Is a free market system compatible with Biblical principles?

A brother in the Lord and fellow Samaritan member recently cautioned me against characterizing free-market economic principles as “Biblical” when they are best credited to modern theories, after reading my article in the December 2017 newsletter, “A Biblical defense of liberty and free markets.”

I’m thankful “iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17)—and thankful I was careful not to overreach in the article. I agree Christians need not stamp Bible verses on inventions of human reason to justify our use of those inventions. I also stand by my assertion that the “free-market” view—that justice and prosperity tend to flourish when governments seldom intrude on people’s right to trade goods and services—aligns with Biblical principles.

Having a Biblical worldview means self-consciously applying Biblical principles to all areas of life. Many such principles concern key ingredients of any economy, including our own: personal finance, work, wages, contracts, taxes, and giving.

Back to home ec.?

Aristotle’s use of the Greek word translated into English as economics does not refer to abstract theories of social spending, but to the rule, or law (nomos), of the home (oikos). Similarly, the Bible has much less to say about economics for the committee to award the Nobel Prize than for the common man or woman seated at the kitchen table. This is because God calls people to holiness regardless of the eras, economic systems, or forms of government under which He has sovereignly placed them.

Almost half of the 21 verses describing the “excellent wife … far more precious than rubies” in Proverbs 31 praise the woman’s household management, financial planning, and anticipation of her family’s needs. Five verses show her conducting commerce (e.g., 16: “She considers a field and buys it”; 18: “She perceives that her merchandise is profitable”; 24: “She makes linen garments and sells them”). Five more praise her work ethic and provision (e.g., 15: “She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens”).

The Proverbs 31 woman’s husband, who is full of praise for his wife and is respected among the elders, is no loafer either (23). Were he lazy, the blessing of having an “excellent wife” would probably elude him, because, as Solomon wrote, “the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied” (13:4).

Will work for food

Solomon’s rebuke of laziness and his identification of its companion, poverty, recur throughout Proverbs. “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense,” Solomon wrote (12:11). Instead of yielding income-generating crops, the “senseless” sluggard’s field is “overgrown with thorns … covered with nettles, and its stone wall broken down” (24:30–31). Such dilapidation occurs gradually, following a seemingly benign habit of resting when one should work (33–34). By contrast, even the ant “prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest” (6:7).

Almost a thousand years later, Paul carried a similar bread/work equation to the believers in Thessalonica:

For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day. ... For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living(1 Thessalonians 3:7–12).

Here Paul exhorts able-bodied believers to work for their sustenance instead of leeching off those who do work.

The wages of work

Employment is a two-way street. While people should work for their wages, Scripture makes equally clear employers should adequately pay their workers.

Christ told the 72 followers at the start of their mission “the laborer deserves his wages,” a maxim Paul repeated to Timothy concerning compensating elders who preach and teach (Luke 10:7, 1 Timothy 5:18). Where there are wages, there are contracts. Just as the Proverbs 31 woman is responsible to compute the value of the goods and services she sells, New Testament passages affirm the responsibility of employers and workers to reach a mutual price point.

For example, illustrating God’s right to save souls whenever He chooses, Jesus’ parable of the vineyard hinges on the master’s and laborers’ right to set their own terms of engagement: “But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I chose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?’” (Matthew 20:13–15).

The responsibility to make our own contracts is no invitation for employers to exploit workers. Nor does Scripture permit laborers or vendors to extort fellow image-bearers of God. As Solomon wrote, “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight” (Proverbs 11:1). The proverb condemns the practice of using unequal weights to cheat someone at market.

The tax man cometh

Scripture sets the non-extortion standard equally high for government agents. During the revival preceding the beginning of Christ’s ministry, tax collectors and soldiers received baptism from John. The Baptist told them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do. ... Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages” (Luke 3:12–13).

Despite John’s rebuke of these agents’ former life of overcollection, neither John nor Jesus nor Paul permit the evasion of lawful taxes. Christ told the Pharisees to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Luke 20:25), which Paul later echoed: “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed …” (Romans 7:7).

The priest and the pauper

Two groups important to a Biblical worldview of economics remain: people whose work is the Lord’s, and people unable to provide for themselves.

Competing views of the believer’s responsibility to give to the Lord—and whether that means giving specifically to one’s church or generally to the poor—are too many to enumerate here. So are the Scriptures readily marshalled for each viewpoint.

Immediately clear, though, is Paul’s instruction that Timothy ensure the believers provide some form of payment for church shepherds who preach or teach, even if those shepherds also do other work to support themselves (see 1 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy, above).

Equally clear is Paul’s challenge to the Corinthians: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:7-8).

Finally, warnings against neglecting the poor and helpless, and instruction to provide for the same, fill each testament of Scripture. Some of the earliest Jewish Christians obviously understood and fulfilled this obligation by appointing deacons to distribute goods to the needy (Acts 6:1). The church’s provision for the poor aligns with the believers’ sharing “everything in common” in Acts 4:32—a seminal verse for Samaritan Ministries.

Adding it up

The sum of these Biblical principles (and of other Biblical principles I hope readers will put to my attention by commenting on this article online at bit.ly/fmcompat) is deeper and broader than an economic theory, free-market or otherwise. These are standards believers are personally to keep, in all ages and under all systems invented by human reason.

The Old and New Testaments presume most individuals can and should engage in commerce, work to earn a living, make contracts, and profit. The Bible also charges Christians to pay taxes, support ministers of the Gospel, and provide for the poor. What we think about labels for modern economic theories—whether free-market, capitalist, socialist, or totalitarian—is less important than living out Biblical standards in our everyday economic dealings.

Present-day American Christians find ourselves in a happy situation. We live, work, buy, and sell in a country that has reaped the benefits of Christian culture built on Christian values. We are a self-governing people with influence over our country’s economic system. Surely, we should favor one that grants individuals similar kinds and a similar level of responsibility over their property as Scripture does.

Samaritan member Michael Thomas Hamilton ([email protected], @MikeFreeMarket) is founder and lead writer at Good Comma Editing, which supplies research, writing, editing, and instruction for professional teams. He provides Midwesterners with American heritage tours of Boston, Massachusetts and serves on the boards of Forge Leadership Network and the Miami Valley Women’s Center. A Hillsdale College graduate, his writing appears in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, WORLD Magazine, The Federalist, The Hill, Townhall.com, and other publications.