Forming Faith Blog

Justice Is Love in the Long Term

Posted on June 23 2026 by Gregory Rawn

Why should we “do justice”? It’s simple: love. In Scripture, love is not a feeling; it is intention and action. Love in the short term is charity. Love in the long term is justice.

On Justice

Two weeks ago, I started a blog series on the topic of justice. This is also the topic of one of our Learning Together units: Do Justice.

This is the third blog post, the first two being on God’s image and shalom, and justice as building resilience.

Today I’m focusing on the reason for justice (spoiler: it’s love) and the difference between short-term love (charity) and long-term love (justice).

Love: The Double Commandment

Justice can be a complicated topic, particularly in how it should be done in the real world. But the reason behind it is pretty simple (though not easy): love.

When given a pop quiz on the single greatest commandment, Jesus “cheated” and gave two. He combined the command to love God completely from Deuteronomy 6:5 and to love your neighbor from Leviticus 19:18. He even expanded the definition of “neighbor” from “fellow Israelite” (in Leviticus) to “everyone who needs help” (Luke 10:25-37). The reason he connected the two commandments is related to the image of God.

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their [siblings], are liars; for those who do not love a [sibling] whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from [God] is this: those who love God must love their [siblings] also.

1 John 4:20-21

You cannot separate how you treat those made in the image of God from the One who created them in their image.

What Is Love?

But what is love? I have found this to be a common topic at church for obvious reasons. In our culture, we use the term in many ways, from family to friends to objects of desire, but out of any other context, we often think of romantic love. All of these have a central theme: love is extreme fondness. It is a feeling, or at least based on a feeling. And that feeling is often physically felt in our chests, which might be where our cultural fiction of the seat of love being in the organ that pumps blood comes from. But, while fondness can play a role in biblical, godly love, that’s a side issue.

Love is the intention and action that works for the benefit of others.

We cannot force a feeling that isn’t present. But we can intend and act toward the benefit of others. We can do that for people we like, those whom we are apathetic toward, and even those we extremely dislike. We cannot simply decide to “love” someone emotionally, but we can intend and act in love whether we feel like it or not.

Short and Long

So, if we are working for the benefit of others, then there isn’t a big difference between love and service. I often define service as “love in action,” but that’s kind of redundant. Sometimes redundancy is okay.

If we are working for the benefit of others, then love is about meeting people’s needs. It’s a lot more complicated in real life, but you can categorize needs as short-term or long-term. And a lack of a needed resource is, basically, a problem. So, there are short-term problems and long-term problems that require our loving actions. Simply put, a short-term problem requires a short-term solution, and a long-term problem requires a long-term solution.

Short-term Problems and Charity

By definition, a short-term problem is immediate and often urgent. A person is hungry today. A victim of a natural disaster needs someplace to sleep tonight. An injured person without money needs free medical attention now. A restaurant during a pandemic needs money this week.

Usually, our love-actions in response to short-term problems are gifts. A word sometimes used here is charity (or acts of mercy).

Long-term Problems and Justice

While a short-term problem is immediate, a long-term problem is chronic. And usually, long-term problems cause (or at least exacerbate) short-term problems. You can often identify long-term problems by asking the question “why” the short-term problems exist. And often the answers are legion and interconnected.

A hungry person needs food. Why do they need food? Perhaps they don’t have a job. Why don’t they have a job? Perhaps they live with overwhelming anxiety. Why don’t they get treatment? Without a job, they don’t have health insurance and cannot afford the treatment. How do we work toward solving this problem? Perhaps we need to look at health insurance, our healthcare system, and the way we view mental health.

Our love-actions in response to long-term problems involve working to change systems. This is called justice.

Desmond Tutu put it this way:

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”

What Is a System?

As a bit of an aside, a conversation about systemic injustice (and therefore systemic justice) requires a basic understanding of what a system even is. Systems in society—such as a political system or economic system, or even a healthcare system—are sets of rules, practices, and organizations by which something in society functions. So, a political system like democracy involves the rule of law, how the government is organized and functions, the process of voting, etc. Often, each part of a system can be broken down into its own set of systems. It’s systems all the way down. Each of those systems (rules, practices, etc.) can cause or perpetuate harm, in other words, have systemic injustice.

Charity and Long-term Problems

Charity (or the provision of resources for immediate needs, if you prefer) can solve immediate needs. A hungry person gets food and is no longer hungry today. A natural-disaster victim sleeps in a safe shelter tonight. An injured person without money gets free medical treatment now. A restaurant gets a grant to pay its workers this week.

What charity cannot do is solve long-term problems. And if we try to do that, then we risk creating dependencies and more problems.

Of course, the opposite is true as well. Advocating for healthcare reform does not give a person treatment, a job, or food right now when the person needs them. There is an important place for both charity and justice.

Charity, Justice, and Faith Formation

As faith formation leaders, what can you do about this?

  1. Education: As in previous weeks, it is important to teach our faith formation participants about loving God, loving our neighbors, charity, and justice. One way to do this, even for younger participants, is to create an activity that has simplified short-term and long-term solutions (like Desmond Tutu’s river illustration).
  2. Review Your Efforts: If you are integrating service into your faith formation context, you can consider whether you are primarily addressing short-term problems or also working toward long-term justice (similar to the question of building resilience from the last post). If you have the capacity, balance the two.

Blessings to you as you do your ministry,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

In the summer, I am busy finishing up the spring quarters of our 2026-2027 faith formation resources (related to the Revised Common Lectionary and Narrative Lectionary). So, I am taking one series from the past and revising it. That is what I am doing with this Justice series. Brand-new posts will be coming in July and August!

Order Faith Formation Resources

Are you still planning for summer and the 2026-2027 faith formation programming? Order an affordable VBS-ready Learning Together unit and program-year curriculum for the Narrative Lectionary (Year 1, 2026-2027), Revised Common Lectionary (Years A & B, 2026-2027), or Key Bible Stories (non-lectionary, PK-2nd, 3rd-6th).

New RCL faith-at-home resource!

I’m excited to announce a new product series for Spirit & Truth Publishing: Taking Faith Home. Taking Faith Home is a set of weekly devotional resources (often distributed as worship bulletin inserts) that follows the Revised Common Lectionary. We offer it as a Church Year (Dec. 2025 to Nov. 2026) and a Program Year (Spring & Summer 2026 and Sept. 2026 to May 2027). You can also purchase by quarter, such as Summer and Fall. Learn more here and read a review!

VBS, Events, Retreats, and More!

Are you looking for resources for VBS, topical Sunday school, family/intergenerational events, retreats, and more?

Learning Together is a series of five-lesson units on a variety of topics. Our faith formation resources are easy to use, theologically sound, and inclusive. Each unit can be used at any time in many different settings, but here are a few suggestions:

+ VBS: Paul’s Adventures (NEW!), Celebrations, Created to Care, God’s Gift of Water, Heroes of the Bible
+ Education, Events, and Retreats: The I AM Statements of Jesus (free!), Travelers (Immigrants and Refugees), Do Justice, Celebrations, Women of the Old Testament, Bible 101

Building Faith has recommended two of our units as VBS curriculum: Paul’s Adventures (reviewed in 2026) and Celebrations (reviewed in 2025)!

You can also read outside reviews on both our Do Justice and Created to Care units.

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