We have looked at the basic principles of justice, and considered their necessary foundation in Scripture. Now when these principles are neglected, the result has to be injustice, although sometimes the injustice is the result of ignorance, which is less culpable. It of course remains culpable, but it is not high-handed. Many Christian people have never been taught from Scripture how to separate and distinguish true from false, slander from honest report, or due process from a hatchet job.
But others cling to their way of “adjudicating” even though the scriptural principles are laid out clearly and repeatedly in front of them. Those who embrace injustice this way do so because they are unjust men. Truth and argument to them are mere instruments; they will speak the truth if it advances their cause, and they will speak a lie just as readily. They will use the truth, they will ignore the truth, and they will display a reckless disregard for the truth.
This is another way of saying that injustice doesn’t just fall from the sky. Injustice is an action or a set of actions performed by personal agents, and the character of the action derives its quality from the one who does it, and not the other way around. An adulterer commits adultery; a thief steals; a covetous man covets. In the same way, an unjust man does and speaks unjustly. Jesus taught us that sinful actions proceed from the heart of man. The fruit does not determine the nature of the tree; the tree determines the nature of the fruit. Injustice, then, proceeds from unjust men.
Unjust men are so for different reasons. Some of them are driven by their doctrines, some by envy, others by a desire for revenge and so on. But all of them share injustice in the heart, and injustice in the heart leads to injustice in the hands and on the tongue.
Once an injustice is settled upon, the reports begin to circlulate, and, not surprisingly, those who love justice answer the charge. The apostle Paul had to deal (repeatedly) with those who twisted his teaching out of all recognition — “as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say” (Rom. 3:8). The devil is the father of lies, and, not to put too fine a point on it, this means he lies. Sometimes the lie is entirely false, but more often the lie is mixed in with just enough truth to make it hold together. And when the person charged attempts to explain (which he may need to do because of the “just enough truth”), the hooting starts. Just men are judicious men, but those engaged in slander can almost never bring themselves to act in a judicious way. Their hearts are tumultuous and they generate tumult wherever they go.
Once the dispute starts, the disputants do not all share the same advantages — those who love a lie are not constrained by facts and can fight dirty, or not, as it pleases them. Truth is constrained by its own nature and the bounds of Scripture. Truth fights by rule, and lies fight lawlessly. This might seem like an insuperable disadvantage, but there is something else to consider. Truth fights under the covenant blessing of the triune God, and lies are in the service of the devil, who loves to double-cross and abandon his own instruments. When Judas was hunting for the rope, the devil wasn’t trying to save him.
Nevertheless, in the short run, lies are much more flexible, and in the tussle are not above a little eye-gouging and ear-biting. The great Puritan writer Jeremiah Burroughs put it this way: “Truth is the bond that keeps unity, but error is wild” (Irenicum, p.16). Because error is wild, the best thing for truth to do is stay on the path, not turning aside to the right or the left. Truth should do what truth does the best, which is to move on straight ahead. Truth fights when it has to, but it fights in the path, in order to stay on the path. Bunyan’s pilgrim was not chasing over the meadows in order to go Apollyon-hunting. He fought, but he fought because Apollyon was in the path. We have our tasks assigned to us, and it is most important that we remain faithful in those tasks, whatever liars may say.
One last comment. Divisions in the body of Christ may be noted in two stages. The first is when dividers attempt to rally people to their flag, but with little or no success. Such men must be addressed, but not in the same way as divisions in the second category. The second, and more lamentable condition, is when divisions have settled in and the congregation (or community, or denomination) is in fact divided. Such a condition calls for the highest degree of wisdom. Burroughs again: “It is a great part of the skill of the minister to divide the Word aright; but this skill of his will be put to the test when he comes to divide the Word among a divided people, to give every part its portion” (pp. 16-17).