Thought Snack: Love and Justice
“Love in the biblical sense (agape) is not what the Greeks called eros, desiring something for oneself, but is rather a self-giving, sacrificial attitude. Nor is it like the kind of friendship that, according to Aristotle, must always be reciprocated if it is to survive. Nor is it a warm and generous feeling for others. It is rather an overall moral principle, all-inclusive and exceptionless, that should govern all our actions, a selfless devotion to God that issues in sacrificial service to others.
Justice and love do not conflict but contribute each to the other. As love is obligated in justice to distribute its benefits equitably, rather than playing favorites or practicing discrimination and unfairness, so justice is motivated by love to keep its relentless quest tirelessly alive. Justice stresses the right outward ordering of life, while love is more an inner, personalized concern. Love without justice would be amorphous and lack direction. Justice without love would be uncaring and detached. But together they comprise the principles of God's kingdom, summed up in the Hebrew term shalom. It means peace, but peace of a certain kind: a just peace (each man sitting under his own fig tree, says Micah), a liberating peace (the children dancing in the streets, says Zechariah), a peace in which all enjoy the bounty of God and honor him thereby. Our highest end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Consequently, these principles of God's kingdom are the principles of a Christian ethic, to guide our judgments and our conduct.”
– Excerpt from Ethics: Approaching Moral Decisions by Arthur F. Holmes
