Old Testament
Leviticus 19:35-36
35 “‘You shall do no unrighteousness in judgement, in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity.
36 You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
New Testament
James 3:13-18
13 Who is wise and understanding amongst you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and don’t lie against the truth.
15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic.
16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there is confusion and every evil deed.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Leviticus descends to the ordinary and insists that God is there. Do not cheat in measures, weight, or volume. Keep honest scales. It is a small command with a large moral world behind it: neighbour-love has a price tag, a receipt, a fairness that can be checked. Truth is not only a virtue of sermons; it belongs in the marketplace.
Lord, give us wisdom that is merciful and clear-eyed, and make our choices today a quiet form of neighbour-love.
James then asks what wisdom looks like when it walks into the room. Not the loud, sharp cleverness that wins arguments, but the wisdom that shows itself in good conduct and meekness: pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy. Bitter ambition, he says, breeds disorder; but the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace.
Voting asks us, in its own way, to weigh. We weigh promises, histories, consequences, the likely impact on the least protected. Scripture does not hand us a party list. It gives us scales. It warns us against being bought, whether by money, by fear, or by the sweet hit of outrage. It also warns us against convenience: the temptation to use lighter weights for ourselves.