“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” - Matthew 6:21
Nothing gets someone’s attention like debt. When God wants to call a person or a society up short and get their attention, He knows just what to do… go for our wallet. As Jesus says in the above scripture, when you touch a man’s wallet, his heart and mind will usually follow.
Economics is far more important than most Christians have ever thought. As amazing as this may seem to us “spiritual believers” who are above dwelling on such carnal things as wages, stewardship, and capital increase, more of Jesus’ parables involve money and related issues than any other theme in the gospels! His explanations of the Kingdom, using capital-related illustrations, are fascinating. For example, in Matthew 13, He teaches on the laws of poverty and increase; the parable of the sower and the fruitful workers who brought forth increase: thirty, sixty, and a hundred-fold; the parable of the treasure hid in a field; the parable of the pearl merchant; the parable of the keeper of household treasures. And in the Old Testament we find one of the more interesting commands that God gave to Israel which sounds like the ultimate dream of every capitalist - "You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth.”
While scripture tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil, nowhere does God’s Word teach that wealth or the ownership of private property is a sin. If personal wealth were indeed a sin, then God must be the chief of sinners, for He owns all things! So the issue is not what we own or don’t own; the issue is what we do with what we own. If God, as the universe’s most careful Investor, cares about anything, it is the proper stewardship of and increase from that which He entrusts to us.
Don’t forget that, in Jesus’ parable, the unfortunate servant was sent into judgment—not for gambling away his master’s money or for losing it, but rather for not at least returning it to his master with interest! Whatever resources God commits to a person or nation are due back to God, with increase. So careful is our heavenly Investor that when Jesus finished the miracle of feeding the 5,000, He made sure all baskets were re-gathered so nothing was wasted. Scripture abundantly reminds us that God is an exacting property owner whose grace is seemingly matched by His concern for resource management.
The secular politicians have long known that people “vote their pocketbooks.” Presidents stand or fall more on perceived economic issues than any other single factor, and this is not simply because people are unduly concerned with money (though many certainly are). When we talk economics, we are talking people’s families and the fruit of their lives—what is going to be passed on to the next generation. When we deal with money, we are dealing with self- worth and dignity, the opportunity to earn a decent living and to provide for those whom we love. Economics is the foundation of not just a culture but also of human dignity. Money touches this deeper issue because it represents time in foldable form, the tangible commodity that we receive in return for the hours of our labor as well as our risk and skills. If you take a man’s money, you are making worthless the time he invested to acquire it. Only a fool says that time is of little value.
Material values are spiritual values because God has placed His energy, laws, and labor into His material creation. Those who say that true spirituality has nothing to do with material management are woefully ignorant of God, His ways, and His Word. As a matter of fact, scripture plainly teaches that the stewardship of our material bodies is one of the first things for which we will be evaluated at the Judgment Seat. Because so much of modern Evangelicalism is steeped in the Gnostic heresy of dualism—that spirit is good and matter is evil—Christians have been guilty of letting God’s adversaries control the Creator’s material resources, believing that they were being “spiritual.” It is impossible to “do business until I return” or to rule and take dominion over the Earth if one has an anti-material perspective of God’s material creation. A classic case in point is modern Nigeria. The simmering civil war there has left the Muslims with most of the banks and financial institutions and the Christian community with “spiritual freedom” but little resources to do anything.
Several things seem very clear to me. First, economic evangelism will be a very significant issue in the 21st century. As those in the Third World know, whoever teaches men and women to create capital and to secure material provisions is going to own the hearts and minds of the people. Anyone in the real world, while they may care about their afterlife, wants to see eternal truths work in the here and now! And Christ’s truths do. Whoever helps to economically revitalize America’s inner cities will win the elections and the spiritual debates. Christian leaders who remain ignorant of economic issues and principles will become increasingly irrelevant in the battle for men’s hearts in the next decade because, as Jesus said, hearts and wallets are intimately connected. Second, you can be certain that God is going to give His servants unique insight into solving problems for His glory because economic confusion and disobedience is so rampant in the nations. When God tugs on a nation’s wallet, He’ll get the people’s attention—and what an hour that will be for His prophets! And in the center of their message will be God’s laws of economic stewardship and care for His Creation.
Principle Based Evaluation: In order to produce change, those advocating transformation must be living it in their own lives. Hey church, wake up; we’re there!
For more information on the author, Dennis Peacocke, go to: http://www.gostrategic.org/
