I love the phrase, “No one does justice alone”; it reminds us that we do justice in community. This saying has become a catch phrase that is promoted and often repeated among the people involved in Administer Justice, the faith-based legal aid organization headquartered in Elgin, Illinois, that supports legal aid clinics in churches around the country.
Doing Justice In Community with Jesus
We are in this thing called life together. Jesus called followers to join him in community with others. His followers are called the “body of Christ”. Like a vine with roots and branches we are organically interconnected as believers with each other, and our commission is to plants seeds of the Gospel that binds us together as one throughout the world in which we live.
When Jesus announced his ministry (and the gospel) to the world for the first time, this is how he described his mission to the listeners in his hometown synagogue this way:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The good news to the poor is both the good news of salvation and the good news that God cares for people in their circumstances. Jesus not only proclaimed this good news; he demonstrated the good news in physical ways. He touched and healed lepers. He literally gave sight to the blind. He set people free from sin and demonic oppression.
Jesus desires that we follow in his footsteps by proclaiming and demonstrating the good news where people live at their point of need. We do this together in community, and we invite people into community with us and with God.
God is love, which is reflected in the tribunal nature of God’s being. God is relational and lives in community within Himself. Thus, the command to love God and love your neighbor, which is the summation of God’s law, is intimately and inextricably communal.
We can’t love God and love our neighbor on our own. We do that in community, just as God lives in community within Himself. The righteousness and justice, which are the foundation of the throne of God according to 89:14, are reflected in loving God and loving our neighbor.
Finding community With Administer Justice
I am eternally grateful for my involvement in Administer Justice that has helped me to flesh out – and live out – these foundational ideas. Administer Justice has “franchised” a way for churches to be practically involved in doing this in the community in which the church is located by inviting people in to meet them at the point of their legal needs. Administer Justice provides the help of the lawyer and the hope of God’s love in the community of the church where believers join together to carry out the mission Jesus announced.
Administer Justice added 32 Gospel Justice Centers in churches in 2024 growing to 107 Gospel Justice Centers in 19 states around the country. The goal is to plant Gospel Justice Centers in 1000 churches. With approximately 356,000 churches in the United States, that is only 1 Gospel Justice Center in every center in every 356 churches.
Gospel Justice Centers are not the only way the local church can be involved, and get the local members involved, in doing justice, but it is an easy, practical, and effective way of getting people involved in doing justice. Administer Justice has done the work to make it easy.
God’s people need to be actively involved in doing justice in our communities if we are to reflect God’s character accurately and fully. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne.
No believer is a lone ranger, just as no man is an island. We can only do justice that reflects God’s character in community – together.
The flipside of the statement that no one does justice alone is that no one should face injustice alone. God and His church are the answer to the epidemic of loneliness and isolation that plagues our modern world. People need each other, especially people who are experiencing injustice because injustice is isolating.
Consider learning more about Administer Justice as we move forward in 2025. Consider how Administer Justice can introduce to you ways of reflecting God’s character by doing justice in practical ways in your community, in your church, and inviting your brothers and sisters to be involved together in doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.
