Wealth, Materialism, and the Bible’s View of an “Ownership Society”

If Republicans are so eager to legislate morality, perhaps they should start by doing all they can NOT to appeal to our base desire to increase our own wealth, because Jesus told us that we “cannot love both God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24), and as Paul said, “the love of money is the root of many kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).

(Part 7 of “The Primer on Scripture and the Budget for 2009“)

One would think that those who supposedly care so much for the moral and spiritual well-being of their fellow Americans would not be so eager to pass legislation with the sole purpose of enabling their friends to store up treasures in earthly places, where moth and rust destroy (Matthew 6:19). After all, was it not Christ who suggested that we give all we have to the poor so that we can have treasures in heavenly places where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:20)?

If Republicans are so eager to legislate morality, perhaps they should start by doing all they can NOT to appeal to our base desire to increase our own wealth, because Jesus told us that we “cannot love both God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24), and as Paul said, “the love of money is the root of many kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).

From the Law of God proclaimed to Moses: “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants…in this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property…the land must not be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are but aliens and tenants…if one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells property…what he sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and he can then go back to his property” (Leviticus 25:10-28). Jubilee does not prevent commerce, but it helps prevent a strong stratification of rich and poor that results from wealth being passed down and built upon generation after generation, what we refer to today as “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” And it provides to the poor who are motivated to make something of themselves the means to do so.

A legislator who claims that it is impossible for him to “check his faith at the door” and that a literal interpretation of scripture is the ultimate guide for how government should be run would be compelled to fight tooth and nail against an “ownership society.” Furthermore, this “Christian legislator” should never use the argument that taxes are “your money” that you have every right to retain possession of. After all, God created the world, and we are all merely stewards of what God has given us for a brief time (1 Chronicles. 29:14-16).

Other passages: 1 Timothy 6: 6-10, 6:17-19; Chapter 2 and 4 of Acts; Luke 6:20-26