Justice at Law – The Eighth Commandment

Justice at Law

The Eighth Commandment

Exodus 23:6-8

“You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.”

We are familiar with the complaints that the American system of justice leans toward the wealthy and takes advantage of the poor. These concerns are not entirely without merit. When we consider how expensive it can be to hire a lawyer, how biased our society in general is toward those with means, and how the poor are often looked upon as grasping and opportunistic rather than truly needy, it’s not hard to see why many activists and reformers decry the corruption of the American legal system.

Here again the Law of God made a special point to protect those who might otherwise be taken advantage of in courts of law. Any who thought to steal justice from the poor through false charges, bogus judgments, or bribes would know that the Law of God stood ready to come to the defense of the wronged, and to bring judgment against any who showed contempt for divine standards of justice.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.