Treasure and Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Luke

Gary North

The Gospel of Luke is by far the Gospel that is most hostile to the goal of accumulating great wealth. Yet only in this Gospel do we read this:

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete [measure] withal it shall be measured to you again (Luke 6:38).

Heres is the fundamental principle of free market economics: serve the consumer. This theme of service is basic to the Gospel of Luke.

And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth (Luke 22:25- 27).

The quest for great wealth for its own sake is foolish, Jesus said -- not just in Luke but in the other Gospels, too. But this theme is front and center in Luke's Gospel.

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God (Luke 12:16-21).

As we read in the Gospel of Matthew, success is a matter of priorities.

Luke