Social justice warrior. Few words are as divisive these days. For some, it’s a way of signaling that “People who think like me are the only ones who really care about the poor and oppressed, and Jesus is on our side.” For others, it’s a derisive term for people who self-righteously think that giving lip service to socialist policies and “liking” radical social media rants somehow count as making a difference.

But one thing should be clear to everyone: justice is a real thing and God really cares about it. Justice means setting things right. God loves justice. The Bible is clear about that. In fact, if you aren’t concerned about justice, you should ask yourself whether you have God’s heart for the world. The pursuit of justice flows naturally from hearts reconciled to God.

But was Jesus a social justice warrior? Jesus certainly expressed concern for the poor and the oppressed. He even described his own mission in the words of Isaiah: “to proclaim good news to the poor” and to “set at liberty those who are oppressed.”

As you look at Jesus’s ministry as a whole, the Old Testament reality that gave rise to it, and the ministry of the apostles that followed it, it is clear that Jesus did not come to be a social justice warrior. He came as the son of God to reconcile us to the Father.

Care for the poor and oppressed is the paper on which Jesus’s ministry was printed, but that’s not the point of the narrative. The point of the narrative isn’t radical equality; it is being reconciled to God.

Having been reconciled to God, though, means we gain the power to love our neighbor. And that’s where justice really comes in. A key justice word in the Bible is “shalom.” In shalom we ask, How can we help one another grow as persons and become more complete image bearers of God?

Shalom doesn’t just feed the hungry or rescue the oppressed. It transforms the poor into good stewards who bear fruit. It turns the rescued into rescuers. And it rescues the rescuers from patronizing pride as they realize they are growing and benefiting every bit as much as those they seek to help.

That’s why I’ve started thinking of idea that “Jesus is a social justice warrior” as an unquestioned answer that Christians ought to abandon. It’s not because I don’t care about justice. I very much do. But more and more this term is just a way for us to fit Jesus into our justice agenda rather than follow his.

We are not the politically pure bringing enlightenment to the masses. Rather, we are the redeemed bearing the good news to others who, like ourselves, are hopelessly lost without it.