Economics
ECONOMICS
Economic Inequality—A Cause of Sin
Matthew 19:22-26; James 2:1-4
In tracing back the various causes of sin we come across the fact that the unequal distribution of wealth causes a great deal of sin. This inequality works in several directions. First, it works harm to those who have more than their legitimate share. It often produces in them the feeling that they must in some way deserve all this, and that God must be very pleased with them, when the fact of the matter is that they may have been only clever enough to choose their parents!
Inequalities produce superiority complexes. We often think that because we have more we are worth more, which doesn’t necessarily follow. It might make us decidedly worthless. Without it, we might give a great contribution to life; with it, we give only contributions. It also sets the stage for lack of ambition, parasitism, selfish hedonism, and wasted time in general.
Again, it creates the mentality that tries to justify this condition of inequality. Rationalization sets in and with it an unconscious hypocrisy. . . . One of the severest indictments that can be drawn up against unequal distribution of wealth is that it sends cleavages through life everywhere and separates person from person. And the deepest need in the world at the present time is fellowship. The Christian must question everything that makes fellowship more difficult.
Victorious Living
(Week 23, Tuesday)
Causing Sin to the Underprivileged
Leviticus 19:13-15; Job 32:13-22
Unequal distribution of wealth causes hurt to those who have more than their share, but it also causes hurt to those who have less than their share. It tends to create in the one a superiority complex and in the other an inferiority complex. In an acquisitive society, where people are judged as to their “worth” by their wealth, not to have wealth brands one as inferior. This is a positive sin against personality.
Moreover, from the Christian standpoint, it loads the dice against inward peace and harmony. . . .
Among the Zulus, there is the saying, “The full-belly child says to the empty-belly child, ‘Be of good cheer.’” Our preaching of contentment and cheer to the poor, while leaving untouched the causes of their gloom and lack of contentment, adds insult to injury. . . . No one today has any message to that gloom and misery unless he or she has an ax in hand to strike at the root of that misery.
Victorious Living
(Week 23, Wednesday)
Isaiah 33:15-16; Ezekiel 3:5-6; 12:18-20; Philippians 4:19
In many ways, [economic insecurity] is the most prolific cause of sin in human society. . . . If [business peeople in a competitive society] get more than they needs, somebody will have less than is needed.
And the wage earners? Their economic destiny is not in their own hands, nor in the hands of fellow laborers, but in the hands of the ones who own the capital. They, therefore, live in constant dread of joining the ragged ranks of the unemployed. That haunting fear is one of the most desperate things in human life at the present time, and it may disrupt society in an awful explosion. If it does not cause an explosion, it will drive people to sycophancy, subservience, and denial of their own personhood that will be just as disruptive of society as an explosion.
Thus economic insecurity causes the sin of fear. The employer is afraid to give better wages, be undercut by competitors, and go on the rocks; the laborers are afraid of losing their jobs.
Victorious Living
(Week 24, Wednesday)
What Is to Be Done about It?
Mathew 14:15-16; Luke 3:15; 1 John 3:17
Certain things in the social structure set the stage for sin, cause sin: selfish competition, the wage system under competition, war, race prejudice, economic inequality, the existence of classes, unemployment, subjection of one race by another, nationalism, wrong attitudes toward women, and economic insecurity. . . .
If religion has no message at this point, if it undertakes to live victoriously without facing these issues, then the method used is one of evasion, and this violates two fundamental principles of victorious living, namely, mental honesty and courage to face the facts. . . .
Obviously, the first thing to be done is to look at these things as causes of sin and therefore an evil in human society, something to be eradicated and not tolerated. At this point our greatest difficulty lies. Many think that these things are an ineradicable part of society’s structure, accepted fatalistically. This defeatest mentality is our greatest problem. It must be broken. Just as the individual, in order to have personal victory over personal sins, must have the faith that it can be done, so we must gain attitude of faith that these social sins are a disease, and as such are no normal part of human living and can be eradicated. The health of the society demands it.
Victorious Living
(Week 24, Thursday)
Victory at the Place of Money
Mark 12:15; Acts 2:6; 4:36-37; 1 Corinthians 6:12; Philippians 4:11-12
Money must be individually surrendered. That is, we will say something like: “I know I need money in a world of this kind, but I don’t need more than I need. I will draw a line at the place where my needs end, for at that place others people’s needs begin, and to go beyond that line is to steal from them, and I cannot do that and be Christian. In prayer and counsel with others, I will find that line, and put the surplus at the disposal of other people’s needs.”
