Justice for the Poor: No Preferential Option – The Kingdom Curriculum XVIII (2)

Justice for the Poor: No Preferential Option

“You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit. Exodus 23:2, 3

In some Christian circles it has become fashionable to insist on a “preferential option” on behalf of the poor. That is, the view is advanced that merely being poor establishes some claims and rights that the poor have with respect to the rest of society. This view sometimes holds that churches and governments are obligated to do everything in their power, including forced redistribution of income, in order to raise the poor above the level of poverty and ensure that their basic life needs are met.

Of course, we applaud the noble desire to help poor people, providing they are truly poor, that is, poor in the eyes of God, according to criteria we mentioned in a previous section. The sluggard and the fool certainly do not qualify as “poor” in the Lord’s eyes; therefore, we must not devote our precious resources and energies to coddling those who will not take responsibility for the own actions.

At the same time, we must not consider that the truly poor person has some kind of natural right or claim on specific people and their resources. The warning against deferring to poor people in lawsuits, simply because they are poor, is mentioned in two places in the Law of God (our text, and Lev. 19:15). The poor do not automatically, by virtue of their poverty, have a claim on the judicial deliberations and decisions of elders and judges. They must not defer to the poor simply on the grounds of poverty; poverty alone does not justify attempts to alleviate it that go beyond what the Law of God provides.

The poor will always be with us, and God, knowing this, has prescribed remedies for poverty that preserve the rights of hard-working people, ensure the dignity of the poor, provide opportunities for full restoration as productive members of society, and ensure that justice will be maintained in a community. Our responsibility is to understand, embrace, and apply those remedies in the Spirit in which God intends them.

Reading and meditating on the Law of God is every believer’s duty and privilege (Ps. 1). Order your copy of The Law of God, a compendium of the commandments and precepts of God’s Law, by going to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is 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.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.