On the 22nd of October, our friend Edgar was on his way to a men’s Bible study. He never arrived.
Edgar (in green) grilling up some cactus at a men’s retreat in 2021.
We found out later that he had apparently lost consciousness and collapsed on the way, and somehow was taken to the hospital.
Edgar never regained consciousness in this world. He passed away just short of 13 days later. He was 42 years old.
Those of you who receive our email update were likely praying for Edgar and his family over those days. We appreciate your continued prayers for his family – his wife’s name is Violeta, and his children are Frida and Pablo.
I want to take a moment to remember Edgar here. He was not only an important part of the Las Palmas church, he was (is) also a good friend and an example to me. Of course, I’m nothing special – he was a good friend to many!
The word “deacon” in the Bible simply means servant. From the time we got to know Edgar a few years ago, we could see that the word applied to him. Without being asked, many times probably without being noticed, he was setting things up, cleaning things, and taking things down. He constantly showed interest in other people, especially in the youth. Both believers and unbelievers knew that he cared about them, and wanted them to seek the Lord in their lives.
Edgar leading the service.
Edgar would often lead the service. The last time he led was on the 25th of September. What he shared at the beginning of the service will always be a reminder to me of his Christian testimony.
Edgar read from God’s Word at least a couple of times during the service. He reminded us at one point that it’s very important to carefully study the Bible, so that when something false comes along, we’ll recognize it.
That week there had been an earthquake in Mexico, which most of us had felt. He started by asking if anyone had been afraid. It was, of course, the topic of conversation that week.
He chose to start the service with this text, from Romans:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39
Yes, I think Edgar would want every believer to be reminded of that today.
Actually, without it being planned, God’s love seemed to be a major theme at our church during those almost two weeks when Edgar was in the hospital. And God did show His love and care for the family in many ways during that time. We’re very thankful for the testimony that his immediate family has had during these difficult days, not only to us as a church, but also to unbelievers around them.
Violeta, Pablo and Frida – after they were baptized in July 2020. (Photo courtesy Rod Fry)
But as Edgar’s family moves into the unknown future, do keep praying for them. We’re all moving into an unknown future, aren’t we? And I think that Edgar would want us to be reminded that nothing can separate God’s people from His love.
And I still remember the smile on his face when he asked, “Was anyone afraid?”
Well, is anyone afraid?
Today, with more confidence than ever, I think that Edgar would say with a smile, “No need.”
It seems like we’ve spent many posts just doing an introduction. But let’s get to just a bit of what the Bible has to say about justice and partiality.
We’ve read this before, but let’s go back to Deuteronomy:
You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy 16:18-20
Notice that first part – “judges and officers in all your towns”. Justice would be accessible, and probably fairly quick. And the judgements, of course, must be just – “righteous judgment”. That is, based on God’s law, God’s justice.
Justice here is not trying to make everyone equal. But everyone is equal before the law. “You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality…” It doesn’t matter if the accused is male or female, king or slave, foreigner or national, rich or poor. If you steal, you give it back.
And why mention bribes? What is the problem with bribes? Simply this – bribes mean that the person with power and resources can obtain justice, and the poor person can’t. Or maybe the rich can break the law and escape because of a bribe. Yes, the rich do have a possible advantage here – the bribe. But God says NO – “you shall not accept a bribe”.
“Justice, and only justice, you shall follow…”
You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s…
Deuteronomy 1:17a
You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
Leviticus 19:15
“Oh, but the poor are ‘oppressed’, and so we should give them the advantage.” No. The law should be equally applied to all.
Sometimes it’s more helpful if we use biblical terminology instead of the words and phrases of the world, like “racism” and “discrimination”. Terms like “partiality” and “favouritism” are more biblical terms (in English!).
Why does God only mention rich and poor? They are examples. What’s the main point? The law should apply to everyone equally. No government or expert should decide to change the law for certain people, oppressed or not.
But who is more likely to suffer from injustice? The poor. The vulnerable. Right? And so, the Bible tells us to help the poor. To ensure that they receive justice. And we personally help them as well.
We know that God loves His creation. And we also know that He specifically defends certain people – people we may call “vulnerable”. Let’s take a look at another text:
You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. If ever you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
Exodus 22:21-27
Do not mistreat the poor, the foreigner, the vulnerable. Don’t use them for your own benefit.
