Let Justice Roll Down

September 22, 2026

by Jen Snow

John Perkins was an evangelist and civil rights activist who passed away earlier this year.  In his book Let Justice Roll Down, he writes of his childhood in segregated Mississippi in the 1930s and 1940s – he was from a family of sharecroppers who did some moonshine bootlegging on the side.   As he experienced it growing up, he did not find much use for church or God or the gospel.

As a young man, he went to California for a time to find better work opportunities.  Given that the racial tensions were far less pronounced in California than they were in the Deep South, he finds those opportunities.  He settles down to a pretty comfortable life – far more comfortable than he ever could have had back home as a black man in Mississippi - and begins to raise a family. 

It was also during the years that he lived in California that he heard and understood the gospel in a new way.  He embraced a new and living relationship with Jesus Christ that quickly redefined his life and priorities. He began teaching Bible classes with Child Evangelism Fellowship and later sharing his testimony and preaching.

While he could have stayed in California and had a comfortable life and an effective ministry there, he began to sense that the Lord was calling him back to his own people in Mississippi, despite the hardships that would come with that decision.  As his ministry of teaching and evangelism continued to grow, he also had a growing conviction that he could not merely teach the Bible, tally up the number of conversions and move on.  

Rather, he writes that:

“I knew that if the Bible I was teaching could ever really do something here, it would have to be a visible truth*.  I knew that if I only had students, even lots of students, the whole thing could drift away like many other ‘religious’ programs. I* knew that I had to develop fellow workers, not just Bible club students*.” (91)*

As we return to the book of Amos this week, what we see is that the people of Israel had become like “good Bible club students” who had failed to make the truth visible in their lives.   It is this lack of ‘visible truth’ that Amos cries out against with increasing intensity in each chapter, reaching a peak here in chapters 5 and 6.

Woe to you who are at ease in Zion (6:1)!  To you who are **blissfully unaware of what is happening all around you…

Woe to you those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on couches (6:4-6)!  To those who enjoy comfort, ease, privilege, and luxury at the expense of the flourishing of your neighbors and wider community…

Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD (5:18)!  To you who assume you are safe from the LORD’s judgement even though you are not…

The Lord goes on: I hate your feasts - your solemn assemblies - the noise of your songs.  I will no longer accept your burnt offerings - your grain offerings - your peace offerings. (5:21-23)  

The truth of the Lord’s goodness, mercy, and steadfast love was not visible in the lives of his people.

This is why Amos cries out.  This is why judgement is coming.

What the Lord desires is not “selective faithfulness” - religious platitudes that plaster over dissolute living, selfishness, and lack of concern for our communities.

Rather, he calls: ****Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream (5:24).

The words “justice” and “righteousness” are often paired together throughout Scripture as they are here. In his book, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God, Christopher Wright notes that although they are two words, they are so intertwined that together they form a single idea.  You really cannot have one without the other.  

“Righteousness” refers to something that is “as it ought to be - that which matches up to a standard” (256).  “Justice” is the action taken “to put things right, to intervene in a situation that is wrong, oppressive, or out of control and to ‘fix’ it… it is something you can do…a call to action…doing what needs to be done [to restore] conformity with [righteousness].” (256)

In Scripture, Wright explains, these intertwined ideas are rooted firmly in God’s character - his faithfulness, steadfast love, compassion, and grace.  In Exodus, God hears the cry of his oppressed people and acts to put things right - to restore things to the way they were meant to be.  In doing this, God establishes a community of people who are called to do the same.  

This was where the people of Israel in the time of Amos had gone wrong.  They maintained a kind of external “righteousness” exhibited in their worship that was divorced from the active practice of justice in the way they lived their daily lives.

This tendency was not unique only to this time and place.  Amos’ critique is one that could be leveled against every generation.

**And likewise, Amos’ cry to “**let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ is an invitation for every generation to consider.

Those of us who belong to Jesus - who have experienced his grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love - are called to extend that blessing to the people around us.

Those of us who claim to know the truth of Scripture are called to live by it.

Those of us who have been transformed by the gospel are called to be more than “good Bible students.”

The invitation for us to consider is this: **How can I make the truth of the gospel visible in my life and community?