Justice is more than absence of harm
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For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
Deuteronomy 10:17-18 (ESV)
As I reviewed the many passages about justice for the fatherless and the widow, so many refer to defense and the absence of oppression that it might appear a righteous person is one who doesn’t directly harm the poor. However, this autobiographical description of God closely ties justice with loving action. He does justice by supplying food and clothing.
This command is uncomfortably foreign to me. Apart from the homeless I pass along my way to work, I have no interaction with the fatherless, the widow, or the sojourner. If I were to speak of my just behavior, all I would have is an absence of deliberate, direct harm to another. While some Bible passages clear my conscience by speaking of active oppression towards the vulnerable, this holds my conscience captive to a higher standard. To be like God means more than doing no harm; it means doing good to those in need.
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Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.