While listening to a podcast yesterday, it was stated, roughly, “I would offer a bribe in a heartbeat. It’s the cost of doing business in the third world”
He may have been serious, joking, or some half-mixture of the two, but it does often seem as if, though the actual definition is something else, that one of the primary signals that you’re in the “third world” is the commonplaceness of bribery.
One thing that the church at large, for some reason (perhaps because they’ve accepted them), refuses to teach us about is to neither offer nor accept bribes as a way of doing business.
God himself denounced it quite often in the Old Testament.
Exodus 23:8: You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
Deuteronomy 16:19: You shall not wrest justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.
Job 36:18: Don't let riches entice you to wrath, Neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
Psalm 15:5: He who doesn't lend out his money for usury, Nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.
Proverbs 17:23: A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, To pervert the ways of justice.
Ecclesiastes 7:7: Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding.
Isaiah 5:23: Who acquit the guilty for a bribe, But deny justice for the innocent!
He’s very serious about it being bad, but the NT doesn’t mention it… so we’ve somewhat forgotten how bad it is, relegating the concept to a generally poor moral sign and a legal risk. At my own church this week, someone was discussing how a hush payment was being offered in exchange for a grievance from the vaccine mandate era, where this person did not recognize that bribe as a bribe, nor realize our command to reject it. Thankfully, it was pointed out, but as bribes are rarely called by their name and instead have to be discerned, and we are not used to spotting them, it is not always obvious what is going on.
When someone like Dave Ramsey talks about the Bible having a ton of verses on managing money and doing business, they’re almost all in the OT, but he can’t say that because we’ve largely been taught to ignore everything but the stories and the Ten Commandments.
If what we think is about to happen, does, and we become much freer again, it may also become more important to understand the nature of bribes and what is at stake with them as well.
Fundamentally, a bribe is an acknowledgement by both parties that corruption exists, and that the innocent/complicit party is not going to speak out about the guilty party. It allows corruption to fester and grow, and should be avoided.
By that note, maybe another good examination would be a comment on [re]establishing courts of Justice…
Mine actually pays more attention to the OT. I still can’t recall having heard a sermon on bribery, or the numerous verses on it being called to attention at any of the churches I’ve attended or listened to.
It could be my memory, or just not noticing it, or it might indeed not be covered very often, if at all.
Hence my pointing this out. I have definitely heard much more commentary on anti-bribery from business training classes than from churches, and that’s not right.
This isn’t intended to point fingers, though I understand that a comment or two of mine somewhat did do that, but this is intended to bring attention to bribery being anti-biblical, and that we should be aware of it as Christians, not just because it can be illegal or secularly immoral.