We master money by making it minister to our needs and to the needs of others. If money makes us more mentally, morally, physically, and spiritually fit for the purposes of the kingdom of God, it is legitimate and right, a servant of the kingdom.
Victorious Living
(Week 43, Monday)
Is the Way Impersonal?
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Science, philosophy, education, economics, business, politics, sociology—all branches of human approach to life—are going to converge upon one thing: the discovery of the Way. The discovery of gold amid the dust of the earth is going to be tame alongside the discovery of the Way hidden at the basis of life. Someday scientists are going to put it all down on the table, and they are going to say, “This is not the way to live,” and, “This is the way to live.” As we look at it, our eyes will bulge with astonishment, and we shall exclaim, “But fellow humans, the way you say is not the way to live is the unchristian way, and the way you say is the way is the Christian way.” They will reply, “We cannot say anything about that, for that is not our province; but this is not the way to live, and this is the way to live.”
The Way
(Week 7, Sunday)
Plenty for All—Poverty for Many
Matthew 15:32-37; Luke 3:10-11
An economy where the privileged insist on being kept warm by those on the edges of privilege is a doomed economy. Privilege must be distributed to all or be taken away from all.
The Way
(Week 51, Thursday)
I Never Called Her Mine
Luke 12:33-34
Holding our possessions at God’s disposal does something more than settle a money issue. It settles a life attitude. You are then under orders, with a sense of mission, a sense of direction and goal.
When you let go of your possessions and let God have them, then life takes on a sense of stewardship. You are handling something on behalf of another. That does something to the whole of life; puts sacredness into the secular, lifts the sordid into the sacred. Then the Word becomes flesh, and the flesh becomes Word. Money becomes a message. When the pastor of the Chicago Temple used to call the collection “an offering of minted personality,” he was right. When given to God, it is just as sacred as the words that fall from dedicated lips in the pulpit. Both speak the same message, and equally.
How to Be a Transformed Person
(Week 41, Tuesday)
Making Money for God
Luke 12:22-24
Jesus, in sixteen out of the thirty-eight recorded parables, dealt with stewardship. This means that while he taught that “you cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt 6:24), nevertheless you can serve God with mammon.
This means that he may call some to go into business as definitely as he calls some to go into the ministry. There they may use their powers of organization to make money for God.
Someone asked Jane Addams [1860–1935, founder of Hull House] what was the secret of her life, and she replied, “I looked into the faces of ruffian children, and then I looked into the face of Christ, and I gave my life to bring them together” [no published source found] I can imagine a businessperson saying: “I looked into the faces of the poor of the world, and then I looked into the face of Christ, and I gave my life to business to help meet that need.” Or if not the poor, then the other areas of need in the world, at home and abroad. And I can see the businessperson go to tasks with lightness of step, sureness of direction, and a sense of mission. That person is making money for God. A Service of Commission should be held for such men and women as they go forth in Christ’s name. Then ledgers would be handled with the same sense of sacredness as sacred books in a pulpit.
How to Be a Transformed Person
(Week 41, Wednesday)
Streamline Your Life for Kingdom Purposes
Luke 12:25-28
We are studying the necessity of a sense of stewardship in life. David Livingstone (1813–1873) had it when he said these immortal words: “I will place no value on anything that I have or possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. If anything I have will advance that kingdom, it shall be given or kept, as by giving or keeping it I shall best promote the glory of him to whom I owe all my hopes both for time and eternity” (widely quoted). That first sentence should become the life motto of every Christian in the world. Each Christian should repeat it slowly to every day, “I will place no value on anything that I have or possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ.” If it furthers that kingdom, it has value, it can stay. If it is useless to that kingdom, is valueless, it must be made useful or go. Streamline your life for kingdom purposes.
How to Be a Transformed Person
(Week 41, Thursday)
Stewardship of Treasure, Time, and Talent
Luke 12:29-31
Stewardship may be of treasure, time, and talent. Everyone has some of each; some have more, some less.
How to Be a Transformed Person
(Week 41, Friday)
The Material Becomes the Meaningful
Revelation 1:4-6
The Christian faith accepts the material, and dedicates it. There are passages that seem to say the opposite: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). True. But it doesn’t say, “You cannot serve God with mammon.” If money is dedicated to God along with the soul, then this money is just as sacred as the soul. When Jesus said to the rich young ruler: “Go, sell what you possess; . . . and come, follow me” (Matt 19:21), what the young man lacked was not poverty, but following Jesus, and the riches stood in the way of that following. If he had followed Jesus with his riches in his hands, ready to give to human need as it arose, he could have followed Jesus.
The Word Became Flesh
(Week 6, Thursday)