Grace Economics (1) (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

The trust factor
A free market economy such as we enjoy in America depends on a high degree of trust. Trust is a form of grace which is often betrayed by greed, whether in those who lend, those who produce goods or provide services, and those who borrow or consume goods and services.

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.”

There are always people in any economy who don’t agree with Benjamin 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 in order to make a buck at someone else’s expense. In such cases, grace is supplanted by greed, and corruption weasels into commerce.

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 used car dealers – and caveat emptor begins to sound through the hollows of our brains.

The Law of God understands this tendency and explains it as a manifestation of human self-love grounded in sinful rebellion against God: greed rather than grace. Because this is a universal condition – all have sinned – it has to be checked, especially when its unbridled manifestation might jeopardize the public weal. Hence the laws insisting that sellers use fair weights and balances – charging the same price to every customer, whether wealthy or poor.

Restorative justice
But the Law of God went beyond this. It not only encouraged honesty, it actually enforced it.

For in the statutes elaborating the eighth commandment – no stealing – are also rules guiding what today we would refer to as 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). He who had practiced dishonesty would be disciplined by society through acts of honesty.

Dishonesty came at a high price in ancient Israel. The man who cheated his neighbor would not go to jail – a form of retributive justice – 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. The larger community would see honesty restored, and the former transgression would not likely be repeated, and would doubtless soon be forgotten. Jesus approved these laws when he affirmed Zachaeus’ resolve to repay those he had cheated (Lk. 19.1-10).

What good, for example, does it do to put the thief or the con artist in prison, where he can do nothing to atone for his dishonesty or to recompense, be it ever so slightly or take ever so long, those from whom he stole? By requiring such a person to continue working, he might be kept off the public dole, restored to a measure of dignity, enabled to recoup the stolen wealth of his victims, all the while continuing to provide for his own needs.

The same principle could be applied to many other kinds of crimes if restorative justice were employed more consistently and retributive justice used more sparely. Retribution, including incarceration, is certainly necessary for some crimes. But more use of restorative justice might decrease prison populations, return dignity to offenders, and restore property to the offended and trust to communities.

If we truly believe that honesty is not just the best policy, but the only policy that we will tolerate in economic matters, then should we not work harder to enforce honesty than merely to punish dishonesty?

By following Biblical principles of restorative justice – such as were laid upon BP in the gulf oil disaster of some years back – we do not merely punish dishonesty, although we do, but we inculcate honesty both in those guilty and in the rest of society. Watch the BP commercials today, and listen to the pride they express at having invested so many billions of dollars in repairing the damaged economies of the Gulf Coast. Restorative justice – a principle encoded in Biblical law – can be a conduit through which grace can flow through an economy and greed can be punished and suppressed.

In addition, restorative justice allows us to lower the burden of taxation on the populace as a whole by requiring the dishonest to relearn proper behavior rather than languish behind bars. Biblical Law thus proves again the merits and possibilities of grace economics.

For reflection
1.  Do you know of any examples of restorative justice that have worked in your community?

2.  In our day, retributive justice – a Biblical idea, to be sure – typically takes the form of incarceration. We punish lawbreakers. How might retributive and restorative justice work together better?

3.  What is required of a community where restorative justice is practiced? How could churches serve as models to the rest of the community concerning the value of restorative justice?

Next steps – Conversation: Continue praying through the Ten Commandments each day. Talk with some Christian friends about the difference between retributive and restorative justice. What would it take for a nation or community to turn more often to restorative justice, and to depend less on retribution?

T. M. Moore

This week’s ReVision study is Part 6 of a 10-part series, “The Kingdom Economy.” You can download “Grace Economics (1)” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here. For a background study of Kingdom economics, order the book, The Kingdom Turn,  from our online store, and learn what it means to enter the Kingdom, not just talk about it.

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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.