The Architecture of a Just Society Text: Exodus 23:6-9
Introduction: Justice Untethered
We live in an age that is obsessed with the word justice. It is on the lips of politicians, activists, and talking heads. But the word has been cut loose from its moorings. Modern justice is a ship without a rudder, tossed about by the shifting winds of sentimentality, victim-politics, and raw power. Everyone does what is right in his own eyes, and calls it justice. The result is not a just society, but a society that is coming apart at the seams, a society at war with itself.
The reason for this is simple. Men have rejected the only possible foundation for true justice, which is the character and law of the transcendent God. When you remove God from the courtroom, you do not get neutrality; you get a different god. And the god of secularism is a fickle and savage god. Its justice is not blind, but is instead keenly aware of who is powerful, who is popular, and who is part of the designated victim class of the moment.
Into this confusion, the law of God speaks with a bracing and clear-headed sanity. What we have in this section of Exodus is not a collection of arbitrary rules for a primitive tribe. This is case law, the application of God's eternal character to the nitty-gritty of civil life. These are the load-bearing walls of a righteous society. To neglect them is to ensure the collapse of the entire structure. These laws concerning the poor, false accusations, bribery, and the foreigner are not peripheral suggestions. They are the architecture of a nation that fears God and desires His blessing.
We are not under the Mosaic covenant in the same way Israel was, but we are under the God of that covenant. And because God does not change, His standards of righteousness do not change. These principles are eternally relevant because they are rooted in who God is. If we want a just society, we must listen to the only Lawgiver there is.
The Text
You shall not cause the justice due to your needy brother to be turned aside in his case.
Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not justify the guilty.
And you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just.
And you shall not oppress a sojourner, since you yourselves know the soul of a sojourner, for you also were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
(Exodus 23:6-9 LSB)
No Partiality for the Poor (v. 6)
The first principle of justice laid down here is the principle of impartiality, and it is applied in a way that directly confronts our modern sensibilities.
"You shall not cause the justice due to your needy brother to be turned aside in his case." (Exodus 23:6)
At first glance, this seems straightforward. Don't cheat the poor man in court. This is obviously true, and the Scriptures condemn this sin repeatedly. The rich and powerful have always been tempted to use their influence to crush the poor, and God hates it. But we must read this alongside its counterpart, found just a few verses earlier: "You shall not be partial to a poor man in his dispute" (Exodus 23:3). The principle is clear: God's justice is blind. The judge is not to peek under the blindfold to see whether the man before him is rich or poor, powerful or weak, popular or despised.
The case is to be decided on its merits, according to the law and the evidence. Period. The modern concept of "social justice" is a direct rebellion against this principle. Social justice is, by definition, partial justice. It is a justice that deliberately sides with a person based on their membership in a particular group, whether economic, racial, or otherwise. But God's law forbids partiality in both directions. You shall not favor the rich man because he can reward you, and you shall not favor the poor man because you feel sorry for him or because he belongs to a class you wish to champion.
Justice is not a tool for social engineering. It is not a weapon for class warfare. It is the application of God's fixed standard to specific cases. To "turn aside" justice for the needy is a great evil, but so is turning aside justice for the rich man. The moment a judge begins to think in terms of groups and classes instead of individuals and facts, he has ceased to be a judge and has become a political activist. God's courtroom has no room for that.
The Sanctity of Truth and Life (v. 7)
Verse 7 brings together two foundational pillars of a godly society: the love of truth and the protection of innocent life. These are not separate issues; they are deeply intertwined.
"Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not justify the guilty." (Exodus 23:7 LSB)
Notice the command is not simply "do not make a false charge." It is "keep far from" one. This implies a proactive, determined effort to distance yourself from all forms of slander, gossip, and unsubstantiated accusation. Bearing false witness is satanic. The devil is the accuser of the brethren. When we participate in falsehood, we are doing his work for him. A society that tolerates false charges will soon be a society that executes the innocent. The path from a lie to a corpse is often very short.
The second clause, "do not kill the innocent or the righteous," is the necessary result of the first. When truth is abandoned, life is no longer safe. The courts, which are meant to be a refuge for the innocent, become a slaughterhouse. This applies directly to capital punishment, it must be administered with the utmost care and on the basis of clear evidence. But it also applies to all areas where the state holds the power of the sword. To take an innocent life, whether through a corrupt judicial process or through any other means, is to strike at the image of God.
