Do I gravitate toward and surround myself with those whom I believe will help my own cause and build my own kingdom, or do I seek to love and care for those in God’s Kingdom who bring me no personal advancement or gain?  Do my private dealings reveal a heart of justice? If they were made public, would they lead to the conclusion that my actions have not been driven by a desire for unjust gain? 

“You scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours.” This familiar idiomatic phrase sometimes simply refers to the way in which people with differing skills and abilities seek to care for one another out of a sense of need and gratitude. However, more often than not, it represents the way in which people are willing to show unjust partiality to one another for dishonest advancement or gain. In the latter case, it is not always made manifest in an official offer of possessions or promotion. Instead, it is often packaged in unspoken and unofficial ways. We may be tempted to show partiality to others in places of leadership in the workplace, civil service or in the church because they have convinced us that they can help us achieve our own goals or advance in our own ambitions. We may do so out of a sense of self-preservation–acting unjustly toward another because someone has convinced us that if we don’t do such or such a thing in regard to another, it will hurt us or our own advancement in the long run. In no matter what form or presentation it may come, Scripture distills the essence of such perverting of justice down to one word–namely, bribery! From the catalogue of sins and injustices we hear about in our day, bribery is almost entirely absent. However, Scripture repeatedly sets out this evil–even to the supreme example of it in the betrayal of the Son of God. In our day, bribery in all its sophisticated and subtle forms may be the least mentioned sin. It is, however, in no way whatsoever absent from the pages of Scripture. Consider the following:

• The Law of God reveals the nature of the evil of bribery when it says, “You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right” (Ex. 23:8).
• In giving Israel God’s principles of justice, regarding the judges and officers of His people, Moses told them, “You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous” (Deut. 16:19).
• God rejected Samuel’s sons, who were judges over Israel, because they “took bribes and perverted justice” (1 Sam. 8:3).
• By way of contrast, when Samuel gave his farewell speech to Israel, he made the following appeal: “Here I am; testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me and I will restore it to you.”

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