Partiality and Bribes

For Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Proverbs 28:21

To show partiality is not good,
but for a piece of bread a man will do wrong.

This proverb is speaking against the taking of bribes. The second line points to the triviality of the bribe. A dishonest person is willing to take anything. His one motive is his own gain. He has no interest in fairness. Indeed, justice is a game to him. Like the board game of Life, his object is to finish with the most money.

This mindset is particularly appalling because it denies human dignity. There is no sense of giving to another his "fair due." Even the wicked at times will acknowledge a person earning a reward, even respect. But the bribe taker cynically reduces everyone to an economic pawn used to serve his end. Whether he ruthlessly demands from the poor or bows before the rich, he treats everyone as mere means to his own ends. The bribe taker respects no one.

He even reduces himself to a calculating machine. His one attribute is knowing when, where, and how much to extract from others. Everyone has something to give and everything has a measure of value, even a piece of bread. All he has to do is calculate whose gift has the higher value.

We should be careful lest we fall into a similar mindset, calculating whose favor is more advantageous to us. It is easier to do than we suspect and usually we fall into such a mindset before we realize we have.