As people of faith, there are a couple of ways—perhaps more than a couple—that we get righteousness wrong. These are the peculiar holy vices of “good” people.
The first is that we think righteousness is about “going to church” or other various religious rituals and forms. According to the Hebrew prophets, their God did not seem so interested in such things: “As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath and your special days for fasting—they are all sinful and false. I want no more of your pious meetings” (Isa. 1:13).* Consider also Isaiah 58:1-5 or Amos 5:21-24, and try them out as a call to worship or invocatory reading at the next worship service you are invited to contribute to.
The second wrong understanding of righteousness is that it is simply a ceasing from wrongdoing, if that were possible. Of course, this is an important place to begin. “Wash yourselves and be clean!” Isaiah continued delivering the message of God to the would-be righteous people of his day. “Give up your evil ways” (Isa. 1:16).
We should seek to choose against evil, to remove it from us and remove ourselves from it as far as is possible. But this can be a thin kind of righteousness—seeking merely the absence of evil—which is neither satisfying nor sustainable. At times people of faith have withdrawn from the world around them and important aspects of their own lives for fear of evil, only to find a kind of emptiness that is not righteousness in any meaningful way (consider Matthew 12:43-45).
Unsurprisingly, Isaiah’s opening monologue has higher expectations for righteousness and demands more of us—offering a practical outline for doing good that is readily adaptable as a guide to the work of advocacy in our world today. It is neatly summarized in five steps in Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.”
Learn to do good
Good work begins with listening and learning. Much harm has been done at times by well-intentioned people with limited understanding or simply an unwillingness to listen. This does not mean that we need a doctorate in social work or international development before we can do good, but our responses to the evil and injustice we see around us will be better shaped by listening and learning, in whatever form that study might make sense to you and the situation you are confronting. Listen to those you are seeking to help; learn from those who are already working in that context or issue; read books; engage in workshops, conferences, and seminars; sometimes even just begin with searching around an issue online. Do not use this as an excuse not to act, but use your impulse to act as an impulse to learn.
A society that better understands, affirms, and embraces justice and the rights of all people will be more likely to protect specific individual rights.
Seek justice
Sometimes they do, but good things only rarely happen by accident. They also rarely happen quickly. Seeking to do good, to work for justice, to be an advocate requires intention, attention, energy, and time. For people of faith, seeking becomes an enactment of our faithfulness. This must be shaped by listening and learning about the society and world around us, but we resist the inertia of ever-learning without resulting action. As incomplete as our knowledge and understanding will inevitably be and as imperfect as our responses might be, we seek to do right and to act humbly for the flourishing of others. We also act with perseverance, knowing that the work toward justice will be long and that the larger the issues we confront, the more powerful will be the systems and forces that benefit from and defend the status quo. We will seek justice nonetheless.
Help the oppressed
Isaiah 1:17 includes a kind of triage of the people with whom we will seek to stand as those who seek justice and advocate for those who are hurt by injustice. The highest priority will be for those who are presently suffering, whose lives are being diminished or destroyed by oppression or exploitation. While we must listen and learn, these are people for whom justice cannot wait and for whom “justice too long delayed is justice denied”—to quote Martin Luther King, who adapted it from a common legal maxim. Injustice is always a crisis, but its most immediate victims, “those being crushed” (see Prov. 31:8, 9), must be the first priority, the first to whom we listen and the first for whom we speak and act.
Defend the cause of orphans
The second priority will be those who are vulnerable to injustice, those whose lives and well-being are tenuous, and whose potential is limited by unjust systems around them. The good work of advocacy includes learning about these systems and the opportunities for using the power of people, persuasion, and policies to lift others. So often the impoverished and disempowered are blamed for poor choices they might have made in their lives when they had only poor or limited options from which to choose. By working against unjust systems, we seek to offer broader and better choices. As Jesus did, we seek to set free the chronically impoverished, incarcerated, and infirm (see Luke 4:18, 19).
Fight for the rights of widows
The third tranche in this model is that of fighting for the respect and rights of all people. It is a principle of human rights that they are not only universal but indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. If we are truly to champion rights for one group of people or in one circumstance of injustice or oppression, we must be concerned about all other rights and situations. At times Seventh-day Adventists have been defenders of religious freedom for not only ourselves but also others with whom we might not necessarily agree—but we need to expand still further on this. A society that better understands, affirms, and embraces justice and the rights of all people will be more likely to protect specific individual rights. We will partner with seemingly unlikely people, groups, and causes for the freedom and flourishing of all.
And if all this sounds like a lot of work, it is. It is a righteous orientation of all our lives. It will shape the choices we make in our education, our careers, our finances, our families, and more. It should even change the shape of our church and our churches. And in this there is an additional dynamic and resource: We do this together.
Many are familiar with Hebrews 10:25 and its injunction to “not neglect our meeting together.” It seems God is not against churchgoing, in principle. And He does insist that He can wash us clean of the evil of our lives and the world around us (see verse 22). But the heart of the call of righteousness to us comes in verses 23 and 24: “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.”
In the hope and promises of God, let us work together for practical righteousness—“love and good works”—in our lives, our churches, our communities, and our world. We will always get righteousness wrong, and God will love us nonetheless. But in working and advocating for justice and with those who are hurt by injustice and oppression, we can do righteousness better and seek to do that with God’s love for all people.
* Bible quotations are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream , Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.