Didn’t Jesus care about the poor? Isn’t that really what social justice is all about?
Question 101 in Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded
This question is from Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded, launching June 2026 in paperback, PDF, and Kindle. Subscribe to this Substack so you don’t miss updates, previews, and the launch announcement.
Of course Jesus cared deeply about the poor. When he said, “the poor you will always have with you” (Matt 26:11), it was a character marker of the type of people who were attracted to Jesus and his followers: those who were impoverished. So when we apply this characteristic of Christlikeness broadly to society, it is easy to believe that social justice is all about caring for the poor.
Yet social justice should consider a set of conditions, not a particular set of outcomes. Too often we evaluate the state of justice based on perceived outcomes without assessing the institutions that produce those outcomes. For example, those who lament wealth inequality rarely decry the central banking system which creates vast inequalities of both opportunity and government privilege. Because they are formed by human beings, institutions are also flawed and in regular need of reform. Social justice requires us to think about what is properly “social” as well as what is “just.” The poor are far better served when they are treated as legal equals in a society rather than persons to be pitied. Christians should demand equal treatment under the law, freedom of enterprise, secure private property rights, access to adequate defense, expedient justice in courts, and a host of other institutional arrangements under which conditions the poor can flourish along with the rest of society.