The Virtue of Justice
It is easy to love in general, theoretically, or ideologically, but loving neighbors and giving others their right due is quite difficult in light of all their weaknesses and quirks that drive us crazy. This requires the individual to have their soul rightly ordered to have devotion to the triune God, a disposition of self-denial, and a bent to render each his due in prudential fear of the Lord.
William Ames defines virtue as “a condition or habit by which the will is inclined toward the good and to do well. It is called a habit because it is, in general, a state of mind of various degrees of perfection. It is called habit not only because one possesses it but also because it makes the subject behave in a certain manner.”[1] Virtue, as a habit, aids the individual’s faculties to move toward good and not evil. Likewise, vice, as a habit, aids the individual’s faculties to move toward evil and not good. This is what the author of Hebrews says in his exhortation to those who should be teachers yet have remained immature and inexperienced in the faith (5:12–14). Those who are “mature,” or, virtuous, have powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (5:14). Virtue, then, is a gift of God, in union with Christ, that trains the individual Christian to grow in love of God and love of neighbor.
Augustine’s formulation of justice is important here: “Justice is love serving God only, and therefore ruling all else well.…The object of this love is not anything, but only God, the chief good, the highest wisdom, the perfect harmony.”[2] This understanding of justice is crucial, for justice is only virtuous if the soul is ordered rightly. Pastors do not practice justice for the sake of applause from others, a building of platform, a self-vindictive vengeance, or some expectation of repayment. Certainly, pastors do not practice justice for the sake of earning righteousness before God. Pastors can only practice justice truly if we are in Christ by grace and serving God supremely. Justice, then, guides and helps pastors establish their life and doctrine in right relation to God and neighbor.
As a virtue, justice is an inclination to act rightly by rendering all their own due (i.e., love). The just person also practices temperance and is not concerned with his or her own due, but with what is due to God and neighbor. It takes place in the tangible action of giving what is due and the concrete enjoyment of the reception.
The Art of Soul Care
Augustine articulates this point that justice is love serving. Each person, as made in God’s image, is due our love (Matt. 22:37–39). The act of justice is simply loving each neighbor, regardless of functionality or utility, because they have a personal right, or due, to be treated with dignity.
If justice is love serving those made in the image of God, then pastoral work is simply that art of arts whereby souls are loved by pointing them to that sure footing when the creep of fear and storm of anxiety present themselves in the flock of God. The art of soul care takes the virtue of justice into practice because the source and subject of the pastor’s ministry is that which the weightiest burdens, the broadest sins, the deepest griefs, and the strongest losses all crush mere human kindness. And yet, these, and all the rest of the human experience, realize their end in the life-giving Word of God. “The wondrous reality is that God himself is present by means of his word to settle anxious hearts and quiet fear. ‘Thus says the Lord!’ Now that’s a mouthful of certainty in an uncertain world.”[3]
Because there are no shortcuts or easy way outs with caring for guilt and shame ridden souls, prudent and persistent justice is necessary. And the splendid mystery is that God uses feeble and weak pastors to administer the medicine of heaven, the love of God for sinners, because the same gospel reality that forgives sin also cleanses sin. For pastors, the art of the care of souls is administering the reality, truth vs. fiction, for we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus crucified, buried, and risen who eagerly gives life to the dead, love to the wounded, hope to the discouraged, and faith to the faithless.
In other words, in practicing the virtue of justice, pastors “are called to steadily hold forth the word of life to souls sinking in a quagmire of sin and shame, repeatedly ushering people into the presence of the living God where day after day they receive life in the midst of the death that threatens to engulf them.”[4]
Providence, Humility, and Prayer
Providence is “God’s continuous preservation, direction, and guidance of all created things to the end He has determined from eternity and for His own glory.”[5] All things are bound up with God since everything is from Him, through Him, and to Him; all things depend on God and are moved and ruled by Him (Acts 17:24–28; Rom. 11:33–36). As such, divine providence is comprehensive in that all creation actions are from him.[6]
Providence is specifically related to the virtue of justice, for though we confess God’s sovereignty with our lips, we wrestle with Him in our hearts and actions (Isa. 29:13). We continue to believe the original lie that God is not only untrustworthy but that our ways are better, our judgments of righteousness and justice better. If we are to be imitators of God, how can we wrestle with God’s just providence in all things good and evil?
Of course, the practice of justice, and particularly the pastor’s modeling thereof, is only analogous to God as just. Yet, providence and the virtue of justice relate not only in our dogmatic confession of God’s sovereignty, but also in the pastor’s ministry of the Word as a whole. As the Scriptures proclaim and direct us to the righteousness and goodness of God, it is wicked for us to ever think we could shepherd a flock better than the Good Shepherd; we are the sinners who, in God’s kindness, has made us undershepherds.
We all wrestle against the Lord in our arrogant and vain thoughts of making ourselves lord, and pastors are no exception. The pastor must practice justice in the right way: humility and prayer. Humility is a necessary friend of justice, for this inner disposition is cultivated in all our thoughts, words, and actions. And yet, Basil keeps us in check to not even let those right and good actions cultivate pride:
Do you think you have accomplished something good? Give thanks to God lest you exalt yourself above your neighbor . . . Do not judge yourself with prejudice, nor examine yourself with partiality. If you think you possess some good, do not count this to your credit while purposely overlooking your misdeeds.[7]
Pastors must practice justice in the same way that the Apostle Paul exhorts the Colossian Christians by setting their minds on things above, where our life is hidden with Christ (Col. 3:1–17). This reality of union with Christ is the only way in which justice is rightly practiced. The very nature of mortification and vivification in Colossians 3 requires humility. “The soul grows like what it pursues, and is molded and shaped according to what it does,” says Basil.[8] Our soul, united to Christ, pursues Him, for He is our life, while our interactions with one another, in the school of Christ, forms a humble, just soul.
Editor’s Note: This is an edited excerpt from Every Perfect Gift: Classical Virtues for Christian Formation
[1] William Ames, Marrow of Theology, 224.
[2] Augustine, Morals, 15.25.
[3] Harold Senkbeil, The Care of Souls, 54.
[4] Ibid., 142.
[5] Synopsis of a Purer Theology, 101.
[6] See Job 12:10; 28:23–27; 37:11–12; Pss. 104:19–28; 119:91; Isa. 10:6–7, 23; Jer. 33:20; Matt. 5:45; Acts 4:28; 14:16.
[7] Mark DelCogliano, “Introduction to Humility,” in Basil the Great, On Christian Doctrine and Practice, 115. One fellow elder, riffing off of Lewis, said to me at an elder’s meeting: “The most obvious cloak pride wears is a humble one.”
[8] Basil the Great, On Christian Doctrine and Practice, 117.