Justice In The Social Order -- By: William Matheson

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 08:2 (May 1946)
Article: Justice In The Social Order
Author: William Matheson


Justice In The Social Order

William Matheson

OURS is a day of conflict. The times are out of joint. It is therefore a time when the idea of justice is much to the fore. But the reason for this is not any consciousness that justice prevails. It is not because the sanctity of justice is deeply appreciated. It is rather because of the consciousness, or at least the notion, that the reign of justice in human affairs is sadly wanting. When we say, the idea of justice, we are thinking of the fact that universally amongst mankind a principle is recognised which we call justice. The fact is, however, that the ideas of what is just and what is unjust in human relations are bafflingly multitudinous. Yet there is no factor in a man’s experience of the disagreeable and unpleasant which can embitter his soul more than his conviction that he is suffering unjustly. This seems to arise, partly at least, from the belief that the party responsible for the injustice must be conscious of it as surely as he is. Men seem to take this for granted intuitively.

When we go to the Scriptures for light on the matter we find this very fact of embitterment in the first recorded illustration of what constitutes injustice. Cain was a tiller of the soil but Abel was a keeper of sheep. Both alike presented each his offering before the Lord. Cain offered of the fruit of the ground which he tilled. Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. Manifestly Cain somehow was aware of apparent discrimination against him. We are told that he was very wroth and his countenance fell. The Lord read Cain’s thoughts. In his heart he was alleging respect of persons in the acceptance of Abel’s offering and the rejection of his own. The Lord pointed out to him the groundlessness of such an imagination, and showed him that the way of acceptance for him was as open to him as it was to Abel, and

further that his accepting of that way would result still in the recognition of his primacy. Cain’s proud heart interpreted the dictate of justice, “no respect of persons”, under the bias of undue respect to his own person and will before the Lord. He hardened his heart in proud impenitence, and urged on by the bitterness conceived in his soul by the false conviction of his having suffered injustice, he murdered Abel who had not wronged him. The conception of injustice in this record springs from the notion of “respect of persons”. This reveals what seems to be the basic element in the scriptural conception of justice. Justice means “no respect of persons”.

In the Book of Job we find Job’s three friends endeavo...

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