Kingdom Commerce (1)
Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.” Ephesians 4.8
The dismal science
These days, the social standing of economists is beginning to rival that of lawyers and politicians. Various schools of economic theory compete, mainly to influence public policy in the political arena, and any politician can find an economist or economic theory to support just about any policy he or she may wish to introduce.
Economics has long been known as “the dismal science,” in part, I suppose, because we have not yet found a working model that all can agree on to guide us in the making and exchanging of goods and services. Models as varied as hunter/gatherer, subsistence, feudalism, mercantilism, capitalism, Marxism, and socialism all try to make sense of the ways the money changes hands—or how it should change hands.
Yet all of them seem to have their Achilles heel, and some more than others.
An economy, considered as a single objective entity knit together by the systematic interaction of its constituent parts, can be a thing of beauty and genius. That millions of people, working together largely unconscious of and even indifferent to one another, can create so many goods and services to benefit themselves and one another is a wonder that witnesses to the genius of God. He is the ultimate Source of our economic systems and structures, He bestows blessings on human activity, and He inhabits economies in order to make Himself known (cf. Acts 14.17). All economic and commercial activity proceeds under the watchful eye of God, and He judges all commerce according to His holy and righteous and good Law.
Commerce to the glory of God?
In Ephesians 4.8, Paul quotes from Psalm 68.18, but, under the inspiration of the Spirit, he adjusts the Old Testament text somewhat to bring the revelation of God given to David into the New Testament Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Rather than the ascended God receiving gifts from men, as David has it, Paul explains that the ascended Christ gives gifts to men, to all people.
Paul’s focus proceeds along a very specific line, but the fact remains, as the psalmist indicates, that God gives many and varied gifts to people so that, through those gifts, His glory and goodness might be made known to the world. This includes all the gifts, skills, goods, and services that make up the commerce of the world and the economies of human society, as we see in Paul’s comment to the Lystrans in Acts 14.17. God grants these to provoke men to gratitude and thus to seek more of Him.
God intends the gifts He has given to men to be used in ways to glorify Him. God is glorified when His Presence—in some form of grace—is manifested in all the time of our lives and all our work. When economics and commerce are pursued with a view to accomplishing God’s glory, then not only does an aura of transcendence superintend the whole—characterized by such things as good stewardship, fairness, generosity, and compassion—but people flourish and know life far richer and more satisfying than they could if they were forced to subsist by themselves.
Ancient principles
Of course, it has not often been the case in human affairs that people have undertaken to govern their commercial activity according to a strictly Biblical model. Indeed, some who have sought to do so, have failed utterly. Especially in the modern era, with the advent of capitalism, the driving force in commercial activity has been the accumulation of wealth, rather than the distribution of grace. Commerce based on the bottom line has turned away from the guidelines of grace and truth encoded in the Law and Word of God; and economic activity has been made a servant of pragmatism rather than divine revelation.
Many of the specific practices God prescribed for the proper working of the ancient Hebrew economy are, of course, no longer applicable. However, embedded in those practices, and in the laws and statutes in which they appear, is a wealth of principlesconducive to the wise, fair, compassionate, and prosperous functioning of any economic model. Among these are such familiar matters as the right to private property, just weights and balances, fair and timely wages, minimum use of debt, consideration for the poor, truthfulness in contracts, resource conservation, and the personal freedom to pursue interests and develop abilities and resources.
All these are set within a framework of love for God and neighbor, where the Kingdom currency of grace, its realization and distribution, is the guiding force for all commerce and economics.
Economics need not be dismal; indeed, it can be practically divine, depending on the extent to which God’s Word is consulted in guiding the way the money changes hands.
For reflection
1. In how many different ways are you involved in economic activity (commerce) each week?
2. How confident are you that all such activity is being engaged within a framework of love for God and neighbors? How conscious are you of these two commandments ordering all your economic activity?
3. In what specific ways do you seek to engage in commerce as a means of realizing and channeling the grace of God to others?
Next steps—Transformation: Write out your answers to the three questions above, then go to the Lord in prayer, and ask Him to begin transforming the way you engage in economic and commercial activity, so that His grace may prevail in all these areas.
T. M. Moore
We need grace for all our times of need, and all the time of our lives is time of need. How can we make sure we have the grace we need? Our book Grace for Your Time of Need, can help you develop the discipline of drawing on God’s grace for all your time. It’s also available as a free PDF.
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Other columns of interest this week: In our Read Moore column this week, we continue readings from the book, Such a Great Salvation. Our Crosfigell series on Brendan of Clonfert finds him heading out over the Atlantic again, seeking the Promised Land of the Saints. You can subscribe to Read Moore and Crosfigell and receive them in your email regularly. Use the Subscriptions box at the bottom of the page to update your subscriptions. All subscriptions are free. Click the Articles tab on the home page to see all the selections available to you.
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
