Righteousness and Justice 正義與公義

In Lewis Carroll’s wonderful children’s story ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’, we are introduced to two curious characters named Tweedledum and Tweedledee. They are often humorously portrayed in picture books as two rather rotund little boy twins who are almost identical. In the story, they are seen as being inseparable and agreeing with each other, but always on the verge of disagreeing. In fact, they agree to have a battle with each other but never quite get to actually having the battle. When we come to think about Justice and Righteousness, it seems to be a similar story. They nearly always appear together in scripture; in many ways, they are inseparable and part of the same truth; and yet, many Christians would try to set them apart against each other and pit one over the other.

Psalm 33:5 is a beautiful example of the pairing of these two words “The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love” because it not only places them together in this couplet, but expresses these seemingly rather cold, legal, religious words within the context of love; both the object and the outcome of God’s love in the world. This alone should lead us to see that they are not just about moralistic judgment and good deeds, but that they have far-reaching consequences.

These two words, righteousness and justice, form what we technically call a hendiadys—a single complex idea expressed through the use of two words. (Other English examples are ‘health and safety’ and ‘law and order’). The implication of this is that one of the words on its own is not adequate to express the fullness of what is trying to be expressed, and more importantly, trying to separate and draw distinct differences between the two robs them of their complex vitality.

The first word ‘righteousness’ has at its root the idea of straight; something which is fixed, and fully what it is meant to be. It is not so much an abstract expression of an inward moral condition, but more a concrete expression of rightness that can be checked by external verification.

The second word ‘justice’ has a much greater legal flavour, but is more about putting things right than just pronouncing judgment on what is. The courtroom scene is often used as one of the pictures describing Jesus’ work of salvation (justice) on the cross. We are used to the concept of the judge who not only pronounces the judgment, but then leaves his position and comes down from his judgment-seat to stand with the accused. He then acts as an advocate to work through the failures and lack of righteousness with compassion and mercy to effect a restorative justice that transforms and reclaims what was previously defective. In scripture, the word ‘justice’ has much more of these active, positive feelings about it than purely judgmental. So in scripture, we are instructed to ‘do justice’. Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”

There is no vying for supremacy between righteousness and justice. One is not the master and the other the servant; one is not the will and the other the action. Righteousness and justice working together are not only a powerful expression of God’s desire for a world restored to his original intention, but also a powerful means of bringing about that result through the work of his spirit in the very fabric of the physical world and its people.

One organisation that embodies this philosophy of righteousness and justice working together in a beautiful way is IJM (International Justice Mission). They currently work in many areas of the world to fight against the trafficking of people (now often called Modern Day Slavery) by conducting painstaking research and investigation into the organised abduction or recruitment of people for purposes of sexual exploitation or slave labour. They use their own trained Christian lawyers to bring suspected traffickers to court in order to break-up criminal networks, which are bringing misery to thousands of desperate people in countries where justice is not as highly valued and executed as it should be. Their motivation is not just seeing that justice is done, but also ensuring that victims are freed from their oppressive slavery-like situations in order to recover and pursue opportunities for a new life, which includes the good news of God’s righteousness through Jesus.

When you meet and talk to some of these former victims and see their new lives, you cannot fail to be impressed by the amazing way God’s righteousness and justice are working together to release and restore that which was held captive. Just as Paul said, their lives are living letters expressing God’s heart of justice and righteousness for all to read.

在路易斯卡羅精彩的兒童故事《愛麗絲鏡中奇遇》裡，介紹了兩個有趣的角色——特偉哥和特偉弟。圖畫書總是把他們繪畫成兩個胖嘟嘟、很滑稽的小男孩，他們是孖生兄弟，樣子幾乎一模一樣。故事中，二人總是分不開，又會互相同意對方，但其實又總是在有分歧的邊緣。事實上，他們甚至還同意要跟對方開戰，卻又一直未有付諸行動。當我們要思考公義（Justice）和正義（Righteousness）的時候，也相仿；許多時候二者是分不開的，也同屬一個真理；然而有許多基督徒試著要分別這兩個概念，並證明其中一方比較重要。

詩篇卅三篇5節美妙地將這兩個詞語放在一起：「他喜愛仁義公平（righteousness and justice），遍地滿了耶和華的慈愛。」美妙不單是因為詞語被放進了詩句之中，而是詩人將這些看起來有點冰冷、律法式的宗教字眼放進了愛的處境裡；這同時是在世界裡，上帝愛的對象和結果。這就讓我們見到，正義和公義不只是關乎道德審判和好行為，而是有更深遠的影響力。

正義和公義這兩個詞語組成了「重言法」（hendiadys）——以兩個詞語來表達出一個複雜的概念。（其他英文的例子包括「健康與安全」〔health and safety〕和「法律與秩序」〔law and order〕）。重言法就是說，其中一個詞語無法完全表達出想要傳遞的概念；更重要的是，若要將二者分開、指出二者的分別，就正正奪去了他們綜合起來的意思。

第一個詞語「正義」，根本的意思就是「正直」，指一些固定、完全的概念。這不一定是針對內在道德情況的抽象描述，而是一個可以被外在驗證的公正意念。

第二個詞語「公義」則有更重的法律意味，但重點是將事情校正，而不只是宣判。很多時候我們都會用一個法庭的場景來形容耶穌在十架上的救贖工作（公義），我們也許也對這詮釋感到熟悉：這個法官不單會宣判，他還會離開他的位置，從審判的座位走下來，跟被告同站。然後，他作為辯護者，以憐憫之心在失敗和缺乏正義的處境之中，恢復公義、轉化並將以往的缺陷改正過來。在聖經中，公義一詞不只是審判式的，而是帶有這種積極正面的意思。因此聖經吩咐我們要「行公義」。彌迦書六章8節：「世人哪，耶和華已指示你何為善。他向你所要的是甚麼呢？只要你行公義，好憐憫，存謙卑的心，與你的上帝同行。」

正義與公義之間，沒有高低之分。他們不是主僕的關係，也不是意願與行動之間的關係。正義與公義合起來，不單有力地表達著上帝渴望世界能恢復祂原初的旨意，也是一種有力的行動，可以透過祂的靈在這個世界和祂子民裡工作，而帶來這樣的結果。

國際公義使命團（International Justice Mission, IJM）正是其中一個深信正義與公義之結合哲學的機構。他們現時在世界各地努力對抗人口販賣（或稱現代奴隸制度），不辭勞苦地調查那些有組織的綁架和招聘；這些綁架和招聘背後其實是對受害者的性剝削，或迫使他們成為奴隷。使命團會透過機構培訓的基督徒律師，將可疑的販賣者帶到法庭，希望能中斷犯罪網絡，讓千千萬萬的受害者重獲自由，因為受害者的家國也許沒有很重視公義和其實踐。國際公義使命團不單希望看見公義的彰顯，它亦致力確保受害者能從受壓迫的苦況中得釋放，身心恢復過來，然後尋求新生活的機遇，包括透過耶穌認識上帝公義的好信息。

當你有機會遇見這些從前的受害者，與他們傾談，看見他們新的生命，你必然會讚歎上帝的正義和公義如何協作，釋放被擄之人，恢復他們的身心靈。正如保羅所言，他們的生命就像活生生的薦書，讓世人從他們身上看見上帝公平正義的心腸。