Generous Justice
How God’s Grace Makes Us Just
by Timothy Keller
Summary
Old Testament scripture presents God as the defender of the defenseless, having established Israel to be a community of justice. Sabbath years and Jubilee were intended to allow the land to rest and prevent systemic poverty. Gleaning and tithing laws were to care for the needs of the poor. The prophets continually reminded the people to care for the quartet of the vulnerable – the orphan, widow, immigrant, and poor. Which is exactly how Jesus lived. He showed us how to love and made us able to do so.
Author’s Website: Generous Justice - Book by Timothy Keller
Favorite Quotes
“He alone can make our fearful, selfish hearts generous…His spirit makes us feel that we have plenty for ourselves, and only then we will be generous to others.”
“Woven cloth consists of innumerable threads interlaced with one another. Even more than the architectural image, the fabric metaphor conveys the importance of relationship. If you throw thousands of pieces of thread onto a table, no fabric results. The threads must be rightly and intimately related to one another in literally a million ways. Each thread must go over, under, around, and through the others at thousands of points. Only then do you get a fabric that is beautiful and strong, that covers, fits, holds, shelters, and delights. God created all things to be in a beautiful, harmonious, interdependent, knitted, webbed relationship to one another. Just as rightly related physical elements form a cosmos or a tapestry, so rightly related human beings form a community. This interwovenness is what the Bible calls shalom, or harmonious peace.”
