When first introduced to Plato's Republic it was made clear that real point of the book was justice, not any of the philosophical threads that have been spawned throughout history that are so commonly associated with the work. For a couple of years, I studied his ideas to see what they offered in practical terms, but, aside from the Socratic method, it became clear many of his discussions outlined little more than academic, in the most radical sense of the word, subject matter or pedagogical points of rhetoric. Nonetheless, the whole idea of justice was implanted in my brain in spite of the fact that my first exposure to a conception of justice might be failed to fully convey it.

Years later I was reintroduced to the concept of justice in regards to the Bible via John Paul Jackson's talks on the matter throughout Scripture. My wife's mentor, Valerie, has once told me the biggest thing I needed to focus on as a Christian was righteousness. For a long time I tried to grasp this concept with a pre-fabricated understanding of what justice is. To me, before I cast of my platonic idealism, justice was something demonstrated by Plato's ideas. All I had to do was reconcile the Bible's differences with Plato's and all would be well. It took a long time before I was given the realization that I had it backwards. Plato's ideas were just that, ideas, personal opinions founded on truth. Scripture, however, truly is about justice and righteousness; it's not a philosophical discussion of the matter.

Once this truth became clear it made the effort to reconcile Christianity to Platonism clearly a lost cause. At that point, I dropped the idea and started reading through Scriptures with an open mind, free of my own, half-baked ideas. Once I had let go of my faulty basis for concluded I knew about justice, God has been able to show me a lot about justice and injustice as well as righteousness and unrighteousness. With that experience of having had something so fundamentally wrong uncovered I often wonder if any of my other basic concepts about Scripture and Christianity are also incorrect and ultimately holding me back from a deeper relationship with God. Being a self-doubting soul makes it easy to over-analyze things, but that's where we simply have to trust God is standing next to us all the time, waiting to help us by giving us hints if we really listen and trust him.