Justice and Mercy

He has told you, mortal one, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? Michah 6:8 NASB

The Council of Nicaea wrestled with what Jesus was. Was he man? Was he God? Was he a little of both, or more of one than the other? The final result was an understanding of the hypostatic union, that Jesus was both fully God, and fully human. That he holds both of these, fully, and wholly is important. Neither is diminished by the other. To suggest as such is not only heresy, but misdiagnosis of the radical nature of the gift of the Incarnation.

It is an analogy of sorts to how we can think about what God’s character is like. God is both just and merciful. Both of these exist simultaneously within him, and to have one without the other is to not have love.¹

Perhaps, the idea of justice has lost some significance and meaning in 2025, as the word has been used to mean far more than intended. To be just, is, in effect, to be ordered and to bring about order. In Hebrew mishpat and in Greek dikaiosyne, both reference discerning and creating social order and are closely associated with the word righteousness. As in a just or righteous man lives an ordered life, and contributes to the order around him. Think of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of what Jesus describes as love for a neighbor.² An injustice had occurred in that a man had been beaten and left for dead at the side of the road. It didn’t matter his ethnicity or background, the just or righteous man helped bring order back to being. He personally footed the bill of the injustice, and righted what was wrong.

This is what a judge is supposed to do with respect to justice. It’s not merely punitive, but it is the bringing about of order to a disordered system. If someone stole $50 from me they brought about disorder. What was mine was unfairly taken. A judge might be punitive in an attempt to limit or discourage increased social disorder, but justice or order requires that one way or another that $50 to come back to me. Punishing a thief alone isn’t bringing back my $50, and it doesn’t lead to order. To walk justly with the Lord is to act as such. To treat people with fairness and to help maintain or to bring about that order.

Charity is also integral to justice, as the condition of the vulnerable is unfair in a broader sense.

In scripture, the wealthy who owned lands were to not glean the food right to the edges, for the edges of the land belonged to the poor to glean. ³ God was furious when, in order to avoid that obligation, people would join two fields together so that they had two fewer edges to share with the poor. It’s was a legal loophole to avoid charity and was (is) an active perversion of justice. ⁴

For those who were blind and orphaned, a different type of charity was proscribed: almsgiving. Unable to look after themselves, their condition was the responsibility of the whole. This is a reality that continued within the church. ⁵ The act of it was so just that God addressed Cornelius because he saw how he was devoted to it.⁶ It’s also one that the church preached against taking advantage of, for taking advantage of charity was also unfair.⁷

God is just. His laws displaying this are about order and fairness.

However, justice without mercy is not loving, as God is both.

The most famous example of this in scripture is the image of the woman caught in adultery.⁸ Sex outside its intentions in marriage is not just, in that it brings about all sorts of disorder that causes hurt and pain beyond the couple. It brings children outside of marriage, it breaks down marriages, it encourages unhealthy and lustful appetites, it reduces commitment, allows for the vulnerable to be taken advantage of, and there are diseases to contend with. The social consequences are quite large and not as free as many would have us believe. To enforce social order was to do justice. In this instance, it involves killing (both) adulterers as an attempt to destroy and limit the social cancerous growth. Once a culture starts tolerating behavior like this, it metastasizes.

When asked if they should follow the law (do justice), Jesus doesn’t say anything. Much might be inferred by what he writes in the sand, but in the end he doesn’t judge the woman. That is to say he doesn’t bring down condemnation (katékrinon in Greek) on her.

Mercy. God is merciful.

“Do not judge (krinete or bring down condemnation), so that you won’t be judged. For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use.⁹

However, krinete is not dikaiosyne. That to say that condemnation and justice are different. When the woman is about to leave, Jesus’ parting words to her are “go and sin (hamartane) no more”¹⁰ The translation means she was not condemned but she was also to no longer live a disordered life. He’s merciful, but he maintains justice. It’s not a free license to continue to live waywardly,¹¹ or that would be unjust and continue to do harm to many, including herself. She was neither condemned, nor was she cut free from justice.¹²

Mercy without justice is not loving as God is both.

This notion of carrying both Justice (order) AND mercy (kindness) in one’s heart all the while being humble becomes incredibly important to me in discerning how to follow the Lord in today’s culture. A practical example of the outcome of the two extremes within my own country have to do with immigration, where either extreme mercy, or extreme justice do great harm and neither are instances of love.

In the case of mercy, there is a thing called toxic empathy, which is a form of narcissism. Ever met someone who gives to the point of their own dysfunction? They are not giving from a healthy place, but because they need to give in order to satisfy some unmet condition within them. This type of individual, who is all empathy, tends to overly empathize with the idea of a migrant. Open border policies are a negligence of duty of those whose job it is to maintain order. When there is no legal order, the weak and vulnerable suffer. When there is no order, the powerful profit and manipulate the disadvantaged for their own benefit. Think of the criminal gangs profiting from human smuggling. Or think of the atrocious instances of physical and sexual abuse, or the growing cross border sex trade reported amongst migrants. Politicians taking selfies at the border to evoke empathy are not doing justice. They are not caring for the poor and vulnerable, but are themselves profiting (through popularity) off of the backs of the desperate. The culpability of this climate falls on the shoulders of those such as these.

Mercy without justice is not loving.

But neither are those that cry for mass deportation. Like the men who longed to stone the adulteress, their fomenting of discord and dehumanizing rhetoric that vilifies those who are in the United States without legal rights nears ecstatic glee. They seem to relish in their condemnation. Rounding up everyone without status might be just, but it is certainly not merciful. Yes, there is no perfect way to restore order. Yes, difficult decisions come at a cost. Yes, it gets messy. Yes, the crisis was neglected for far too long, which is why humility is the essential disposition for those whose job it now falls to create order from disorder. Humility sees another human with the same lenses that we view ourselves. Humility empathizes. Humility discerns, individually and carefully.

To carry both Justice and Mercy, with Humility is not partisan. It will not win favors from any tribe or camp, but it is the way of the Lord. And it is how we love.

1. 1 John 4:7-21. God is love. Therefore, that which does not mirror God, cannot be called loving. ↩︎
2. Luke 10:25-37 ↩︎
3. Leviticus 19:9-10 ↩︎
4. Isaiah 5:8 ↩︎
5. James 1:27 ↩︎
6. Acts 10:1-4 ↩︎
7. 2 Thessalonians 3:6,10; ↩︎
8. John 8:1-11 ↩︎
9. Matthew 7:1-2 ↩︎
10. John 8:11 ↩︎
11. Romans 6:1-2 ↩︎
12. In one way, that’s the summation of the Gospel, that God frees us from ourselves, and from our condemnation, but also frees us from waywardness. ↩︎