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Tuesday, 2 December 2014
"How should a Christian view wealth?"
Views of Wealth in the Bible and the Ancient World
Views of Wealth in the Bible and the Ancient World
Think back to the last time you heard someone from
the pulpit in your church talk about money, the Bible, and your
spiritual life. On those occasions when pastors venture into this
area, the focus is often and rightly on matters of the heart and
one’s attitude toward money and possessions. But in that emphasis
often lies an unexamined assumption that goes something like this:
Given that the Bible focuses on attitude, not accumulation per se, that
materialism is fundamentally about attitude, not amount, and that the
human heart has not changed since the Bible was written, little
significant difference exists between people in biblical times and
people today when it comes to money. Hidden in that assumption is the
notion that the ancient world and the world of today are also
similar when it comes to money, wealth, and possessions. Though it is
true that the fundamental nature of the human heart has not changed
since biblical times, it does not follow that the financial world of
the Bible and that of today have limited significant difference
between them. In fact, it would be difficult to imagine two worlds
that are more different from each other.
The
Bible’s teaching on wealth and economics was set in an ancient economic
system that was quite unlike the system of today. That does not mean
that the Bible has nothing of relevance for today’s economic world,
only that we must use the Bible carefully when applying its general
principles of economic life to current times. As many biblical
scholars have suggested, a direct application of many biblical
commands relating to economic life would be impossible today, because
the system to which those commands were addressed has dramatically
changed. Rather, we are seeking from Scripture general principles or
norms that govern economic life and can be applied to different
economic arrangements. Of course, some commands apply directly, for
which the differences between the ancient world and today’s society
do not affect the application of the text. For example, the repeated
admonitions of Scripture to take care of the poor remain directly
applicable, even though the means by which that is done may have
changed. By contrast, the Old Testament commands the people of God to
keep the Sabbatical year, in which the land was to lie fallow for
one year in seven (Lev. 25:1-7), the year of Jubilee, in which on the
fiftieth year all land was returned to its original owners (Lev.
25:10-17), and the right of redemption, in which property had to be
returned to an impoverished family member in order to give him or her
the opportunity to make a living (Lev. 25:47-55). These principles
cannot be directly applied today, because they were written to a
society that revolved around subsistence agriculture, not a modern
information age economy in which very few people are tied to the land
to make their living. Rather, we must glean a general principle from
each of these commands that can be applied to the different setting
of today.
At first glance, the Bible appears to
condemn the accumulation of wealth. Classic passages of Scripture
such as “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Luke 18:25) and
“blessed are the poor” (Luke 6:20) suggest that possession of wealth
is suspect while poverty is virtuous. These texts should be balanced
by others that present wealth in a different perspective. These
include the sayings of the Old Testament wisdom literature that regard
wealth as God’s blessing to be enjoyed (Eccl. 5:18-20) and a result
of one’s diligence (Prov. 10:4-5). Similarly, in the New Testament,
while Paul counsels Timothy to keep wealth in proper perspective (1
Tim. 6:6-19), Paul acknowledges that God gives liberally to his
people for their enjoyment (1 Tim. 6:17). Yet this acknowledgment is
balanced by admonitions not to trust in one’s wealth because of the
temptation to arrogance and of the uncertainty involved in retaining
wealth (see also Eccl. 5:8-6:12), and thus, conversely, to be content
with one’s economic station in life.
The
Bible distinguishes between possession of wealth and love of wealth.
Only the latter is condemned (1 Tim. 6:10). The love of wealth and
desire to become wealthy bring a variety of temptations and have the
potential to shipwreck one’s spiritual life (1 Tim. 6:9). Yet the
members of the early church and the crowds who followed Jesus
entailed the socio-economic spectrum from the poor to the wealthy.