And God provides the ultimate ground for this command: "for I will not justify the guilty." This is a terrifying statement for the corrupt judge, and a glorious promise for the people of God. In the civil realm, it means that God Himself stands behind the verdict of justice. A human judge who acquits a man who is truly guilty is setting himself against the ultimate Judge of the universe. God will not ratify that fraudulent verdict. But this points us to the gospel. How can it be that God "justifies the ungodly" (Rom. 4:5) and yet here says He will not justify the guilty? The answer is the cross of Jesus Christ. At the cross, God did not waive His justice. He satisfied it. He did not clear the guilty; He punished the guilty, by punishing His Son in their place. Therefore, when He justifies us, He is not setting aside His law. He is upholding it. He remains just, and becomes the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. The corrupt human judge simply lets the guilty go. God, in His mercy, found a way to punish the sin fully and yet let the sinner go free.
The Corrosive Power of Bribery (v. 8)
Next, the law addresses one of the most direct and insidious ways that justice is perverted: bribery.
"And you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just." (Exodus 23:8 LSB)
A bribe is a secret payment to pervert justice. It is an attempt to make money the standard of truth. God's law is meant to be the standard, but a bribe sets up a rival authority. The reason given for the prohibition is profoundly insightful. A bribe "blinds the clear-sighted." It doesn't just influence a decision; it corrupts the very faculty of judgment. It's like throwing mud in a man's eyes. He can no longer see what is straight and what is crooked. The man who takes a bribe has sold his conscience. He has put a price tag on righteousness, and in so doing, has declared that money is his god.
A bribe "subverts the cause of the just." The word subvert means to twist, or to ruin. A just cause is straightforward. It aligns with reality and with God's law. A bribe introduces a foreign element that twists the entire proceeding out of shape. The merits of the case become irrelevant. The only thing that matters is who paid the most. This is why it is always a sin to take a bribe. A man in authority must do his duty without being swayed by anything other than the law and the facts. To accept a bribe is to abdicate that duty and to serve mammon instead of God.
Covenantal Empathy (v. 9)
The final command in this section is grounded not in an abstract principle, but in Israel's own redemptive history.
"And you shall not oppress a sojourner, since you yourselves know the soul of a sojourner, for you also were sojourners in the land of Egypt." (Genesis 23:9 LSB)
A sojourner, or a resident alien, is someone living in the land who is not a citizen. They are vulnerable. They lack the network of family and tribal connections that provide security. And God says, you must not oppress them. Why? Not because of some modern notion of multiculturalism, but because "you know the soul of a sojourner." God is commanding a form of covenantal empathy.
He tells them to remember their own experience. "You were slaves in Egypt. You know what it feels like to be an outsider, to be powerless, to be at the mercy of others. You know the fear, the loneliness, the ache of it. Now that I have delivered you and given you a land of your own, you are not to turn around and inflict that same misery on others." Their theology was to be lived out in their sociology. Their memory of redemption was to be the engine of their ethics.
For the Christian, this principle is magnified a thousand times. We were not just sojourners in a foreign land; we were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12). We were spiritual vagabonds. And God, in His rich mercy, did not oppress us. He welcomed us. He adopted us. He made us sons and heirs. He gave us a permanent home in His kingdom.
Therefore, our treatment of the outsider, the stranger, the vulnerable, is a direct reflection of whether we have understood the gospel. If we are harsh, suspicious, and oppressive toward the sojourner among us, it is a sign that we have forgotten that we too were once sojourners, and that our gracious God rescued us from a bondage far worse than Egypt.
Conclusion: Justice Flows from the Justified
These four commands provide a blueprint for a just society. But we must see that they are more than just rules. They are an expression of the character of God. God is impartial. God is true and the defender of life. God cannot be bribed. And God is the host who welcomes sojourners into His house.
But we have all failed to keep this law. We have all been partial. We have all participated in falsehood. We have all allowed our hearts to be bribed by idols. We have all failed to show true hospitality. We are all guilty before the lawgiver. And He has said He will not justify the guilty.
This is why the gospel is such glorious news. In Jesus Christ, God did the impossible. He judged our sin completely in His Son, so that He could then justify us freely by His grace. He did not compromise His justice in order to show us mercy. He satisfied His justice at the cross, so that His mercy could flow to us righteously.
Now, as a justified people, we are called to build a just society. We do not pursue justice in order to be saved. We pursue justice because we have been saved. Our courts, our communities, and our conduct toward our neighbors must be shaped by these divine principles. We are to be impartial, truthful, incorruptible, and hospitable, because that is what our God is like, and that is the God who has saved us.