“You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and fair weight you shall have, and a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” Deuteronomy 25:13-15
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A free market economy such as we enjoy in America depends on a high degree of trust. Lenders trust that those who receive their funds will repay them promptly. Consumers trust that the goods and services they purchase are of a proper quality or up to a high standard. Employers trust that employees will exchange a fair day’s work for a fair wage, and employees trust that employers will be timely and fair in their compensation practices. Everyone trusts that the money which changes hands in our economy is what it claims to be: “legal tender for all debts, public and private.”
“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 23:22
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One of the most reliable measures of any economy is employment. When employment is high, the economy is healthy; when it is low, the economy struggles. This is because work is fundamental to a healthy economy. Indeed, without work it’s difficult to see how there could be any economy at all. So it’s no wonder that we have laws protecting people’s right to work, providing a fair wage, ensuring just and timely compensation, ordering the safety and security of the workplace, supporting standards of quality and workmanship, and so forth. In recent years, two major work-related questions have arisen in the American economy, and on each of these the Law of God can shed some light, if we will allow it to do so.
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In general, Shakespeare’s advice, that we should neither borrowers nor lenders be, is sound. The more our nation slips into what seems like an abyss of personal, corporate, and national debt, the more we as a people are beginning to realize the need for economic principles beyond mere getting-and-spending to rein in our lust for things and penchant for going into debt. But in some cases it is not only appropriate but altogether wise to borrow. When, for example, we discover principles of economic activity which take into account the dignity of human beings, the value of persons, and the importance of such concepts as freedom, fairness, and justice, we would be wise to borrow as much as we can.
This is precisely what the first American colonists did, as they arrived on the shores of the New World and begin to create laws to guide their social and economic practices. Because there was not in the colonies an established system of justice with adequate lawyers and judges to staff it, the writing of civil codes took on urgency. Writers of the early colonial statutes borrowed freely and often from the Law of God, including various of the civil laws, frequently copying down the very text of Scripture rather than try to invent better language.
As scholar W. Keith Kavenagh has written concerning the New England colonies, “the Puritan concept of the role of church and state rested upon the belief that God’s word was clear, that it had been interpreted correctly, and that no one could deny the rightness of insisting upon the application of the laws of God to all aspects of society” (Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History, Volume 1 – Part 1, Northeastern Colonies). What was true in New England was true throughout the colonies, albeit to a lesser extent. And, while our colonial forebears at times overreached and at other times misinterpreted the application of Old Testament civil statutes, nonetheless, their free and frequent borrowing from those statutes bred a wholesomeness and robustness into the American economy and society where human beings could be free and could flourish.
To this day we acknowledge the wisdom and decency encoded in many of those Old Testament laws, although our borrowing at present is not nearly as self-conscious as was that of our forebears. Not long ago, for example, President Obama held a gathering in the White House to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This act, which has “leveled the playing field”, opened up new opportunities, and helps to preserve the inherent dignity of the disabled, is not quite what you would expect from a society infused with an evolutionary worldview. In the evolutionary worldview the weak and sick are to be culled so that only the strong may survive.
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A good deal of misunderstanding exists at present concerning the purpose and status of the Law of God. By “Law of God” I mean the Ten Commandments and the attendant civil statutes and rules, given by God through Moses, that were to guide Israel in establishing a nation based on love for God and neighbor. I do not intend to include in this discussion of the Law of God the various ceremonial or religious laws – those laws connected with the work of priests – since, as the writer of Hebrews explains (chapter 7-10), those laws have all been set aside by the anointing of a new and eternal High Priest, even our Lord Jesus Christ.
Yet while the laws governing things like sacrifices and offerings, clean and unclean foods, and protocols for various kinds of bodily cleansings and restorations no longer apply, the New Testament is clear that the Ten Commandments remain in effect as holy and righteous and good statutes to guide our walk with the Lord (Matt. 5:17-19; Rom. 7:12; 1 Jn. 2:1-6). In addition, New Testament writers, following the precedent of Old Testament prophets, discerned in the various civil statutes and rules of ancient Israel abiding principles of love and justice that remain valid for these latter days (Lk. 19:1-10; 1 Cor. 9:8-11; Jms. 5:1-4; cf. Ruth 4; Hag. 2:10-18). These civil statutes suggest ways of applying the Ten Commandments to a wide range of situations so that we may understand the course love should take in human society. They were not meant to be exhaustive but merely suggestive; wise judges and interpreters, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, must ferret out the meanings of the Law and discern its proper applications on a situation-by-situation basis, to ensure that love for God and neighbor are maintained.
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Jesus is the Prince of Peace, as we know, and all those who take up the life of peace-making will know His blessings and favor. This is certainly true. To a point. Peace-making is a very specific activity in the economy of King Jesus. For there can be no peace such as He promises and brings without a certain measure of violence. They who would be at peace with God, for example, must first die to themselves. To have peace in our souls we must mortify, put to death, the passions and practices of the flesh. We have been commissioned to live at peace with all men and to bear the peace of Jesus to them, but the problem is that many are unwilling to enter into that peace on God’s terms, and so we can expect them to resist the message of Truth, even violently.
Jesus is the Prince of Peace, but He establishes His peace at the point of the sword – the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word and Truth of God. If we would know the peace of Jesus, we must know it on His terms, for His terms alone are true and righteous altogether.
Peace is not simply the absence of conflict. We are not necessarily serving the cause of peace when we are avoiding conflict and confrontation with the unbelieving people in our lives. We are not furthering the cause of peace when we are content to let them live as they choose, even though their choices may be harmful to them and others and an offense to God. We cannot further the Kingdom of peace by allowing men to dictate the terms and conditions of their submission to the Prince of Peace. And when we insist that Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and His Word alone is true and gives life and purpose to men, that will create conflict with many who do not like the idea of submitting to anyone other than their own whims and fancies.
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One of the truly great expositions of the meaning of Christ’s incarnation is to be found in John Milton’s Christmas poem, “Ode on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity.” With gentle and peaceable words and images the Puritan poet paints the sweetness of Christ’s birth amid a welcoming creation. The salvation of men is assured by the incarnation of Christ, even though much work remains before that salvation is accomplished.
All creation rejoices in the coming of Christ – except, of course, the false gods and pagan deities of unbelieving men. These – whether Egyptian, Greek, Roman, or pagan of any stripe, are not at all pleased at the coming of the Savior and flee for their lives at the announcement of His birth. And, in the deepest depths of hell, Satan, the arch-deceiver and architect of every false worldview and religion, paces helplessly in his lair, swinging his tail anxiously back and forth.
