You may think that Corporate Accountability wasn’t a big issue in Biblical times. It’s true that the multinational corporations (MNCs) we are familiar with today did not exist. However, there have always been superpowers that have had an economic monopoly and used it to secure power regardless of its effect on people.
As Jesus said in his teaching on money: ‘whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with very much and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much’ (Luke 16 v 10).
With the increasing power of MNCs comes the responsibility to ‘act justly and love mercy’ (Micah 6 v 8) and God’s command to ‘not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns’ (Deuteronomy 24 v 14) is as relevant today as it ever was.
This verse is particularly relevant to UK based companies and their subsidiaries working overseas who so often do not provide workers with fair terms or a living wage. In our global economy the chains of injustice are very complex, but it does not excuse us from God’s just laws, for as Jesus says ‘what is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight’ (Luke 16 v 15).