49 Religious Lies Jesus Told Me to Stop Believing - #30 Love Justice

Summary

Mark Virkler describes a shift in how he understands justice and mercy. After becoming a Christian in a legalistic church, he believed his main task was to study, memorize, and obey biblical laws. Because he had been taught that God did not speak to people today, he says he focused on rules rather than on a personal relationship with God.

Later, while journaling, Virkler says he heard Jesus challenge his belief that he should love justice. As Virkler recounts it, Jesus said that God carries out judgment and justice when necessary, but loves to show mercy and forgiveness.

Virkler sums up the message through Micah 6:8: people are called to “do justly,” “love mercy,” and walk humbly with God—not to approach others first with condemnation. He also connects this teaching to the idea that people should show others the mercy they themselves receive from God.

Practical Lessons and Steps

• Replace immediate judgment with a search for God’s perspective. Virkler says that asking God how to see a person or situation helps him focus on the person’s needs and pain rather than condemn them.
• Respond with compassion and healing. He describes imagining God embracing people and tending to their hurts rather than judging them.
• Forgive people who judge others. Virkler says he has had to forgive those he sees as continuing a Pharisaical pattern, while remembering that change is possible through God’s grace.
• Make room for conversation across differences. He recounts speaking with a lesbian woman on an airplane. Rather than condemning her, he had a genuine conversation and shared his own experiences.
• Restore rather than sideline people who fail. He hopes churches will respond to people who sin or fail—as in the examples of the woman accused of adultery and Peter after denying Jesus—with mercy and a path forward, rather than prolonged exclusion.
• Treat repentance as a beginning. Virkler says repentance is only the first half; the next step is to focus on a new way of living.
• Journal and seek personal guidance. He invites viewers to look up the referenced Bible passages, journal about them, ask Jesus how to live, and act on what they believe they hear. He emphasizes that faith should be grounded in a relationship with Jesus rather than simply following a teacher’s teachings.

He closes with a spoken affirmation: he is free from the belief that he should love justice, commits to loving mercy and doing justice, and seeks God’s help to love even those he finds difficult.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Mark Virkler — the video’s narrator and speaker.
• Jesus, as recounted by Virkler — Virkler presents the central teaching as words he received during journaling.
• Biblical references and examples: Micah 6:8; John 6:53; the disciples on the road to Emmaus; the woman accused of adultery; Peter’s denial and later call to feed the sheep; and Paul’s Pharisaical background.