There is so much injustice in the world. We ought to cry out that God will make it right. We ought not be content just because some of those injustices did not fall on us. But we must be the voice of those who are marginalized, discriminated against, and unjustly treated.

The Psalms are replete with examples of cries for justice.

“O God, break the teeth in their mouths; 

tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord! 

Let them vanish like water that runs away… 

Let them be like snail that dissolves into slime, 

like the stillborn child who never sees the sun!”  

(Ps. 58:7-8)

Those are some strong words, aren’t they? He wants his enemy to be like “stillborn child!” “We wouldn’t wish that on our worst enemies,” we might think. “We must show more compassion as Christians,” we might think. But that’s probably because we haven’t seen the type of injustice and evil that the psalm writer has. In other words, if we seem to be more compassionate than the psalm writer, it might just be because we are naive and haven’t experienced true evil.

My grandmother was a strong Christian. I’m thoroughly convinced that all of her children follow Christ because of her faith and prayer. But when it came to the Japanese… she hated them. She would not buy and told us not to buy anything Japanese because she didn’t want to help them in anyway. You have to remember that she lived through the Japanese occupation of S. Korea and has seen first hand the atrocities they have committed.

Yes, it is true that we should have compassion enough to love our enemies. But the reason why we might be so willing to love our enemy might be because we have not seen true evil.

There is evil in this world. If we don’t see it or don’t feel as strongly against it, we need to ask God to change our hearts to break with those whose hearts are broken.

PH