An Economy of Love (4)

“You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.” Deuteronomy 25:13-15

Hand-in-hand
In the divine economy, where the Law of God provides the foundation for an ethic of love, trust and honesty go hand-in-hand. People who love one another will be honest in all their dealings, and this creates a strong bond of trust between neighbors. This ethic has affected human relationships from the earliest days of the Church, and it continues to exert influence even among our under-the-sun neighbors.

A free market economy such as we enjoy in America depends on a high degree of trust. We take this for granted, but trust and honesty are not principles that derive from the secular and narcissistic convictions of our day. Nevertheless, they are prerequisites for the proper functioning of our getting-and-spending way of life. And even if they exist only imperfectly, and people are continually seeking ways around them, still, honesty and trust go hand-in-hand.

Lenders trust that those who receive their funds will be honest and repay them promptly. Consumers trust that the goods and services they purchase are honest, and of a proper quality or a high standard. Employers trust that employees will exchange an honest day’s work for a fair wage, and employees trust that employers will be timely and honest in their compensation practices. Each depends on the honesty of the other to keep the wheels of business turning.

Checking dishonesty
There are always people in any economy who don’t agree with Franklin that honesty is the best policy. “What’s best for me” is their motto, and they will do whatever they can get away with to make a buck at someone else’s expense. Typically, we turn to the law of the land to check such dishonesty.

Most of us have been taken advantage of at one time or another in an economic transaction. So common has dishonesty become, in fact, that one only has to mention certain occupations – lawyers, say, or hedge fund managers, or used car dealers – and caveat emptor begins to sound through the hollows of our brains. And the more dishonesty is exposed, the lower our level of trust will decline.

The Law of God understood this tendency and explained it as a manifestation of human self-love grounded in sinful rebellion against God. Because this is a universal condition – all have sinned – it had to be checked, especially when its unbridled manifestation might jeopardize the public weal. Hence the laws insisting that sellers use fair weights and balances, so that they would charge the same price to every customer, whether wealthy or poor.

Honesty and justice
But the Law of God went beyond this. For in the statutes elaborating the eighth commandment – no stealing – are also rules guiding what today we would call restorative justice. In restorative justice, a man who was found to have violated the basic principle of honesty in transactions was required to make good on what he had “shorted” his customer, and then to add a fifth to it (cf. Lev. 6.1-5). Restorative justice provides the means for renewing honesty and trust among participants in an economy.

Jesus approved such laws when he affirmed Zacchaeus’ resolve to repay those he had cheated (Lk. 19.1-10). Dishonesty came at a high price in ancient Israel. The man who had cheated his neighbor would not go to jail, where he would be sustained by his neighbor’s taxes for a period of time. Instead, he would be required to make the original deal good and then to add one-fifth of the value of the deal in compensation to his neighbor. The neighbor would be satisfied, and then some, and the offender would be duly chastened, and less likely to do such a thing ever again. Hopefully, the balance of honesty, trust, and justice would have been righted.

More widespread practice of restorative justice – along with the other forms of justice established in the Law of God – could help not only in restoring honesty and trust to our economy, but also in helping those guilty of violating their neighbors’ trust to re-establish that trust through honest labor. What good, for example, does it do to put a hedge fund swindler in prison, where he can do nothing to atone for his dishonesty or to recompense, be it ever so slightly, those he cheated? By instead requiring him to continue working, we might keep him off the public dole, restore to him a measure of dignity, require him to recoup the stolen wealth of his customers, and even gain some larger economic benefit from his considerable skills (such as jobs).

If we truly believe that honesty is the bestpolicy in economic matters, then we should work harder to enforce honesty than to punish dishonesty. By following Biblical principles of restorative justice – such as were laid upon BP in the Gulf oil disaster a few years back, or Volkswagen in its mileage scam – we do not merely punish dishonesty, although we do, but we encourage honesty on the part of those who are guilty of violating the public’s trust, as well as throughout the rest of society.

Biblical Law thus proves again the merits and possibilities of an economy where love for God and neighbor are the operative principles, and the glory of God is the driving force.

For reflection
1.  Why do we say that honest and trust go hand-in-hand? Can you give some examples? Should churches teach their young people to be honest? Explain.

2.  Honest and trust are not principles inherent in a secular, evolutionary, materialistic, and narcissistic world. Why not? What should we rather expect in such an environment? But people continue to insist on honesty and trust. Does this have something to do with their being made in the image of God (cf. Rom. 2.14, 15)? Explain.

3.  Can you think of other ways that the practice of restorative justice might help to re-establish the balance of honesty and trust in our society? Can you see how God’s economy of love can penetrate, leaven, and shape even an under-the-sun economy such as ours? Explain.

Next steps – Conversation: Talk with some Christian friends. How many different ways can you identify that the Law of God already exerts influence over the getting-and-spending lifestyle of our under-the-sun age?

For a free overview of the teaching of God’s Law and how to apply it, write to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and request our Kingdom Catechism.

The Psalmist says the righteous person meditates on the Law of God day and night (Ps. 1). Do you? If you had a compendium of all the laws and statutes of God, would you be more likely to do so? Order your copy of The Law of God and begin taking up the discipline of daily meditation in God’s rules for love (click here). And if you need convincing that the Law of God still matters, order a copy of The Ground for Christian Ethics by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.