Justice for the Poor: The Dignity of the Poor “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. ...
Justice for the Poor: A Question of Stewardship “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.” Leviticus 25:23 The use of personal property under the Law of God must always be pursued with the mindset that nothing we ...
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 ...
Justice for the Poor: A Perpetual Obligation For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Deuteronomy 15:11 It’s a little tricky sometimes trying to apply the principles of Israel’s Old Testament theocracy to the Church’s calling and responsibility in a secular society. However, Jeremiah’s exhortation to the exiles ...
Distributive Justice “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….” Leviticus 23:22 In every society there are those who ...
Retributive Justice “If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.” Leviticus 24:19, 20 Usually referred to as lex talionis, retributive justice is “pay ...
Restorative Justice “If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed over, or lets his beast loose and it feeds in another man’s field, he shall make restitution from the best in his own field and in his own vineyard.” Exodus 22:5 Restorative justice works to restore the imbalance ...
Preventive Justice “If fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, he who started the fire shall make full restitution.” Exodus 22:6 In this statute we see the interplay of two facets of the jewel of justice. The ...
Obligatory Justice “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.” Leviticus 19:13 In Biblical terms, justice is a jewel of five facets, mounted on a ring of purest gold, which is the character of ...
God Seeks Justice For the Word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice…. Psalm 33:4, 5 Christians should be concerned about justice. Questions of just practices and procedures come up all the time: Is it just for CEOs of struggling ...