It’s hard to fathom that my calendar has flipped through five Mays since the 2020 killing of George Floyd. In some ways, America is in a different place after our collective reflection on matters of race and equality. Still, in other ways, our world is even more divided, especially regarding political realities.
As executive director and steward of Cru® Inner City, I have navigated our team through these uncomfortable but necessary waters. In doing so, I’ve carefully followed discerning advice from one of my most valued mentors, pastor and author Crawford Loritts.
“Milton, don't let any of these political arguments pull you to one side or the other,” he told me.
Wanting to understand his reasoning, I pressed for an explanation.
“You have to speak the truth to both sides because God created us all; he doesn’t have a stake in just one side.”
If you do, Crawford warned, you lose your nobility, which means you lose your opportunity to speak the truth to both. You have to speak the truth to both sides because God created us all; he doesn’t have a stake in just one side. He's transcendent. He is above all because He created it all.
As an extension of what Crawford shared with me, it stands to reason that Christ-followers must also remain transcendent, take the high road, even when others don’t understand. I call it the “ministry of being misunderstood.” The reality is, if we are following Christ’s lead, people may still wrongly interpret what we are actually saying. Jesus, consistently counter-cultural in his teachings, was the most misunderstood person of all.
English theologian N.T. Wright also addresses the political and cultural divide by noting that the left seeks the kingdom but doesn’t want the king, while the right seeks the king but doesn’t want the kingdom. The message here is that the left wants to be in charge of the kingdom while minimizing the importance of the king, but the right is just as guilty by centering its love and focus on their king to the neglect of the people within the kingdom.
In both instances, God’s intended purpose for those He created is undermined: Love for our King, Jesus Christ, and His people, the imago Dei.
“If we can unroot ourselves from our corners long enough to pursue God’s commands, our obedience will naturally mesh with His vision for the world.”
I maintain that Christ-followers belong in the middle, where righteousness and justice are free to thrive and bless. If we can unroot ourselves from our corners long enough to pursue God’s commands, our obedience will naturally mesh with His vision for the world.
God himself outlines the importance of these two key principles in the first book of the Bible, when He declares:
Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what he promised him (Genesis 18:18-19, Christian Standard Bible).
What we learn here is that the Lord will fulfill His promise that Abraham will be the father of many nations because he obeyed God by doing what was right and just. These twin virtues are a fundamental tenet throughout the Bible, including in Psalm 89:14, where the psalmist says, Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.
One of the obstacles in our pursuit of righteousness and justice is simply understanding their meaning. In recent years, both have become trigger words, resulting in erecting walls rather than dismantling them.
Scripturally, to be a righteous person is to have our accounts settled with the only righteous one, Jesus Christ.
The connotation of the word justice has been particularly stigmatized because its definition has been co-opted and twisted by those seeking redress when something doesn't go their way. Every little hurt, real or perceived, is entitled to atonement. The true definition of justice is something with a much higher standard. In its highest form, justice signifies a right relationship with God and a right relationship with all His children because they, too, are made in His image.
“To be a just person is to act toward others the same way the Lord of righteousness treats me ... no matter what color or wrappings they have.”
To be a just person is to act toward others the same way the Lord of righteousness treats me, no matter whether male or female, no matter what color or wrappings they have. God has charged us to treat others with dignity because they are created in the “image of God.”
Justice lived out means having a right relationship with other people, treating them with the same dignity as their heavenly Father does. For that to happen, people have to know me, and I have to be known by them. God knowing me, and my loving God, is revealed in direct proportion to how other people know me to be.
As 1 John 4:20 tells us, it's inconsistent for us to talk about loving God when no one knows who we are.
If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen (CSB).
We can't say we love God and yet we don't love our brother.
Yes, we need to know the right doctrine, but it’s also important for us to be known by the Author of that doctrine. As I live out my purpose on earth, am I proving that I'm known by God through my loving Him, and is that love demonstrated in how I love other people?
These questions are important not only in the wake of the George Floyd killing, but amid everyday living, whether in the urban core or rural farmlands. They are also important ponder points for Cru Inner City staff members, our partner ministries, volunteers, and donors as we tend to our most vulnerable and marginalized neighbors. Do we see them as Christ does? Do we serve them as Christ would? Do we follow the lead of the Spirit in meeting their needs? Do we recognize their inherent worth? Do we take to heart God’s command to live and love with the core principles of righteousness and justice?
For Christ-followers, there is no other path.
Milton Massie and his wife, Cynthia, have served Cru Inner City in 1986. After leading the Chicago team for 19 years, Milton was named the executive director/steward of the entire Inner City division in 2018.
©1994-2025 Cru. All Rights Reserved.
