Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.” 2 Corinthians 8:13-15, cf. Exodus 16:18
“God who created human beings and gave them breath of life wanted all to be equal. He instituted all the same conditions of living for everyone; He made us all capable of wisdom; He promised immortality to all; no one is cut off from God’s heavenly benefits. Just as God distributes His light equally to all, sends forth His fountains to all, supplies food, and gives the sweet rest of sleep to all, so He bestows equity and virtue on all.
With Him no one is a slave and no one is a master; for if He is the same Father to all, we are all His children with equal rights. No one is poor in God’s eyes except the one lacking justice; no one is rich except the one full of virtues; moreover, no one is excellent except the one with goodness and innocence; no one is most renowned except the one with abundant works of mercy; no one is more perfect except the one having fulfilled virtue in all degrees.
Therefore, neither the Romans nor the Greek could possess justice because they kept people distinct in different levels from the poor to the rich, from the humble to the powerful, from common people to the highest authorities of kings. Where people are not all equal, there is no equality; and inequality excludes justice of itself. The whole force of justice lies in the fact that it makes equal everyone who comes into this human condition on equal terms.”
Lactantius of Rome (c. 240-320) in Divine Institutes 5:14, based on Peter C. Phan translation in Social Thought (Wilmington: Glazier, 1984), revised and expanded by Helen Rhee in Wealth and Poverty in Early Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017) 50. Lactantius served as spiritual advisor to the first Christian Roman Emperor Constantine, and tutor to his son, Crispus.
Christianity lived out with generosity in every generation always leads to Christian sharing that brings equality. This is not about communism, socialism, capitalism, or any other political ideology. It’s about viewing and treating people as God views and treats them. When one person is hungry and the other has surplus, God’s design for His people since providing manna for them in the wilderness has always been for them to share. That’s Christian justice.
I titled today’s post “abundant works of mercy” because that’s the core issue in play. The fact that each of us has received mercy from Christ, means we have not gotten what we deserve; that’s mercy. To get what we don’t deserve, that’s grace. And to dispense surplus to the needy, especially the undeserving, with grace and mercy, is justice. Christian sharing that brings equality won many in the ancient world and is the only answer for ours too.
Rhee adds these helpful thoughts (xxx): “The key to achieving and acting out Christian justice and aequitas [equity] in the present (in his society) is service to fellow humans… Lactantius debunks a deep seated Greco-Roman custom of reciprocity and patronage… Christian generosity and charity should be directed to “the unsuitable” as far as possible, “because a deed done with justice, piety and humanity is a deed you do without expectation of return” (6.11).
Thus, equality in the present is something that is true irrespective of social and economic distinctions but demand that the works of justice be directed to the poor and desperate (“the needy and the useless”) entirely irrespective of their worthiness and reciprocity. Well before the passionate arguments of the Cappadocian Fathers and John Chrysostom in the East, and Ambrose and Augustine in the West, Lactantius championed the humanity of the needy and the useless.”