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We live in a world punctuated with individual rights and laws that allow redress for nearly every possible wrong that might be conceived under the sun. American litigiousness is notorious, perhaps, because of this expansive construct of individual rights.  

Laws are intended to set parameters on human activity according to a basic set of societal values that are calculated to promote human flourishing. When we feel we have been unjustly or unfairly treated, we have the authority granted by our laws to assert our rights to obtain justice.

We roll our eyes at the frivolous lawsuits held up for the amazement and ridicule of a curious public, but many real injustices and real wrongs still occur in our modern world. People are still people, and we don’t always do right be each other.

Actual malicious intention is exhibited in the never ending scams perpetrated on elders and other unsuspecting victims. They get more and more sophisticated as time goes by. These scams target the most vulnerable people in our community, and these scammers intentionally rob people of millions (maybe even billions) of dollars every year.

People also do wrong against others less intentionally. Either through negligence (not caring enough to protect others from our actions or failures to act) or through protecting ourselves to the detriment of others. Injustices and wrongs are a part of every day life, unfortunately.

The legal systems of civilized societies exist to provide recourse in a controlled way that preserves order and achieves some measure of justice, however slowly those wheels turn. The alternative is the wild west where justice happens as quickly as a finger on a trigger or the time it takes to tie a noose. Such “justice” is often little more than a power wielded by the strong over the weak.

We are sometimes conflicted by these things, especially in the circumstances of egregious injustice. Hitler is the ultimate example. We want justice to be swift and unforgiving. We are willing to forgo the protocols intended to safeguard our system of justice when we feel the ends justify the means.

We would never want to be on the other side of that equation, though, especially if we didn’t do it! Beyond that, I like to say that no person really wants justice when we stand before God, because God’s strict justice would be unrelenting and unforgiving. It allows for no mercy, when what we really want (and need) from God is His mercy!

Fortunately, we have a God who is merciful and slow to anger. (Exodus 34:6) He is “compassionate and gracious … and abounding in mercy.” (Psalm 103-8) God desires to be merciful to us rather than to demand our sacrifice (Hosea 6:6), and He desire us “to act justly and to love mercy”. (Micah 6:8)

When we think of justice, we might immediately think of criminal justice and the punishment for committing crimes. We might immediately think of God’s justice and punishment for unrepentant sinners.

Biblical justice, however, focuses more on doing right by people (acting justly), and it is intimately connected to loving mercy. In the biblical system of justice, judgment without mercy is meted out only to the one who has shown no mercy (James 2:13), and that should change the way we view justice.

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This attitude that God wants us to adopt is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said we should not demand strict justice in our dealings with others: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Instead, he said, we should turn the other cheek; if someone sues for your shirt, hand over your coat; and if someone forces you to go a mile, go with them two miles. (Matt. 5:39-42)

The American system of jurisprudence has biblical principles embedded in it. It is a balance between strict justice and a more biblically holistic justice that includes the possibility of mercy and redemption.

We tend to want strict justice when it comes to fighting crime. We tend to want strict justice when we feel our own ox has been gored. The tables turn when we are falsely accused or have been accused of goring someone else’s ox.

Justice is a necessity in a civilized, orderly society, but strict justice is an imperfect tool. Not even God desires strict justice. Strict justice would leave heaven unpopulated! Strict justice is not redemptive, and strict justice is not biblical justice.

Especially among believers, higher principles than strict justice should prevail. This is why Paul admonished the Corinthian Church about maintaining lawsuits against brothers and sisters in Christ:

“The fact that you have lawsuits among yourselves demonstrates that you have already been defeated. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.”

1 Corinthians 6:7-8

Paul suggests that the same people who are taking other Christians to court for wronging them and cheating them are, themselves, engaged in cheating and wronging others. People often accuse others of doing what they themselves do to others. As an attorney, I have seen enough to know that the person who assume suspect motivations in others often to do so because of the suspect motivations that reside prominently in them. The person who takes another person to court is often blind to their own fault.

My professional obligation is to advocate for my client, and that means I take them initially at their own word. The rules that govern me as an attorney also impose on me an affirmative obligation to check out the facts for myself. I have often been disheartened to find that my clients are not completely truthful or forthright to me.

The lines of truth can be unclear, and this makes it difficult. Most clients, however, are prone not to see areas in which they may be at fault, and they are prone to have a heightened sense of certainty about the fault of the other party.

This is a human tendency, but followers of Jesus are called to a higher standard. We are called to examine ourselves and to repent of our own wrongs. This call to self-examination and repentance is a matter of first priority. Jesus says, “First take the plank out of your own eye!” (Matt. 7:5)

Christians also understand that we are forgiven to the same extent that we forgive. That truth is embedded in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Godly wisdom teaches us to understand our relationship to other people from the perspective of our relationship to our creator. Godly wisdom teaches us to have a higher perspective: this world is not all there is, and our current rights are much less valuable than the treasures that await us in the kingdom of God.

To this extent, Christians should resist the temptation to be like the world in the exercise of our individual rights. Paul warned the Corinthians in a different context to be careful in the exercise of their rights (1 Cor. 8:9), but I think his admonition is even more relevant to us today in our rights-heightened world.

As Paul notes, just because we have rights doesn’t mean we should exercise them. If exercising your rights causes your sister to stumble, the better way is to refrain. If exercising your rights causes an impediment to the Gospel, the better way is to refrain. If exercising your right to take your brother to court, the better way is to refrain.

We can refrain because we know that the treasures we store up on earth will not last. We can refrain because our perspective and our priorities change with the renewing of our minds. We can refrain because we know to follow Jesus means to take up our crosses and to give up our rights as Jesus gave up his rights as God to become one of us and to die on a cross for us.

I am not suggesting there is never a time when a Christian should not assert her rights, and I am not saying that a Christian should not defend the rights of others. We should always be motived by love and be led by the Holy Spirit in all that we do for the glory of God in keeping with His character, which is defined by love.