Sorcerers, adulterers, and bad employer

Yesterday we looked at a “devotional” e-mail that was full of bad Scriptural interpretations and junk science, but in the process I quoted from the Book of the Prophet Malachi. However, I did not quote the next verse that followed the verses I quoted earlier. Yesterday I quoted these verses:

“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.

These are the verses that people love to quote. In fact, if you do some research on the e-mail I quoted yesterday, you will find multiple quotations and versions of that e-mail. All of those versions are followed by some very pious meditations like the one in yesterday’s e-mail. These are all “feel-good” meditations that take difficult subjects and reduce them to pious stereotypes. Now, let me quote the following verse, the one that is not quoted often today:

“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.

You see, there is a follow-up verse to the idea that God’s plan is to sanctify us. That follow-up is that he will, sooner or later, bring his justice to bear. But, look at the equivalence that God is setting up. Look at it closely and consider some of what is happening in the USA today. You see, that verse makes some equivalences. That is, some things are equal to other things. Now let’s look at what is equal to what.

Sorcery, adultery, perjury = employers who do not pay a living wage, those who will not take care of widows and orphans, those who treat foreigners under law as different than citizens.

This is not that different from equivalences that are found in the New Testament. Saint Paul made some similar equivalences.

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.

Saint Paul follows the Old Testament tradition of having a list of sins which includes some sins that we tend to downplay and do not truly see as mortal sins. In those lists, all of the sins are considered to be equal in evil, and equally deserving of the wrath of God. In this passage, those who are disobedient and dishonoring of parents are equal to some of the worst sinners around, they are even equated to brutal people. So, this type of equivalence is not simply an Old Testament concept, but also a New Testament concept.

Now I bring this up because of the penalties that the Old Testament prescribed for certain sins. You see, the penalty for sorcery, adultery, and perjury could be death. Each of those three sins could result in capital punishment. But, in Malachi’s listing, keeping your employees wages as low as you can, not finding serious ways to take care of the widow and the orphan, and mistreating the foreigners among you would also be equally deserving of capital punishment. I know that I have never heard a sermon preached in the USA that warns employers that if they do not appropriately treat their employees that God might consider them worthy of death. Neither have I heard any sermons warning churches or society that if they do not have practical and very active programs for taking care of the widows and orphans among them that God might also consider that church worthy of closing (the institutional version of capital punishment) or that society worthy of destruction. In fact, I have heard and read all too many defenses in modern America of the rights of business owners without any equivalent sermons on the rights of employees.

The New Testament does have lists of the duties of employees. They are found in epistles such as Ephesians and Colossians. I had heard sermons that say that anyone who “fights for their rights” or tries to join an union is somehow violating those Scriptures. But, I have yet to hear sermons giving equivalent warning to business owners, despite the verses that address them and that are also found in Ephesians and Colossians. Frankly, this is what opens Christianity up to charges by heretics such as Karl Marx (in his case a Jewish heretic) that “religion is the opiate of the people.” He was very wrong on his theories of anthropology and economics. His theories have brought much suffering to the world. But, he was correct in his observation that the Church tends to teach only part of the verses that refer to the responsibilities of business owners and the duties of employees. We only tend to teach the duties of employees and then mount defenses of the right of business owners to do what they wish with their business.

Many in the USA claim to be “Bible believers.” If we are serious about being Bible believers, then we need to preach the whole Scripture. And, if we are so serious, then when we get involved in politics, we need to make sure to champion both parts of the verses that admonish the owner and the employee. Our laws need to reflect both sides. On the part of the widow and the orphan, we need to quit saying that it is all voluntary, which often means that nothing is seriously done except by a few groups. If our duty as a Church or a society is to take care of them or be thought worthy of death, then we need to make sure that is so, even if it is not as “voluntary” as some like to preach. To defend only business owners, fathers, and parents, without also defending employees, wives, and children is to preach and believe in only the part of the Bible that is convenient to the rich and powerful.

I suspect that this is why it is so easy to dismiss the Book of James and why Luther had such problems with it.

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.