Explain Bible

What does the Bible say about social justice?

Bible Topic · WEB

The Bible calls God’s people to practice impartial justice, defend the vulnerable, act with mercy and humility, and submit every pursuit of justice to God’s truth and the gospel of Christ. Leviticus 19:15, Exodus 23:1-3, and Deuteronomy 1:16-17 forbid favoritism toward either rich or poor, since God judges righteously. Ezekiel 18:20 teaches personal moral accountability, while Micah 6:8 joins doing justice with loving kindness and walking humbly with God. Scripture also warns against redefining good and evil, as in Malachi 2:17, or adopting worldly loves and false gospels, as James 4:4, 1 John 2:15-16, and Galatians 1:6-9 teach. Christian justice therefore flows from faithfulness to God, not from partisan or worldly standards.

Top passages, ranked by readers

Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

  • Ezekiel 18:20 7 votes

    The soul who sins, he shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.

  • Leviticus 19:15 6 votes

    "'You shall do no injustice in judgment: you shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.

  • Exodus 23:1-3 4 votes

    [1] "You shall not spread a false report. Don't join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness. [2] You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; neither shall you testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice; [3] neither shall you favor a poor man in his cause.

  • Deuteronomy 1:16-17 4 votes

    [16] I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear [the causes] between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him. [17] You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.

  • Malachi 2:17 4 votes

    You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, 'How have we wearied him?' In that you say, 'Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Yahweh, and he delights in them;' or 'Where is the God of justice?'

  • James 4:4 3 votes

    You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

  • 1 John 2:15-16 3 votes

    [15] Don't love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father's love isn't in him. [16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn't the Father's, but is the world's.

  • Jude 1:7-8 3 votes

    [7] Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. [8] Yet in like manner these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings.

  • Galatians 1:6-9 3 votes

    [6] I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel; [7] and there isn't another gospel. Only there are some who trouble you, and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. [8] But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any gospel other than that which we preached to you, let him be cursed. [9] As we have said before, so I now say again: if any man preaches to you any gospel other than that which you received, let him be cursed.

  • Micah 6:8 3 votes

    He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, To love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Related topics

Go deeper

Ask Explain Bible AI about social justice and get a fuller answer from a Reformed theological perspective.

Ask what the Bible says about social justice