From what we know of Jesus’ background and his trade as a carpenter,
it would appear that he lived a modest middle class lifestyle in
contrast to many portrayals of him in poverty. It does not appear
that the possession of wealth per se is problematic in Scripture, but
hoarding one’s wealth when surrounded by poverty is a sign of
selfishness and greed. Throughout Scripture, the wealthy are
condemned for their callousness to the needs of the poor (Amos 4:1-4;
James 2:1-7). The early days of the church were characterized by an
extraordinary generosity toward the poor, many of whom constituted
the majority of the membership in the early church (Acts 2:43-47).
Though the pattern of the early church did not involve a socialistic
style of holding property in common, it did involve heightened
sensitivity to the needs of the poor. Though the Bible affirms the
right to private property, this right is not absolute. It is tempered by
the reality that all property belongs to God and that we are
trustees or stewards of God’s property. God has entrusted his
property to us both for our personal needs and enjoyment and for use
to achieve God’s purposes (such as meeting the needs of the poor).
The
pursuit of wealth in the ancient world was fraught with potential
problems, which made it easy to view those who possessed wealth with
moral and spiritual skepticism. Though the temptations facing the
pursuit of wealth today should not be minimized, some important
differences exist between the modern and ancient economic systems
that may partially account for the strong cautions about wealth. For
example, in the ancient world, as a general rule, people became wealthy
differently than in today’s market system. The ancient economic
system was largely centered around subsistence agriculture with
limited commerce and trade. Real estate was the predominant
productive asset. The ancient economy is best described as what is
called a “zero sum game.” The pool of economic resources was
relatively fixed, so that when one person became wealthy, it was
usually at the expense of someone else. Stated differently, the economy
was like a pie. When someone took a larger piece, someone else
received a smaller piece. This set up numerous opportunities to
attain wealth abusively by theft, taxation, or extortion. One of the
most common instances of this abuse was for those who had resources
to loan money to the poor at terms they could not repay, requiring
what little land the poor owned as collateral. Then when the debtors
inevitably defaulted, the lender appropriated their land. The debtors
became tenant farmers or slaves or were reduced to dependence on
charity. This form of taking advantage of the poor occurred regularly
in the ancient world and is one of the reasons why the Bible so
frequently condemns exploitation of the poor. In these cases,
literally, the rich became richer at the expense of the poor, and
when someone was wealthy, more often than not, they had acquired it
through some immoral means. Thus, the wealthy were viewed with suspicion
and great emphasis was placed on the potential temptations of
becoming wealthy, because the ancient world had so few morally
legitimate avenues to acquire great wealth.
Though
it is certainly true that the poor continue to be exploited, in the
market system the zero-sum game type of economic system no longer
exists. The market system is in various stages of development in
different parts of the world, but in more mature market systems, the
economy is anything but a zero-sum game. In modern industrial
economies, the economic pie itself is constantly increasing. Wealth
is being created instead of simply being transferred. In fact, every
time a company makes a profit, wealth is created and the size of the
pie grows larger. For this reason, the rich can become wealthy while at
the same time the poor can also be better off. That is why the
incomes of the poor can and have increased at the same time as the
wealth of the rich accumulates, though admittedly at very different
rates. Someone like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet simply having
extraordinary wealth does not mean that the poor are necessarily
worse off. Nor does it necessarily follow that Gates’ or Buffet’s
wealth was gained at the expense of someone else. In a modern market
economy, wealth is constantly being created, so that it is possible
for someone to become wealthy without necessarily succumbing to the
temptations about which Scripture warned. Today’s market economy
makes it far easier to be wealthy and virtuous than did the
agricultural subsistence economy of the ancient world.
Of
course, the same admonitions about not succumbing to the temptations
that accompany the pursuit of wealth directly apply today, as do the
commands to share generously with those in need. One’s attitude
toward and generosity with one’s wealth are fundamentally conditions
of the heart that have not changed since the ancient world.
Regardless of one’s level of wealth, one is still expected to depend
on God, not on money for one’s hope, to share God’s heart for the
poor, and to be generous toward those in need.
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