“And you shall not steal.” Deuteronomy 5.19

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 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).

All property is a blessing from God, to be used for His purposes in advancing His reign of love on earth as it is in heaven. All property is to be received as a trust, invested and used with love, and valued as a means to the end of advancing Christ’s Kingdom, and not merely for personal indulgence or enrichment.

T. M. Moore

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