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The problem with social justice warriors

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That title may be a bit misleading, but let me share a couple of thoughts, and then you can decide.

Justice is definitely on God’s heart, so fighting to make wrong things right is something that all of us should be doing. John the Baptist mentioned this when he was describing what Jesus would do when He came:

Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. (‭‭Luke‬ ‭3:5‬ ‭NIV, emphasis mine)

The excess of the mountain would fill in the deficit of the valley. That’s a good thing, and so when social justice warriors are fighting to bring equity where there has been inequity, that’s a good — dare I say, a God? — thing.

But lurking beneath that fight can be a heart that doesn’t have the King’s heart. They may be doing work that the King desires, but because they don’t have His heart, they don’t know when to stop.

Just as Death and Destruction are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied. (‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭27:20‬ ‭NLT, emphasis mine)

The problem isn’t that social justice warriors are fighting for justice. The problem is that the human heart — if not reborn with Kingdom DNA — never knows when to stop fighting. “An eye for an eye” never really worked because sinful humanity doesn’t want to get even; it wants to get ahead.

[Tweet “Sinful humanity doesn’t want to get even; it wants to get ahead.”]

That’s why movements tend to be cyclical. If you have five more dollars than me, I don’t just want you to give me five dollars so we’re even, I want to take five more dollars to make you feel the same deficit I felt. I want you to live in the valley while I get my turn on the mountain.

But in the Kingdom, everything is brought to the same level. All of us stand on the same footing before the King. We have equal value in His eyes. No more slave or free, male or female, Gentile or Jew. One people. One race. One family. One King.

In that place, revenge disappears because repentance takes its place. The DNA of a new world floods our hearts, and reconciliation with one another and with God fuels the fight. That’s when we’ll begin to see the valleys filled.

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June 24, 2021by Paul Jenkins
Written by Paul Jenkins
Paul Jenkins is lead pastor of The Gathering, a community church located in beautiful downtown Albemarle, North Carolina. He's the author of God is My Air Traffic Controller and My Name's Not Lou. Paul is passionate about his wife, his 3 children, running, reading, coaching, leading people who are following Jesus, Swedish Fish and the Carolina Panthers.