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Let Us Be Borrowers

Sometimes it's good to borrow.

An Economy of Love (2)

“You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:14

Borrowers and lenders
The secular economy, which proceeds toward material and narcissistic ends, by means of a getting-and-spending mindset, seems to understand that Ayn Rand’s vision of unbridled capitalism cannot be made to work. Her powerful, self-assertive characters care only for realizing their most ambitious materialistic dreams. The have little interest in people and think only about the next project or the next big achievement.

But because people are not merely homo economicus, but are the image-bearers of God, much good emerges within the secular economy. This is not because of anything inherent in the secular, materialist, narcissistic worldview of the day. It is because people are people, and not tooth-and-claw animals, and they will perforce consider the needs of others, at least, if they must. Yet to do this, they must reach beyond the limits of their own worldview and economy, and borrow from the divine economy, where a rule of love is the currency for all operations.

In general, Shakespeare’s advice, that we should neither borrowers nor lenders be, is sound. The more our nation slips into what seems like an abyss of personal, corporate, and national debt, the more we as a people realize the need for economic principles beyond mere getting-and-spending, to rein in our lust for things and our penchant for going into debt.

But in some cases, it is not only appropriate but altogether wise to borrow. When, for example, we discover principles of economic activity which take into account the dignity of human beings, the value of persons, and the importance of such concepts as freedom, fairness, private property, and justice, we would be wise to borrow as much as we can. And we as believers, who operate within an economy that teaches such principles, must be ready lenders as well.

The example of the American colonies
This is precisely what the first American colonists did, as they arrived on the shores of the New World and begin to create laws to guide their social and economic practices.

Because there was not in the colonies an established system of justice with adequate lawyers and judges to staff it, the writing of civil codes took on urgency. Writers of the early colonial statutes borrowed freely and often from the Law of God, including various of the Biblical civil laws, frequently copying down the text of Scripture verbatim, rather than trying to invent better language.

As scholar W. Keith Kavenagh has written concerning the New England colonies, “the Puritan concept of the role of church and state rested upon the belief that God’s word was clear, that it had been interpreted correctly, and that no one could deny the rightness of insisting upon the application of the laws of God to all aspects of society” (Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History, Volume 1 – Part 1, Northeastern Colonies).

What was true in New England was true throughout all the colonies, albeit to a lesser extent. And, while our colonial forebears at times overreached, at other times misinterpreted, and in certain cases, misapplied Old Testament civil statutes, nonetheless, their free and frequent borrowing from those statutes bred a wholesomeness and robustness into the American economy and society where free people could flourish.

Still relevant today
To this day we acknowledge the wisdom and decency encoded in many of those Old Testament laws, although our borrowing at present is not nearly as self-conscious as was that of our forebears.

Not long ago, for example, President Obama held a gathering in the White House to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This act, which has “leveled the playing field” in many work places, opened up new opportunities for the disabled, and helps to preserve their inherent dignity, is not quite what you would expect from a society infused with an evolutionary and narcissistic worldview. In the evolutionary worldview, the weak and sick are to be culled so that only the strong may survive. In a narcissistic world, the only person we need to care about is good old Number 1.

But in America, even though our public position on the origins and development of humankind is officially that of evolution, in our social practice, concern for those in need has been encoded in law. This tradition and the practices it requires do not derive from evolutionary or progressive law, but from fixed law which insists that human beings all have dignity and worth. This Law has been written on the heart of every person (Rom. 2.14, 15). In a wholesome society, our me-first agenda notwithstanding, we understand it is the duty of the strong to care for the weak, and neither to take advantage of them nor to put unnecessary obstacles in the way of their freedom and flourishing.

And this tradition – a tradition of neighbor love – can be seen to be grounded squarely in the Biblical teaching that people are the image-bearers of God and that it is the responsibility of each one of us to care for our neighbors in need.

So then, since we have in the past, and are still today, borrowing from Biblical law to create a fair and just society, let us take to those Old Testament statutes to discover what else we might borrow from them to bring into being more of an economy of love.

For reflection
1.  Why should we care whether Biblical law has any influence on the laws of our society?

2.  Are we as Christians as consistent as we should be in applying Biblical Law principles of love to all our relationships, roles, and responsibilities? Explain.

3.  What our evolutionist, materialist, narcissistic neighbor borrows on Biblical teaching to prop up his worldview, what is he saying about his worldview? What is he saying about ours?

Next steps – Conversation: How many different ways can you identify that Biblical Law continues to affect the laws of our secular society? Talk with a Christian friend about this question.

For a free overview of the teaching of God’s Law and how to apply it, write to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and request our Kingdom Catechism.

The Psalmist says the righteous person meditates on the Law of God day and night (Ps. 1). Do you? If you had a compendium of all the laws and statutes of God, would you be more likely to do so? Order your copy of The Law of God and begin taking up the discipline of daily meditation in God’s rules for love (click here). And if you need convincing that the Law of God still matters, order a copy of The Ground for Christian Ethics by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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