By Kenneth Sullivan
“Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion, everyone to his brother—Zechariah 7:9.”
(All Scriptures in this article are quoted from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible).
Here is an example of how justice works through the lens of mercy and compassion:
A store manager caught an impoverished customer eating fruit without paying because he was hungry and penniless. Out of mercy, the manager did not call the police. Instead, the manager showed the shoplifter compassion by hiring him to work at the store so he could make money to obtain food through honest labor. This reflects the exhortation of Ephesians 4:28: “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him work with his hands what is good, that they may have something to give him who has need.” The manager leads the shoplifter to a path of restorative justice—the kind of justice that focuses on rectifying and providing a path to redemption before—or in place of—retribution or penalty.
This approach aligns with Proverbs 6:30-31, which tells us not to look down on people who steal food out of starvation, but encourage them to make some kind of recompense, which is necessary for the offender to take responsibility and to be reformed. This biblical principle is echoed by Socrates, the philosopher and teacher of ethics, who argued that wrongdoing is harmful to the soul and never justified. It must therefore be corrected or punished as a goal of justice, acting as a form of education rather than vengeance, to lead the offender back to virtue.
By employing the customer, the manager fulfills the spirit of recompense. This prevents the shoplifter from falling back into a cycle of a civil offense punishable by imprisonment and a violation of God’s law written in Scripture: “You must not steal” (Exodus 20:15, Deuteronomy 5:19).
Mercy is often defined as a choice to offer transgressors a path to redemption rather than the punishment they actually deserve. By choosing restoration over retribution, we fulfill the call to show mercy and compassion to our brothers and sisters.