Kingdom Commerce (5)

Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight.
When pride comes, then comes shame;
But with the humble is wisdom.
The integrity of the upright will guide them,
But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.
Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,
But righteousness delivers from death. Proverbs 11.1-4

The rot of sin and corruption
Human systems and institutions are susceptible to corruption for the simple reason that they are created, managed, and used by sinful people. The more sinful people give in to covetousness and mere self-interest, taking greed rather than grace as their base currency, the more they will configure their systems and institutions to support their objectives. Corruption becomes inherent in any system – including a system of commerce – when people lack the integrity and will to regulate their practices according to the Law of God.

Where the holiness, righteousness, and goodness of God’s Law are compromised in a system, there the rot of sin and corruption will take hold. Love – grace – grows cold where lawlessness obtains (Matt. 24.12). People become mere objects of exploitation to satisfy the material wants of the “haves.” Soon enough, economic practices that polarize people become the new normal, as the corruption of commerce becomes a cancer on society.

It may be helpful to review just a few examples of how corruption has created or affected elements of our own economic system, so ensconcing itself in the system as to corrupt entire institutions. Among these we may mention slavery, the sex trade, abortion, and political favoritism.

Slavery
Slavery was a crucial part of the economy of the American South for over 200 years. It was based on a practice common to many nations at the beginning of the 17^th century, but it was justified as an economic tool among the Christian nations of Europe and their colonies by specious appeal to certain passages in Scripture. Slaveholders ignored the larger teaching of Scripture (cf. Col. 3.11; Philemon) and the long tradition of Christian manumission of slaves in order to prop up a sector of the economy on which they had become dependent, and which allowed them to maintain their comfortable lifestyle.

The American Civil War was only the most visible cost to this nation of the pernicious practice of slavery, and the effects of that commercial cancer still manifest in and threaten the social fabric in our day.

Corruption and judgment
The sex industry – prostitution and pornography, primarily – including abortion, depend on spurious claims to freedom of expression and the right to privacy, and the sensual and libertine temper of the times, to prop up multi-billion dollar industries. The demand for sexual indulgence has also renewed the slave trade, as girls and women are stolen from their homes or wooed by false promises into a life of degradation and exploitation. More people are in slavery today – a large number of them for the purpose of illicit sexual activity – than in the entire history of the American colonial experience.

Political favoritism – in which lobbyists and lawmakers maintain a dance of mutual advantage – has become so much a part of the American landscape that it seems almost futile even to think of reforming the ways corporations and other special-interests woo and own politicians, and the way politicians curry favors and political contributions from wealthy clients. Cries of corruption in politics have become so common, and the sense of futility regarding any change in these practices is so widespread, that a kind of national cynicism about politics is becoming the new normal.

Clearly the black horse of corrupt commerce is trampling the American economy, and the economies of many other nations. Slavery, the sex industry, and political favoritism represent or promote corruption in the American economy, introducing false and sinful standards and practices, compromising integrity, engendering pride, and leading to oppression and the judgment of God. Such institutionalized corruption cannot help but affect those whose own commercial activity takes place within such an environment, promoting more greed, creating more dissatisfaction and debt, and promoting cultural and social degeneration in a wide variety of ways.

Our holy God is even now pouring out His wrath on societies that turn away from Him, as they give the rein to greed, and worship the idols of material self-interest (Rom. 1.18-32). If people will not face up to the corrupt practices in their economy, and in their own lives as participants in such economies, God will certainly intervene, in His way and time, to vindicate His holiness.

For reflection
1.  How are corrupt institutions – such as slavery – ever reformed? Is violence the only way to rid an economy of some form of corruption? What is the Christian’s responsibility in a corrupt economy?

2.  Do you believe the Word of God speaks to the economic and commercial practices of people? Explain.

3.  Christians are called to be witnesses to King Jesus and to sow His Word into every area of life. What does this mean for us as participants in the getting-and-spending economy of our society?

Next steps – Conversation: Talk with a church leader about how your church might better equip its members to live in the Kingdom economy rather than in a corrupted commerce.

T. M. Moore

This week’s ReVision study is Part 5 of a 10-part series, “The Kingdom Economy.” You can download “Kingdom Commerce” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here. Start your day in the Word of God. Study with T. M. in our daily Scriptorium newsletter, as he walks us through the ongoing work of Christ in the book of Acts. You can subscribe to receive Scriptorium each day at 5:00 am Eastern, or go to the website to download each week’s study in a free PDF.

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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.