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{"id":8181,"date":"2012-11-26T15:02:32","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T15:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=1915"},"modified":"2012-11-26T15:02:32","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26T15:02:32","slug":"gifts-just-to-the-just","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2012\/11\/gifts-just-to-the-just\/","title":{"rendered":"Gifts just to the just?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

<\/p>

Sirach (12:1-2) advises, \u201cIf you do good, know for whom you are doing it, and your kindness will have its effect. Do good to the just and reward will be yours ( antapodoma <\/em> ), if not from him, from the Lord.\u201d <\/p>\n

This sounds like Proverbs: \u201cHe who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.\u201d Both Sirach and Solomon speak of reciprocity, reward for good done and specifically reward from the Lord. <\/p>\n

But there has been a sea change between the two, evident in Sirach\u2019s qualifying phrases, \u201cto the just\u201d and \u201cif not from him.\u201d As Petterman ( Paul\u2019s Gift from Philippi: Conventions of Gift Exchange and Christian Giving (Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series) <\/a> $\"\"$ ) says, Sirach assumes that \u201cthe just man will feel the appropriate social pressure to repay,\u201d and he adds that \u201cthis is a teaching we do not find in the Old Testament\u201d (41). <\/p>\n

Jesus is in line with Proverbs, but radicalizes the instruction: \u201cDo not <\/em> invite your friends or your brothers . . . lest they also invite you in return, and repayment ( antapodoma <\/em> ) come to you\u201d (Luke 14:12). Repayment from the beneficiary is precisely what we do not <\/em> seek. Jesus promises repayment, but \u201cat the resurrection of the righteous\u201d (vv. 13-14). Neither Solomon nor Jesus imagine any \u201cif not from him.\u201d The reward is simply, strictly <\/em> , \u201cfrom the Lord.\u201d <\/p>\n

Besides, the people Jesus tells His disciples to invite to the table are the \u201cpoor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.\u201d Conspicuously absent from this list are the \u201cjust.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"