God's Laws for a Just Society

 When Jesus preached in his hometown of Nazareth, it was the Sabbath day, and he read this text from the Old Testament.

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, 

To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Lk 4:18–19 NKJV

The acceptable year of the Lord was the Jubilee.

Every fiftieth year was the jubilee. Anyone, who had sold his inherited land to pay debts, could repossess his inheritance free of charge.

Jesus read this text on the Sabbath. Every seventh day was also a day of rest. This was a great mercy for workaholics and poor labourers.

In addition, every seventh year was a year when the land rested. The crops that grew in this year must not be harvested by the landowners, but the poor could help themselves.

Every seventh year, all debts were also cancelled.

In the OT Law of Moses, the Hebrew landowners harvested the grain, the olives and grapes, but they were not allowed to harvest too thoroughly. They had to leave a generous portion of unharvested produce for the poor to gather. This was called gleaning.

An evangelical preacher in the USA explained these laws. He then asked his congregation, what they would think if these laws were not in the Bible and we applied these principles today.

The conservative congregation answered, that this would be Communism.

Does this shock you? It seems to me, that evangelical Christians in America and similar countries have badly misunderstood what it means to be Bible believing Christians. We have been indoctrinated to accept uncritically the priority of maximising investment returns and corporate profits.

What does the bible say about financial greed?

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left, and you live alone in the land. Is 5:8 NIV

In America, Australia and some other countries, real estate speculation has resulted in mass homelessness.

These Bible laws were not just principles for believers to follow, but laws to govern a just society. If we live in democratic countries, and governments are not adequately providing for the care of the poor, the disabled and the sick, churches should do more to provide help. 

In the past, many schools and hospitals have been founded by churches to help people in need.

But it is not enough for Christians to help. We should also call upon governments to do more.

When the Luke and the Apostles wrote the New Testament, they said very little about principles of government. It was already in the OT. The early church also had no possibility of influencing Roman laws. They were like the church today under dictatorships.

In democratic countries, Christian political activists do try to influence laws. Many oppose homosexual marriage and try to restrict abortion, but conservative activists often ignore the OT principles of making adequate provision for the poor.

Many churches do help the poor but they don’t understand that they should pressure governments to help the poor and sick adequately.

Many American Christians have become so indoctrinated with the philosophy of big business, that they think affordable universal medical service is evil socialism.

What many conservative Christians fail to understand, is that poverty often leads to prostitution and more abortions.

In most democratic countries, the majority of people are no longer bible believing Christians. Political action to stop abortion has usually had little or no success. Adequate social welfare for poor or single mothers could reduce the desperation to get abortions.

Christian Activism and Abuse Victims

 As a little girl, she firmly believed in Jesus and prayed with childlike trust in God. But then she was sexually abused. As a teenager, she was confused and sought comfort with marijuana and boys. 

I am thinking of stories of not just one or two women who ended up in a brothel, a psychiatric institution or on the street.

I think of a young man who was begging on the street in a German city in winter. He lived off donations, and he told me he sometimes spent the night with a client.

I know women in Germany who visited brothels to help prostitutes with friendship and kindness.  In one year, they uncovered four victims of trafficking and helped them return home.

In one Australian state, the government reported that 15-20% of all mentally ill patients committed suicide within 24 hours of being discharged. After that, no more statistics were published. The scandal was simply hushed up.

Yesterday, a Christian political activist phoned me. He told me to contact the government and demand that we should have religious freedom.

I was not impressed, and I gave him a piece of my mind.

Why do these activists protest about abortion, gender mainstreaming, etc., but ignore domestic violence, homelessness and the neglect of the mentally ill and victims of abuse?

The young activist protested that he had himself been homeless before he found Jesus in his life. He insisted that this was not a political issue, but personal evangelism was the correct response.

Sorry, but my experience tells me that there are many homeless and mentally ill people who believe in Jesus or have believed once, but are human wrecks because of hypocrisy and abuse in Christian families or churches.

I have talked to Christians who struggle with suicidal thoughts. I know Christians in this situation who sometimes needed government funded psychiatric care to repair the damage done to them by professing Christians, Christian families or churches.

Inadequate government funding of services for homeless victims and mental patients is an urgent political issue and also a Christian issue.

Jesus sharply rebuked the Pharisees for imposing a narrow religious way of thinking on others, but they did not care about poor, sick and suffering people.

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Galatians 5:14 NKJV

There is a very important word in biblical Hebrew and also in Greek. It means both righteousness and justice. In French, Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch bibles, the same wonderful word is very prominent.

Sadly, the English language has no word to translate this word. Many Christians read the word “righteousness” and do not realise that it also includes justice and mercy.

“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Luke 11:42 NKJV

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face. Psalm 89:14 NKJV