How should Christians deal with wealth?
Euro bills and coins. Photo AFP, Denis Charlet
Christian Life
Christians should avoid materialism and first seek the Kingdom of God. This doesn't mean just waiting for the life to come. They also have a responsibility in this world. How should a Christian deal with money and wealth?
In the Middle Ages, merchants were not known for being pious. Accumulating wealth was a sin, according to the Roman Catholic Church.
By contrast, in the seventeenth century, the Puritans of Massachusetts taught that developing wealth was a way of worshipping God. Not doing so was equivalent to burying one’s talent in the ground, as Jesus taught.
This is a series about the Christian view of today’s world.
How could two Christian movements arrive at such diametrically opposed conclusions? Quite simply because their assumptions were different.
Guilt
The Roman Catholic Church taught that producing wealth – the role of the merchant – was a sin. Through his activity, the merchant worshipped Mammon. Didn’t Jesus teach that worshipping God and Mammon simultaneously is impossible? Serving one means hating the other.
This doctrine was even incorporated in the Canon Law, the general law of the Roman Catholic Church, which stated that “the merchant can hardly please God.” Consequently, he had to be excommunicated from the Church. This sentence was never enforced because merchants, no doubt motivated by a sense of guilt, used their great wealth to finance the construction of cathedrals and monasteries.
Mammon
The Puritan Reformers were the heirs of Calvinist theology. This theology sought to be based solely on the Word of God, without any influence from Greek philosophy, as was the case with Roman Catholic theology. The Puritans understood that developing wealth was not worshipping Mammon. Jesus was talking about the state of the heart, not the activity itself.
The Biblical vision for economics is perhaps best described by the prophet Micah.
In his famous book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the German sociologist Max Weber demonstrated that it was Calvinist theology in particular that was at the root of the development of Western capitalist societies. For example, one of the first writers to deal extensively with Biblical economics was the French Huguenot Bernard Palissy in his Récepte véritable: à multiplier et augmenter leurs thresors (True Recipe: How to Multiply and Increase Your Treasures). His overall message was that all people could prosper.
The Biblical vision for economics is perhaps best described by the prophet Micah:
“They shall dwell every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken.” (Micah 4:4)
In other words, everyone will be able to enjoy their private property and prosper based on it because peace will reign in the country. Today, even modern non-Christian economists agree that a country at peace is the prerequisite for a flourishing economy.
Ultimately, the Biblical view on economics is rooted in the fundamental teachings of creation as set forth in Genesis 1. American theologian P. Andrew Sandlin summarised these points as follows:
God declared creation to be very good.
This means that the material world was created good. It is not evil in itself, as the Gnostics believed. Nor is it subordinate to the spiritual world, as Plato taught.
Unfortunately, these ideas have circulated over the centuries, particularly in several Christian movements that view the material world negatively. The root of evil is not the material world, but sin.
God created man in His own image, and He created the earth for man’s benefit.
This means that man was created to flourish on earth. This doctrine contradicts environmentalist ideology, which teaches that man is the main cause of the earth's deterioration. Again, the root of evil is not man's mere existence but his sin in his heart.
God’s cultural mandate to man is to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it, which implies economic freedom.
If man is to exercise dominion over creation, this means that all men have this duty, and not just a small representative part of humanity (the state), as Marxism and its socialist variant preach.
In this type of society, the state does not control prices. This privilege is left to the seller.
The rules of economics cannot be defined arbitrarily by man, but must obey God’s law, which teaches much about economics. For example, ‘Thou shalt not steal’ presupposes the protection of private property. Even the state doesn’t have the right to infringe upon that law.
These basic principles lead to a society very similar to the liberalism practised today by President Javier Milei in Argentina. In this type of society, the state does not control prices. This privilege is left to the seller.
Trust
However, the Biblical vision only applies if the population recognises God’s law as the country's supreme law. Only in a nation that recognises that murder, theft and covetousness are wrong can economic freedom take root. Respect for God’s law effectively creates a climate of peace and trust in the country.
Biblical economic thinking has never been fully applied in history. However, history shows that the nations that have come closest to these principles –such as the Protestant countries– are the ones that have prospered the most.
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