God?

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