23 “You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. 2 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, 3 nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.
4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.
6 “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. 7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. 8 And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.
9 “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”
Section Overview
These verses are arranged as a chiasm, with the outer sections detailing commands concerning justice (vv. 1–3, 6–9) and the center section outlining case laws addressing love of enemy (vv. 4–5).546 The overall effect is to emphasize that the Israelites must show justice and love to all.
Section Outline
Response
What Are the Keys to Proper Justice?
Exodus 23:1–9 identifies three principles central to the proper execution of justice in the courts. First, witnesses and judges must hold an unwavering commitment to truth. Verses 1–3 emphasize that witnesses must not lie or mislead in any way. Verses 6–9 emphasize that judges must not listen to false charges or take bribes and so pervert justice.550 The temptation to compromise truth could come from the desire for gain or revenge or, as emphasized in verses 1–3, from the pressure of others. Especially in ancient Israel, where communities were small and the witnesses in a local court were likely to be one’s friends or families, going along with the majority would have been a very strong temptation.551 But fear of God and a commitment to his truth must trump fear of others, leading one to “swim against the tide, if it flows toward evil.”552
Second, special concern must be shown to the weak and powerless. Verses 6 and 9 focus on the poor and the resident alien, both of whom were socially vulnerable. As noted further above, a natural human tendency is to treat the beautiful, the gifted, the rich, or the powerful as though they have more value than others. The Bible repeatedly speaks against this. Old Testament or New, the Lord commands his people to make sure they defend, care for, and support the lowly (22:21–24; Deut. 14:28–29; 24:19; Isa. 1:17; Jer. 22:3; James 1:27; 2:1–9; cf. Response section on 21:18–32, “Who Bears God’s Image?”).
Third, while special concern must be shown to the weak and powerless, we must also make sure that compassion does not lead us to pervert justice in their favor (Ex. 23:3). Justice is the foundation of moral order in society and must be applied fairly and impartially. In many societies today justice is personified as a woman who holds scales by which the evidence is to be weighed, who bears a sword that represents authority to make and enforce legal decisions, and who wears a blindfold to indicate that justice is fair and impartial.553 God is no respecter of persons; his people must not be so either.
While the above principles are meant to guide behavior in the courts, they apply to many other contexts as well. This includes “organizations, businesses, and schools where individuals or committees are responsible to investigate charges against members, employees, or students.”554 In today’s social media age it applies also to the court of public opinion, where people’s actions are quickly evaluated and judged on any number of media platforms and where the temptation to follow the majority is strong. What does it look like in these contexts for God’s people to have an unwavering commitment to truth, to show special care for the weak and powerless, and to make sure that the judgments we make or encourage are fair and impartial? How might our businesses or social media feeds look different as a result? How should they look different as a result?
What Should Be Our Posture toward Our Enemies?
Amid these commands regarding proper justice we find two commands about loving our enemies as ourselves (23:4–5). This is no surprise. Our enemies are the ones we might be most tempted to wrong in matters of justice. These verses steer us away from such behavior by commanding us to show compassion to our enemies. In particular, just as we would want help in difficult situations, so must we extend the same help to others, even an enemy. In short we must love our enemies as ourselves.
The original command to “love your neighbor as yourself” is spoken in the context of how to interact with someone who has wronged another (cf. Lev. 19:18b with 19:18a). Stated differently, the “neighbor” in view in Leviticus 19:18 is not first and foremost the person whom someone likes and gets along with but the one with whom another has conflict. In comments elsewhere on that verse I note,
Jesus . . . [addresses] those who sought to limit this command to friends (Matt. 5:43), emphasizing that it also applies to enemies. He teaches us even to pray for them and explains that only when we show love to all people can we become living examples of God’s generous care and love for the entire world (Matt. 5:44–45). Similarly, when asked to explain what loving our neighbor as ourselves entails, Jesus tells the parable of a good Samaritan who showed practical love and care for a man who would normally be considered his enemy (Luke 10:29–37). He concludes the parable by saying “Go and do likewise” (10:37), making clear that loving our neighbor means showing God’s love and care to all those we encounter, whether friend or foe, and doing so in very practical ways.555
What Motivates Our Obedience?
In all the above, obedience is motivated by two different factors. First, God himself is watching. “Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked” (Ex. 23:7). God will hold us to account for wrongs we have done, even when others are powerless to do so (cf. 22:23–24, 27). “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23) is one of the Bible’s most sobering warnings.
But the Israelites should not even need this warning, in light of the second factor: the tremendous justice and mercy they have already received from the Lord. “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Ex. 23:9). By appealing to the Israelites’ own experience of suffering and misery the Lord also recalls how he has exercised justice and mercy on their behalf. The Israelites are in turn to be a conduit of this same justice and mercy toward others.
Throughout the Bible God’s behavior toward his people is to be the model of how they treat others. Jesus tells his disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). Other verses also speak of the love we have received from the Father and the Son as the model and motivation for the love we are to show others (Eph. 5:2; 1 John 4:11; from a warning perspective, cf. Matt. 18:21–35). Whether in the courts of criminal or civil justice or in the courts of public opinion, whether in our interactions with our friends or in those with our enemies, Christians have the privilege of embodying to others the love of Jesus. And that is the strongest testimony we can ever give.Exodus 23:1–9