Throughout its history, the ability of the church to practice justice has determined whether the values of God advance or decline. When Christians are practicing justice, they show that God is loving and powerful to work against some of the strongest forces of hate in the world. When the church is weak, complacent or engaging in injustice, God is made to look more like a personal crutch for the weak and the immoral. And who can blame the world for this perception? The church is suspect when some preachers tell us to expect new living room furniture from God but say nothing about God caring or doing anything about little children starving or being shot to death in various parts of the world. If the church is to regain a powerful hearing, then it must hear the cry of justice from the Scriptures.
Have you ever thought about how the Bible was written by people who were experiencing oppression? It might seem obvious, but is also something we can easily miss. The good news is that the Bible is also the story of the physical and spiritual salvation from that oppression.
Read More – How Can We Rest in His Presence?
1 John 3:19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
College Press NIV Commentary: Our love helps us to know whether we belong to the truth. John tells us that when we know that our hearts condemn us, our love is insufficient. Since God is greater than our hearts, then he can know who we are and what we are. Let us not try to deceive God by having only a “love with words or tongue.” God knows our hearts. We can set our hearts at rest in his presence if we are obedient to his command. We know that we “belong to the truth” when our consciences are at ease in his presence.
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