Seemingly Contradictory Virtues

When it comes to talking about virtues like justice and compassion, it is important to cover the value of both because talking about one to the exclusion of the other leaves out part of the Christian message of love.

You will use both virtues across different situations if you are seeking to do what is right out of Christian love, and that is why both justice and compassion are part of Christian love.

Christians,

Some virtues are seemingly oppositional to each other because of what they ask you to do, but this is not because they are contradictory.  To understand this, start by thinking of justice and compassion according to their general usages.  One calls you to let something go and the other calls you to not let it go but instead seek a consequence.  Even though they point in different directions, which one you use is based on where you are in the first place.  In other words, which one you use depends on the situation.  There are situations when you don’t need to seek a consequence—a conversation is all that is necessary to solve a problem.  There are other situations where you’ve already seen that someone will continue to do something harmful if a consequence is not sought.  You will use both virtues across different situations if you are seeking to do what is right out of Christian love, and that is why both justice and compassion are part of Christian love.  So, if you want to teach Christian love, you don’t want to talk about just one of these virtues and never the other. 

If you only talk about compassion, people will be more inclined to let something go that shouldn’t be, which often leads to people being harmed repeatedly when a situation could have been stopped.   If you only talk about justice, people will be more inclined to look for a consequence when only a conversation about the matter would have been necessary.   Should one virtue be talked about more, however?  Whether or not you need to talk about one virtue more depends on the situation.

In today’s age, where consequences have been stigmatized and many people look down on them, helping people understand the proper place of justice should be emphasized more.  When talking to individuals, which virtue you talk about more depends on the individual.     Both justice and compassion are for the good and not meant to be chosen exclusively.  By choosing one to the exclusion of the other, a person will be doing what is harmful to others and themselves.