The Gospel and Economic Systems

 

Is the God of the Bible a capitalist or a socialist? Is He neither or both? And what do those words even really mean? Some followers of Jesus probably don’t ever think about that question and don’t really care. Some Christians think, talk, and write about it all the time. And still others seem to only take one side or the other every election cycle as they wrestle with whether our country is becoming “more” or “less” Christian based on which political party controls the White House and the Legislature. Because of that reality, and the way some politicians, social influencers, and even pastors attempt to use the idea of economic systems to rally Christians to their cause, we thought it could be helpful to look at these ideas of economic systems through a biblical grid at a surface level. Our heart is to help us reflect the love of Christ and the heart of God as we look to love those in the world around us as citizens of Heaven first and foremost.

 

A Clarifying Comment

It’s good to understand that some people only think of these two economic systems in light of our recent history with democracy and communism. So, for some people, capitalism equals democracy, and socialism equals communism. It’s important to recognize that this isn’t necessarily true, but it’s also important to realize as we have this conversation, it’s easy to confuse terms and ideologies if we’re not paying attention. But the reality is that almost every country operates with some level of a blend of the ideas of capitalism and socialism, whether people realize it or not. As Christians, we shouldn’t feel threatened about discussing these ideas in a calm, rational way.

 

A Brief, Earthly Definition

At a very surface level, most people think about capitalism as being based on individual initiative and favoring market mechanisms over government intervention, while most people think of socialism as being based on government planning and limitations on private control of resources. As mentioned, left to themselves, most economies tend to combine elements of both systems at some level. For instance, in America, our economic policies allow for people to earn different amounts of money based on their ingenuity, hard work, and opportunity and keep much of that money to themselves to use as they see fit in a very capitalistic way. At the same time, our system also requires citizens to pay taxes to the government to be used for the collective good as well as to be redistributed in different ways to people who have certain financial needs in a very socialistic way. Both economic ideas have been a part of our economic system in America for a long time and the degree to which we should lean one way or another has been long debated in our country.

 

A Biblical Perspective

Once we get to the New Testament era in the scriptures, we see God laying out certain biblical principles for how we should think about our wealth as followers of Jesus, no matter what country around the world we live in, and no matter what economic policies the country we live in holds to. We also see some commands in the New Testament around sharing wealth and using wealth in the church between one another as Christians, regardless of the economic system the country we live in.1 This resource is not attempting to explain our responsibility to each other within the church family, or even our personal generosity as Christians to those outside of the church family in this New Testament age. Those ideas are not usually debated as much or as contentious among Christians in our current political climate. But to really wrestle with God’s wisdom for the economic structure of an entire nation, as we think about how we might vote on or support a certain policy for the good of our country, it is very helpful to look at God’s economic commands to Israel in the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament, God uniquely sets up and has a unique relationship with a nation state, Israel, which differs from every other nation on the earth before or since. Because sin corrupts all human philosophies, including philosophies of economics on the earth, what we see in the economics of Israel in the Old Testament as a nation state is that God’s wisdom contains both capitalistic and socialistic ideas that intentionally challenge the temptations of our flesh on both sides of the issue. We can see this blend of ideas in God’s law to Israel in Leviticus 25:8-55.

On the one hand, we see capitalistic ideas that support free market individualistic enterprise the Bible.

  • People can sell the land God granted them if their choices have led them to a need for more capital.2
  • People can go into debt and “work” off debt as indentured servants because of their individual choices.3
  • People can buy land and lend money to those in need if they have made individual choices that have put them in an economic position of strength to grow their wealth and bless their family in the present and the future.4

On the other hand, we also see socialistic ideas that support government mandated economic restoration in the Bible.

  • The land that people sell has an expiration date on it, so that future generations have a chance to start fresh and do things differently than their ancestors in the year of jubilee (the price of the land was pro-rated to take this into account when sold).5
  • The indentured servants would be freed in the year of jubilee no matter how much they had borrowed (the amount someone could borrow would take this timing into account).6
  • The landowners were commanded to leave the corners of their fields uncut for those in need to be able to gather food to feed themselves and their families who didn’t have land themselves.7

These are just a few examples, but in these we see God setting up a system that in a capitalistic way rewards entrepreneurship, hard work, fiscal discipline, and wise choices for economic gain. Yet, at the same time, we also see God set up a system that in a socialistic way controls greed, excessive generational wealth, excessive generational property, and mandates compassion to the poor. If there was a holy governing authority that was sinless and always helped control the selfish tendencies of the individual, and to love others and follow God’s will, then a socialistic economy could possibly honor God more than a capitalistic one. And if individuals were holy and always honored God in the way they worked, earned, and shared what He blessed them with, then a capitalistic economy would possibly be more efficient than a socialistic one. But because sin corrupts us all at the individual level and the governmental level, God seems to reflect a beautiful balance of both to help control economic sin as much as possible in a fallen, broken world until Jesus returns.

Because of that, we need to take care when assuming that God endorses any singular human economic theory and when pitting economic ideas against each other as somehow “more” Christian or “less” Christian.

 

A Concluding Encouragement

As Christians, it’s fine to have differing opinions on what specific economic ideas we might think are best for our state, our country, or our world. But we do need to guard ourselves against assuming God is on “our side” when it comes to economic philosophies and letting those ideas divide us as churches or keep us from loving those who disagree with us in the church or in the world. We should be able to “agree to disagree” on economic ideas and take personal responsibility for our own economic choices, while seeking to give away what we have rightfully earned for the good of those who have not made those same choices or had those same opportunities, remembering that Jesus earned perfect righteousness for us and then chose to give it to us a free gift of His grace in a generous and loving way. We also need to recognize that because sin corrupts at the systemic level and not just the individual level, there are aspects of what we have or do not have that go beyond just our personal choices, and the world should see Christians caring about bringing justice to those places as well. May God be glorified and may the world around us see the beauty of Him in how we live and talk about these things.

 

 

Footnotes: 1 1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19; 1 Timothy 5:3-12; Romans 13:7; Acts 20:3-35; Matthew 6:31-33; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12, 2 Leviticus 25:13-15, 3 Leviticus 25:39-40, 4 Leviticus 25:25-26 5 Leviticus 25:25-28 , 6 Leviticus 25:39-41, 7 Leviticus 23:22