“You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another.” Leviticus 19.11

“Economy” is the term we use to describe various policies, practices, protocols, and provisions that govern the use and exchange of private property and other resources and services. The American capitalist economy is premised on the idea that a wide range of material goods and services should be available to meet the demands of consumers, and that debt is a proper engine and means both for generating and consuming those goods and services. The motive force of our economy is the belief that, in a very general sense, happiness equates with a sufficiency of readily available goods and services. The economy, therefore, exists to facilitate material happiness.

Unhappily, from the beginning, this economy has been used by many to place their own interests and material happiness above those of everyone else. This has given rise to practices of exploitation and unfairness, and to various forms of corruption, opening the door to increasing government regulation and control of the economy.

In the divine economy, justice – defined as love for God and neighbor – is the motive force which drives, guides, and is expressed in the use and management of all resources. As we have noted all along in this series, an economy based on justice rather than getting and spending will have a different character and require different policies from what, in many ways, the American economy encourages and supports.

In very few economies is a man required to supply all the needs of himself and his family by his own wits, strength, and resources. Barter – trading goods or services – has been present from the beginning of human economies. But barter is not always the most efficient means of achieving economic ends. Money arose to facilitate the transfer of goods and the purchase of services. Where barter could not fetch a desired commodity or service, precious metal, bright shells, or other form of “currency” might do the trick.

The economy of ancient Israel also used money, the value of which was carefully regulated so as to guard against inflation or deflation of the currency. Money quickly became a preferred means of satisfying the economic needs of the people, the primary medium by which economic transactions were concluded.

T. M. Moore

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