Divine holiness is sometimes imagined primarily as separation from personal impurity. Scripture certainly commands moral distinctiveness, but holiness also exposes exploitation, falsehood, violence, corrupt judgment, and idolatrous power. The prophets do not contrast holiness with social concern; they portray injustice as an offense against holiness and worship separated from justice as a form of religious self-deception.3 Isaiah condemns rulers who issue unjust decrees, Jeremiah denounces a king who builds luxury through unpaid labor, Amos rejects worship offered by people who exploit the poor, and Micah joins walking humbly with God to doing justice and loving mercy. The problem is not that ritual, prayer, or worship are unimportant. The problem is that a worshiping community contradicts its confession when it praises the God who hears the oppressed while training itself not to hear them.

God’s justice and mercy must therefore be held together. Justice is often reduced to punishment and mercy to the suspension of justice, but Scripture presents a richer relationship. Justice tells the truth about wrongdoing, restrains harm, protects those who are vulnerable, restores right relationship, and requires accountability; mercy moves toward persons in suffering and seeks the renewal of life. Mercy without justice can become indulgence toward offenders and abandonment of victims, while justice without mercy can become punitive, self-righteous, and closed to repentance. A church may invoke forgiveness to avoid exposing abuse, a........

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