Chapter 2: Stewardship
Christian Economics: Student's Edition
[Updated: 1/18/18]
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Genesis 1:26--28).
The first principle of a biblical covenant is the sovereignty of God. This means the absolute transcendence of God. In the field of economic theory, this principle is revealed in the doctrine of God's original ownership of all the creation, including mankind.
The second principle of a biblical covenant identifies the principle of hierarchical authority. This is also the law of judicial representation. God directly and personally controls His creation (principle one: transcendence). Nevertheless, God has delegated to mankind the full responsibility of caring for the earth as a whole. God doesn't directly control the earth apart from those He has chosen to manage His property. He directly controlled all of it during the first week of creation, but He no longer does. In His providential control and mercy, He has decided to delegate control over His property to mankind throughout history.
This raises a whole series of very difficult questions. The most important question is: What or who is the primary manager of God's property?
Point one of the biblical covenant is God's transcendence, yet also His presence. This is the issue of God's sovereignty. It asks: "Who's in charge here?" How does this apply to stewardship under God?
God is present with mankind. He is not a distant deistic god. He is the God of the covenant. He has made a covenant with redeemed men. It is the same covenant that He established on day six of the creation week. Covenant keepers are enabled by grace to ratify that original covenant, unlike Adam, who ratified his own version of the dominion covenant: a man-centered version.
The passage begins: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." This is fundamental to our understanding of point two of the biblical covenant: hierarchy. Because man is made in God's image, he has a legitimate claim on authority. God is both one and many: "our image." So, this hierarchy involves grants of authority to individuals and collectives.
God did not turn over the administration of the world to angels. Angels have greater power than men do in history, but they do not possess greater authority. This is why redeemed men will judge the angels at the final judgment (I Corinthians 6:2).
Because man is made in the image of God, he possesses similar characteristics, although on a creaturely basis. First, he has been delegated ownership. Second, he has been delegated authority. Third, he has been given the law, and it is his task in life to apply the law to specific circumstances. He is to protect God's property. Fourth, he has the ability to impute value and make judgments in terms of this law. In other words, he applies the general laws of God to specific cases. Fifth, he extends dominion in history by means of children. This is what God does in his extension of authority in history. God acts through mankind, and mankind is the family of God. There have been two branches of this family after the fall: the eternally disinherited heirs of Adam and the eternally inheriting heirs through adoption by means of Christ's substitutionary atonement on their behalf.
A heresy that has continually afflicted the church and the world in general is the idea that nature and man are in some way equal. The whole idea of the equality of nature and man is a mirage. People who argue for the symbiotic equality of man and nature usually come to the conclusion that nature is superior to man. They assume that nature has rights, just as man does. They usually do not say exactly who granted such rights to nature, other than autonomous nature. This is the concept of mother nature. It is the concept of Gaia: Mother Earth. It is the idea that man is basically subordinate to nature, and therefore any attempt by individuals or organizations to extend dominion over nature is perverse. This idea became widespread in the 1960s as an outgrowth of a popular book by an amateur ecologist, Rachel Carson: Silent Spring. It was a book against the use of DDT, a chemical which saved more lives in the 20th century than any other invention of mankind. Her book launched the modern ecology movement. In the case of the deep ecology movement, mankind is identified as a cancer in nature: a malign, uncontrolled growth.
This view of mankind has been common in Eastern mysticism and in all forms of animism. Mankind is supposed to placate the gods of nature. He is not to violate the domains of the gods of nature. Biblical religion broke with all forms of animism.
Nature is subordinate to man. Certain aspects of nature have rights protecting them from men's interference, but this is only because God owns nature, and the terms of His lease to man specify the protection of His property. As with all property rights, these restrictions on men's use of property are rights of God as the original owner.
Point two of the biblical covenant is hierarchical authority. It asks: "To whom do I report?" How does this apply to stewardship under God?
God is supreme. Man is subordinate. Delegated ownership is the heart of the relationship between God and man. God has delegated authority to mankind to administer nature on behalf of God. As soon as we use the phrase, "on behalf of," we are talking about the doctrine of representation. A similar phrase is this: "in the name of." This is a judicial relationship, having to do with law enforcement. It is also an economic relationship, having to do with the allocation of assets.
1. Family Ownership
Analogous to the Trinity, mankind is both one and many. The Bible teaches that property is primarily owned by families. God made His covenant with Adam and Eve. It specified biological multiplication. Mankind reproduces and extends dominion over the creation through the most universal institutional unit, the family. God placed Adam and Eve under the terms of the dominion covenant as a family. He told them to be fruitful and multiply. This is a biological task to be performed within the bounds of the family covenant.
When we are speaking of the world prior to the rebellion of mankind, we are speaking of a world in which there was voluntary cooperation. Clearly, there was no theft until the fall of man, which was the first act of rebellion. Prior to this act of theft, people did not steal from each other, nor would they have stolen from each other apart from sin. Because of the nature of the prohibition against eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, sin could only be committed against God. It had to do with a hierarchical relationship between God and mankind. The subordinates rebelled against their superior.
There was a hierarchical relationship between God and mankind. There was a hierarchical relationship between mankind and the earth. There was a hierarchical relationship within the family unit itself. The man was not to be alone. The woman's task was to assist him in his assignment to dress the garden and care for it. She was an assistant to him.
There would have been children. Again, there would be a hierarchical relationship within the family unit itself until such time as the children grew to maturity, married, and moved out of their parents' family. This pattern of family authority was established by God before the fall. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).
