(based on Jeremiah 29:7)
Babylon captured Jerusalem about six hundred years before Christ and exiled all but the poorest of its residents to various parts of the Babylonian Empire. God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, instructed them to seek the welfare of the place where they were, to pray for it, because in its welfare they would find their own.
That was a long time ago. God’s people remain scattered across the world, yet the instruction still stands. We are to seek the welfare of the places where we live. We are to pray for those who lead them, because our own well-being depends on the welfare of the cities and nations in which we dwell.
It sounds like wise advice, but modern American individualism resists it. Many of us have been raised to expect that society should make our personal welfare its highest priority, while our contribution to the welfare of society is voluntary—something to offer if convenient. That’s a generalization, of course, but one with more truth than we like to admit. The problem is that it reverses God’s command. Those who claim to be God’s people are commanded to seek the welfare of the places where they live, for it is only in their welfare that we can find our own.
If we are to take God’s command seriously, we must ask three questions:
- What do we mean by welfare?
- What is required for the welfare of our cities and nations?
- How does the welfare of our community contribute to our own?
The Hebrew word translated as welfare is shalom. Most readers know it as a greeting meaning “peace,” or perhaps “grace and peace to you.” But it means far more. No single English word captures its depth.
Shalom embraces the breadth and depth of wholeness without which peace cannot exist—freedom from want, from danger, the blessing of a congenial community, the opportunity to prosper according to one’s ability, and the contentment that comes from meeting life’s challenges. Even that description falls short.
The point is that we are not commanded merely to wish for the welfare of our cities and nations, but to seek it. Seeking requires action. It means working for the welfare of these places as a primary obligation of living in them.
The needs that make up a community’s welfare are vast. None of us can do everything, but each can do something. It begins with care for our families and friends, for the neighborhoods where we live. It requires that we treat each person with honor and dignity, as one made in the image of God. Bluntly, that rules out any form of abuse or exploitation. It demands that we actively seek each other’s good, regardless of whether others do the same. We are commanded by God to do what we can, regardless.
The welfare of our cities, states, and nation depends on making continual progress toward the promises of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, as amended. Human knowledge and skill have grown, and with them our responsibility to develop new ways of relating to one another for the good of all creation.
We must be honest about practices and conditions that prevent shalom from flourishing, and be willing to change direction when needed. God is still speaking, still creating. We must listen with intention to where God is leading us—honoring the old ways, yet living into the new as God reveals them.
Above all, the welfare of our communities depends on how we treat the poorest and least advantaged. If that is not clear to everyone who claims to be one of God’s people, we have failed. Facing this truth requires unapologetic honesty about our own prejudices and the courage to confront conditions that subjugate others, create obstacles to shalom, or favor the demands of the wealthy and powerful over the needs of all.
God commands us to seek the welfare of the places where we live, but does not promise that we will achieve it. We may fail. We may make small progress—or great strides forward. Whatever the outcome, we are commanded to seek: to act for the shalom of the places where we live. That is our calling.
The more we seek the welfare of our communities, the greater the likelihood that we will find our own. What makes up our individual welfare? President Franklin D. Roosevelt suggested four freedoms:
- freedom from want,
- freedom from fear,
- freedom to worship, and
- freedom to speak.
Our constitutional amendments have opened those freedoms to an ever-wider variety of people, regardless of race, sex, or condition of life. The prophets went further, teaching that social and economic justice are essential to shalom. No one should be penalized for being poor, and no one is entitled to be wealthy as a matter of right. Those who are rich in material goods, knowledge, or wisdom are obligated to be generous, humble, and mindful that they are not inherently better than others. Their wealth must serve the common good.
Only by seeking the welfare of the places where we live can any of us hope for our own personal shalom: safety, shelter we can afford, food and clothing enough, times of rest and joy, and the satisfaction of meeting new challenges that call forth our best efforts.
If we reverse the order—if we demand that society place our personal welfare first—the result is decay and destruction. Society corrodes. Most people live fearfully as subjects of the state, or worse, of lawless warlords. A few may enjoy fragile privilege, but none will know shalom.