Righteousness and Justice

When I first came to Montreal, it was the first time I really listened to “Christian” French. (Side note: As Christians, we use a certain vocabulary that is not really used elsewhere. That’s what I mean by “Christian” French). There were words like redemption, Heaven, etc. that were never taught to me in a public school setting. Luckily, the classes I was in were translated, so I quickly made the link with these new words. However, as any bilinguals (or multilinguals) will understand, some things translated poorly. It is a constant challenge that, as a translator, I enjoy very much.
Now to the point. There were a couple words that got on my nerves. I felt the translators were not doing justice to the speakers. Specifically, I’m taking about the words JUSTICE and RIGHTEOUSNESS. You see, in French, both of these words are translated as JUSTICE. I felt the French language was missing out. Not covering all the angles. And I have to confess that my attitude in that area were not always right. When translating, I would use the term “Droiture”, which translates as Uprightness, for righteousness. I would leave “justice” to translate justice. It made sense to me.
Let’s fast-forward a few years to the present. What am I getting at? I’ll tell you. Recently, I have been reflecting on these words, and how interrelated they are. And I got to thinking; maybe the French aren’t so far off. Maybe these terms are close enough to share the same word. Can justice exist without righteousness? Can I be righteous without practicing justice? What is my duty in the eyes of God? Abram believed what God said, and that was credited to him as righteousness (Gen.5: 6). Here we see an aspect of faith connected to righteousness. I see faith in justice as well. It sometimes requires a lot of faith to act justly. In business + politics, for example, it takes faith to stand up for people over profit. To trust that God will provide when we value people over revenue. Here in Montreal, there was a proposal to move the Casino into a community that is in a lower economic bracket. Why? So it’s closer to people, so it makes more money. I don’t think I need to go into detail about why this is wrong. The plan failed, Praise God!, and the casino will stay out in the middle of the river. Here is an example of a righteous decision being made. It is also practicing justice in a neighborhood that would have suffered greatly otherwise.
All over the world we can find examples of this, as well as unrighteous decisions leading to situations of injustice. They go hand in hand. Inseparable budies.
The way I see it now is that one is the inward conviction, and the other is the outward expression.
Let’s practice both.