Here are a few more principles in the next chapter:
You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. 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, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.
Exodus 23:1-3
Always be honest. Speak the truth. Don’t be partial to the poor – but that’s only an example. What does it mean? Don’t be partial to anyone! Just be honest.
If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. 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.
Exodus 23:4-5
It doesn’t matter if you’re not really fond of your neighbour. You’re a part of the community. We help one another.
You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.
Exodus 23:6-7
This is an important principle. The law should protect the innocent. We talked about this before, but here it is in black and white. Two or three witnesses – and that means that sometimes the wicked will escape. But we protect the innocent and the righteous. Why? Because God “will not acquit the wicked”. In other words, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12.19) In other words, when the wicked escape, they don’t escape forever. God is just.
God’s Word is so wise – so just!
And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 23:8-9
We’ve already talked about that – let’s continue.
For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.
Exodus 23:10-12
This is great. There are laws in the Old Testament especially designed to protect the poor. Do you remember the law of gleaning? “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 23:22)
God’s law provides for the vulnerable. We’re not supposed to grasp on to every dollar we can. We leave something for the poor. Generosity. And this is generosity with dignity – the poor still work, but they have work to do.
Exodus 23 is another example of this. Leave your field alone for a year. It’s good for the soil, the environment. The poor can take the “wild” produce. The cattle have something different to eat. It’s good for everyone. God’s Word – so wise!
And of course there’s a day of rest – for your family, for your animals, for the foreigners, employees, slaves, whoever it may be.
Simple principles. Be honest. Don’t accept bribes. Don’t use and abuse people. Be generous. Work hard, and rest.
Yes, people will judge you unjustly. But where is my heart? Where is yours?
Because partiality is not only against the poor, the disabled, or the foreigner. It’s against whomever you don’t like, whomever you decide to use and abuse.
So next time we’ll come a little closer to home, and look at our own hearts. Are we showing favouritism?
This past Sunday, the Las Palmas Path of Life Bible Church celebrated its 6th anniversary! You can see our theme in the banner below (click for a slightly larger version). For those who can’t figure it out, it’s Matthew 28:18-20. The theme was chosen by the preacher, Ezequiel.
6th Anniversary Service banner
All was chaos before the service, I have to admit. Some people were trying to put up banners from our past anniversaries, with eventual success, but with many trials along the way! I was supposed to be practising with the worship team, but just had to get a video working – didn’t work on that laptop, didn’t work with that software download, connected another laptop… and on and on. The sound system stopped working, so we pulled out an old sound system which we limped along with. The video never did happen, but after we caught our breath – it was a great day! 🙂
Oscar led the service (he’s the first person you’ll see in the video), and did a great job. I made the video below a little longer than I intended to (obviously it’s all in Spanish, although I did subtitle one or two things at the beginning), because I wanted you to see just how many people were involved. People sharing testimonies, playing music, praying… and, of course, after the service – bringing food! And leading games! You’ll see some of that too.
The sermon was a great challenge to us all – very practical. And if we do what we did last year, we might keep this banner up at the front of the church for the year, as a reminder. It’s interesting how various parts of this passage have come alive in recent months – the authority of Christ, our responsibility in ministry – and especially over the last few weeks, the reminder that He is with us – a theme that has been strong in our study of Exodus as well (which we will be finishing in tomorrow’s service!).
You might recognize the song I was leading at the end, at the request of the preacher. If not, here it is in English, one of my current favourites.
Thanks again to so many of you who have prayed for and supported this ministry. Without further comment, here are some clips from Sunday.
If you would like to see the full service, just go here and go to the link for the 6th of November (6 noviembre 2022).
Last time in our Biblical Anthropology series we talked about the desire that many have to make everyone equal. Now, in certain sense, most people would agree that equality is a good thing. But there’s a lot more built into today’s common narrative.
One of the key things we’ve been talking about it that, in the minds of many, there must be a strong central authority to decide what “equality” involves, and then to take from some and give to others in order to enforce this “equality”.
Author A. D. Robles went through an interesting illustration once to demonstrate some problems with this idea. I won’t quote him exactly, but here’s the general idea as I shared it when I first taught this series.
Robles’ main point was that the supposed “mercy” of evil people often ends up being cruelty. How so?
