For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Deuteronomy 10:17-18 (ESV)

In 1921, Otto Eissfeldt uncovered in the ancient ruin of Carthage a sanctuary to the pagan goddess Tanit. Surveying the find, the archaeologist discovered a relief drawing of a priest holding a child—along with a kind of burial ground holding the charred remains of thousands of human infants. Sadly, atrocities like this were not uncommon in the ancient pagan world. Greek mythology tells how Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter to Artemis so the winds might blow, and the Carthaginians sacrificed 300 well-born children to their gods in one night when they heard of the approach of the Roman armies. The pagan gods were severe masters; they demanded bribes for their favor.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, carrying the tables of the Law he had received from God, the Israelites must have felt a profound sense of relief. Their God was not like the gods of the nations around them. He did not require them to sacrifice their children in fire or cut themselves with flint rocks in order to gain His favor. In fact, there was nothing at all the Israelites could do to purchase God’s good will or to make Him take notice of them. In Moses’ plain language, they could not bribe Him. The God of gods and Lord of lords had “set his heart in love” on the Israelites because of nothing but sheer grace (vv. 14-15), and what He required of them in return was love, reverence, and obedience (vv. 12-13). Moreover, God expected the Israelites to treat the powerless among them in the same way He had treated them—showing them mercy and compassion without self-regard, not in exchange for bribes.

Leaders often find themselves in a position to manufacture enormous personal gain by “leveraging” their authority. Though politics is usually the field considered most susceptible to bribery, the reality is that no area of human life is immune to it. Business, education, journalism, and even churches and families have their own forms of and rewards for bribery. For money or favors, people in every walk of life will look this way or the other, endorse or reject, expedite or interfere, give or withhold.

At every level, whether it threatens to bring down a government or “just” destroy trust within a family, demanding and accepting bribes is a cheapening of God’s grace. It takes those things which God offers freely from the storehouse of His riches—justice, love, favor, compassion—and puts them up for sale. In fact, bribery shows that one is not really worshipping the true God at all: Just as the sacrifices of ancient times were bribes to gods, contemporary bribes show that many people are worshipping another god—mammon, who can and must be manipulated for favor.

At the most basic level, bribery is wrong because it flouts God’s character. The God of gods and Lord of lords does not dole out His favor in exchange for payment. Therefore, those made in His image and redeemed by His Son should not give or receive bribes either, because it is an offense against His nature and kindness. Grace begets grace. For no reason other than His mere love for them, God has given His people life, mercy, favor, and compassion—and that for no payment whatsoever. The appropriate response to that kind of generosity is unmistakable: As Jesus said to His disciples, “Freely you received; now freely give” (Matt. 10:8 NASB).

article adopted from Kairos Jouranl

First Baptist Church is located one and a half miles east of Rt. 222.