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Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.
Unfailing love and truth walk before you as attendants. Ps. 89:14
The Bible also describes the creation as the weaving of a garment, a robe that God has woven and now wears. Just as rightly related physical elements form a cosmos or a tapestry, so rightly related human beings form a community. Threads must be rightly and intimately related to one another in order become a tapestry. So God created all things to be in a beautiful, harmonious, interdependent, knitted, webbed relationship with one another.
A House and a Garment
"Work for the peace of the city...
Defining Shalom
Jer. 29:4-7 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”
It means complete reconciliation, a state of the fullest flourishing in every dimension--physical, emotional, social, and spiritual-- because all relationships are right, perfect and filled with joy.
This interwovenness of relationship is what the Bible calls
Shalom,
or harmonious peace
Justice and Shalom
Discussion Board
Doing justice is all living in such a way that generates a strong community where human beings can flourish.
How can we do justice? By weaving ourselves into the fabric of places that are broken.
Reweaving shalom means to sacrificially thread lace and press your time goods power and resources into the lives of others.
Give some concrete examples of how the church, the local body of believers can impact their community in such a way that citizens can flourish.
Losing Shalom
Shalom is lost when sin enters the world. When we lost our relationship with God the whole world stopped working right. Now the world his filled with hunger, sickness, aging, and physical death. Because our relationship is broken down, shalom is gone.