Well, let’s take an imaginary country. In this country, people are at different economic levels. If you’re poor, survival is a challenge. Maybe you have a couple of jobs, just so that you can get by.
Now, let’s say that the imaginary government of the imaginary country decides to control the economy and help the poor people. Now, I don’t think this is the job of a government, but stay with me. They want to help the poor, so what do they do?
First, they give every poor person $1000. Great. Now, they double the minimum wage. Mercy to the poor, right? The most vulnerable.
Wait – here’s a good question to ask: Where did all this money come from? Well, maybe the government took it from the rich people, through taxes. We might call that theft, but they’re doing it for the poor, so we’ll give them a pass for the moment.
Now, what actually happens?
My friend Jake works down at the corner store. It actually belongs to his cousin – nice. His salary is doubled. Sweet! But now the store is having problems – it can’t really afford to pay Jake. Maybe he’s laid off. Or the store has to close.
No problem! There’s a big business down the street. Now, the big business doesn’t exactly have the same concern for Jake as his cousin did. But at least, for the moment, they can pay him the new minimum wage. And as salaries rise suddenly, many small businesses close, and larger companies take their place.
Their bottom line is money, of course. To pay more, they charge more. Prices rise to match the new typical salaries. But now some former small business owners no longer have their businesses. They’re looking for work – unemployment starts to rise.
With fewer people working, there are fewer products, or less variety available. The larger companies have less competition, and so they can afford to charge more.
Meanwhile, Jake is starting to have problems again. Not only are prices rising, he’s now helping to support his cousin.
So who is benefiting most from this “mercy to the poor”? The rich! Big business gets bigger. The rich, who knew how to prepare for inflation, ride out the storm, or even benefit from it. They knew how to invest. They get richer.
Meanwhile, unemployment rose among the poor, some are working in companies that don’t care about them, the $1000 was spent long ago, and if not it is already worth a lot less.
It looked like such a good idea at first. But government simply is not good at controlling all of culture. As we learned in our study of The Authorities, they have their responsibilities and their limits. And sometimes what seems good to us at first can end up as a disaster. The mercy of the wicked can be cruel.
So what’s the answer to a bad government? A new one with more control than the former one? That’s certainly the way we’re moving in our non-imaginary world. “We just need new and better laws! We just need more power to enforce these laws! And then we can finally help the poor children!”
But Jim, I don’t understand – aren’t we in favour of helping the poor? You bet. Absolutely.
So next time we’ll take a deep breath and get back to what the Bible actually says about justice for all.
These have been difficult days for our church. Difficult days drive us to God’s throne in prayer.
An elderly lady recently passed away, after some very difficult final weeks. She didn’t attend our church, but has children and grandchildren and a great-grandchild who do, so her passing affected our church quite a bit.
If you get our email update, you may have been praying with us for our friend who suddenly collapsed two weeks ago, and has not regained consciousness. He is not only a good friend, but a man who has been a key servant to the church. We continue to pray earnestly for him and his family. [Edit: As I was posting this, our brother in Christ Edgar passed away.]
Last week his family and some of his wife’s family came to the service. His daughter and son volunteered to join the worship band, and they helped lead us in praise to God. It was a moving service, as we prayed together for this and many other needs in the congregation.
In the midst of all this, we’re preparing for the 6th anniversary of the church – this Sunday. We’ve simplified the celebration somewhat due to the circumstances, but we’re still looking forward to thanking God for His faithfulness over the past few years.
(The photo above is from the music time last week – Rod is leading, and you can see Nathanael on the ukulele to the right. The banner in behind is actually from last year’s anniversary service, with text from Exodus 6:7 – “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God”. We’re just finishing our study of Exodus now, seeing the fulfillment of this promise in the book, and the application for us.)
You may have also been praying for our fellow missionary Chalo, who was in the hospital. He’s doing much better, and we were able to visit him last week. He’s home and already working, although he probably should be resting some more! 🙂
In the mundane of our own lives, this has also been a strange time. Without going into details, we’ve had some doctor’s visits. And as I mentioned in the last podcast, we went on an overnight trip to get Nathanael’s visa, only to find that the person who needed to complete the process wasn’t at the office! So this past week we made the trek again, and this time – success! Thanks for your prayers.
