Private property is a trust from the Lord.

“And you shall not steal.” Deuteronomy 5.19

In our nation today, property, as a measure of material prosperity, is to be sought, acquired, developed, used, and enjoyed as central to the realization of the hope and promise of an economics of material wealth. Next to life itself, the right to private property is the most cherished freedom of practically every American.

The teaching of God’s Law is otherwise. Private property is a gift and trust from God. We see this, first, in Israel’s having plundered the Egyptians and then in their acquiring lands and farms and cities they did not cultivate, sow, or build. We also see it in the instructions in God’s Law concerning tithes, gleaning, respect for the property of neighbors, proper use of the land, and the return of property to original owners during Sabbath years. The people of Israel were to understand that all their property had come to them from God. It was given to them as a trust, and they were ultimately accountable to Him for the use they made of His good gifts. Each person’s allotment of property was his own possession before the Lord, but not merely for his own indulgence. Neighbors were to care for one another with their property, to respect one another’s property, and to be content with, and make the best use of, the property entrusted to them by the Lord.

But at all times the people of Israel were to remember that God alone, the Giver of every good and perfect gift (Jms. 1.17), is able to define the right use of private property. Especially the Christian understands that he is not his own; he has been bought with the blood of Jesus Christ and all that he is and has, having come from the Lord, belongs ultimately to the Lord and is to be used in such a way as to reflect the interests of divine justice (1 Cor. 3.21-23; 4.7; 6.19, 20).

All our property – every good and perfect gift entrusted to us by God – is to be used, therefore, in a manner that will redound to the glory of God (Matt. 25.14-30). God requires that we use all our property to demonstrate love for Him and for our neighbors. We must hold our property as though it were not, in fact, our own (Acts 4.32). Instead, we must see ourselves as stewards of God’s property and be ready to use His gifts for furthering His Kingdom, building His Church, and the meeting our neighbor’s material needs. In the divine economy, material prosperity is a resource for loving God and neighbor, not for indulging one’s fleshly passions. And we need not fear, as we use our private property in such ways, that we shall ever be in want; God is able to supply all our needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4.19).

Within the Christian community material wealth is to be used for the love of God and neighbors. Within the larger community Christians must demonstrate individual and community lives of charity, self-denial, and service. Further, they must work for and support public policy initiatives that maximize individual freedom and responsibility in the use of private property, and that protect the right of each individual to exercise stewardship of his property without fear of encroachment from neighbors or government. Especially should Christians resist the efforts of the State to presume to know best how to use private wealth to maximize material happiness for all. Systems of taxation which impose unequal burdens on the wealthy can become little more than a means for politicians to purchase the support of those who are favored by their arbitrary manipulation of the tax codes.

Christians must work to express the divine economy within an economics of material wealth. By their lives and witness they must consistently declare that the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it (Ps. 24.1), and that we are all to be held accountable before the judgment seat of Him with Whom we have to do (Heb. 4.13).

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