So in the end, the last few weeks have included a lot of unusual travel and appointments. It makes it hard to keep up with regular work (including Nathanael’s school). On the bright side, we’ve enjoyed some good family time together in the midst of it all. The “unusualness” will probably continue for the next couple of weeks, as we have at least one more appointment, the anniversary service, a wedding, rather urgent van maintenance…
So we appreciate your prayers as we navigate these turbulent times; that we would have the strength to deal with the “mundane” and still to be a light and an encouragement to others. I guess that’s a good prayer request for us all, isn’t it?
When we went through the topic of partiality at our local church, we talked about an illustration that was common at the time – the “privilege walk”.
You may have seen this done – I’ve seen it done in a couple of countries, in English and in Spanish. But here’s the basic idea. Everyone starts off in a straight line. And then the facilitator calls out something like, “You grew up with a father in your home”, or “You have never wondered where your next meal is coming from”, and so on. Everyone who had this perceived privilege or advantage takes a step forward. Then there might be negative statements, like “My parents warned me before I left the house that I could encounter violence”. Take a step back.
In the end, you see that some people are far more “privileged” than others. And what generally happens is that the black woman is in the back, and the white man is in the front (in other words, the most “privileged”).
Now, I have some problems here, but let’s clarify something. Is there discrimination in this world based on the colour of your skin? Is there favouritism based on the country you’re from? Does life tend to be more difficult for someone who lives far from their family?
To all these we say – of course! And so there is no doubt there is something real and true, to say that some people have privileges or challenges, that other people don’t have.
But there are some things that are missing in these “privilege walks”. For example, there’s no personal responsibility. And that’s part of the point – you didn’t “merit” the privileges you have. But there is a danger of ignoring personal responsibility, personal choice (because remember, the ideology here is that personal “sin” or “merit” is deemphasized, and value based on your group is emphasized).
Another problem is that a few questions result in drastic oversimplification. Who decides which questions to ask? It’s easy to “design” such an activity so that a certain type of person ends up at the back of the pack. What’s more important? Being rich? Being powerful? Feeling safe? Living close to family? Living in the country? Again, those in power, the “experts”, decide.
What if someone is lazy? I suppose that the answer would be that everyone should start at the same place. But it becomes not important if the experts decide that you’re in the “oppressed group”. That lazy person should have the same resources as the hard worker. What if a person decides to stay home with the children, instead of being in the workforce? That’s a personal decision – should they be given some of the money of the worker? What if someone decides they would like to live in the country instead of the city?
We actually did a “privilege walk” at our church, but with some twists. First of all, we used completely invented countries and backgrounds to guarantee a certain level of diversity. Everyone received a card with their own invented biography.
Once we finished the activity, and saw who all the “privileged” people were, we had a few more questions. And it turned out that they weren’t so privileged after all.
The point was that the maker of the questions can manipulate where people end up, and that sometimes people with more money and more education are actually not as privileged as you may at first think. People with big houses may have massive debt. People in private schools may be mercilessly bullied. It’s complex – everyone has their own story. Slotting them into groups is not so easy.
Marxism, or neo-Marxism, wants everyone to end up with the same amount. And there are some serious problems with this. We’ve already mentioned one problem – it turns God Himself into an unjust “oppressor”.
Some people put it this way. It’s not about equality of opportunity – for example, the basketball tryouts are open to everyone. If they’re in the top few regarding skill, they’re on the team. No, it’s about equality of results. In other words, everyone gets on the team. Or, the experts choose not based on your basketball skills, but on your group. We need so many of each oppressed group on this team. That’s the idea behind what is familiarly called “social justice”.
Social justice, according to the world, has less to do with equality of opportunity, or equality before the law, and more to do with equality of results, according to the experts in control.
And it might sound great at first. But we’re going to end up with a terrible basketball team (worse, how about airplane designers?). We end up with people who don’t care about working hard, or gaining skills, because it’s simply not necessary. But what does the Bible say?
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.
2 Thessalonians 3:10-11
We want equality, that sounds great. And we’ll talk about what the Bible teaches about equality. We don’t want to see anyone hated for the colour of their skin, or because of the country they come from. Agreed. But sometimes the solution that sounds good humanly speaking isn’t wise.
We’ll take a closer look at this concept in action, as an imaginary government tries to bring equity to their country.