So, with respect to the structure of ownership after the creation of man, it was a hierarchical relationship based on mankind's covenantal position as a subordinate under God but also as a ruler over the creation. Ownership was inherently hierarchical from the beginning. Before man was created, God was solely in charge. After the creation of man, God was still in charge, but He was no longer alone. Ownership became hierarchical. This was because God delegated authority over the earth to mankind.
2. Individual Ownership
Does this mean that individuals who are not married and who have never been married are not entitled to own property? No, because they are still heads of households: their own.
The biblical pattern is that children grow to maturity, and as they do, they take on greater responsibility. Childhood is an exercise in the development of responsibility. Because God delegated responsibility to mankind for overseeing the earth, individuals must develop responsibility associated with this task.
Each individual is different. People have different talents, goals, interests, hobbies, and everything else associated with economic production. Each person is held responsible for whatever skills or advantages that he has been given in life. This is a fundamental principle of responsibility: to whom much is given, much is expected. Jesus taught this explicitly:
And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more (Luke 12:47--48).Therefore, God holds individuals responsible for the use of whatever gifts and benefits He has provided them. They are responsible to Him as stewards. This was built into the creation from day six.
This system of stewardship began in the garden. There would have been rewards to all producers. But some producers would have been more productive than others. Their rewards would not have been equal. There was no equality prior to the fall. Inequality was basic to creation. It still is.
Point three of the biblical covenant is law. It asks: "What are the rules?" How does this apply to stewardship under God?
Property rights are grounded in ethics. Christian economics teaches that the laws defending property rights are ethical. They are matters of right and wrong. They are not ethically neutral laws whose primary function is to promote efficiency.
The economist's concept of property rights rests on the idea of a bundle of legal rights associated with a particular piece of property. These rights are not inherent in the property. They are not natural rights. They are not intrinsic rights. They are imputed rights, i.e., judicially declared rights. They are initially declared by God as the original owner and then enforced by Him as the sovereign judge. Then they are declared and enforced by human courts. They create a legal boundary around the property. The owner can legally restrict access to this property.
1. Boundaries
Basic to God's relationship with mankind prior to the fall of man was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the midst of the garden, God placed a tree which He declared to be off-limits for mankind. He allowed men to eat of any other tree, but access to this one tree was prohibited.
Similarly, property rights are basic to the development of a program of dominion in history. Analogous to the legal boundary around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there are boundaries around specific units of property. The mark of legitimate authority is the legal authority to place boundaries around property. The most fundamental of all boundaries is the boundary around the oath of marriage. Husbands and wives have exclusive access to each other's bodies, and both have rights of exclusion. This right of exclusion is the essence of every property right. It is the right not to be interfered with in the use of property.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was representative of property rights in general. Men and women were to honor the designated boundary that excluded mankind from access to the tree, and then they were to use this as a model for the covenantal bond of marriage. They were also to use this exclusion as a model for establishing legal claims over specific pieces of property in the garden and beyond. They were supposed to become responsible for the administration of this property. They were responsible to God, a fact that had to do with delegated ownership of property. They were also responsible to each other, for they were to honor each other's claims of ownership. This enabled them to specialize in production. This led in turn to the division of labor.
2. The Division of Labor
From the beginning, there was an inherent division of labor. Christian theology rests on a twofold definition of the Trinity. Each of these definitions has to be acknowledged if the individual wants to maintain orthodoxy. The New Testament teaches the equality in eternity of the Persons in the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Yet, with respect to God's relation to humanity, the Persons of the Godhead have different functions.
Equality and inequality also exist in humanity. There is judicial equality. Every individual is subject to the final judgment. This means there is an essential unity of humanity. Everyone is made in the image of God. Everyone is held accountable by God. There has to be a fundamental unity here. It is a unity of our basic being, and it is a judicial unity. Yet at the same time, different people have different talents (skills, not units of money). In order to extend their personal dominion in history, men and women must seek to improve their skills, accumulate more property, gain more authority, and accept greater responsibility. This leads to economic inequality.
There is a division of labor in society, and it affects every institutional relationship. This division of labor is based on the fact that different people have different skills. It also is based on the fact that each piece of land is different from the next piece. People live in different geographical areas, and therefore they specialize in production. Then they voluntarily trade with each other in order to increase their individual wealth and their family wealth. This is why there is voluntary cooperation among individuals. Individuals specialize in production. This is not the result of the fall of man. It was built into the very structure of the creation.
God intended that families would move out of the garden and into the rest of the world. He wanted them to subdue the whole earth. This is why He told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. More people meant more productivity. More people meant more wealth. More people meant a greater development of the earth, meaning the raw materials God had provided to mankind. Grace precedes law. Life is a manifestation of the grace of God. So is the earth itself. Had there been no rebellion, there still would have been extensive development of the earth's resources, as families spread across the face of the earth.
Individuals and families are responsible to God for increasing the capital value of the earth. God owns it. God expects mankind to increase it on His behalf. Individuals and organizations act as stewards, meaning legal representatives of God and also as economic representatives of God. This is a major economic aspect of hierarchy. It is an economic hierarchy pointing to God as Owner. It is also a judicial hierarchy over which God reigns: the kingdom of God.
To extend their dominion, individuals specialize in production. This increases their output. It increases their responsibility before God. They are responsible for increasing the value of their God-delegated zone of responsibility. They cooperate with each other, and they do so in the hopes that they as individuals will be better off after the cooperation. The primary area of cooperation is the family, but outside the family, it is the marketplace.
Again, this is not the result of the fall of man. This was built in to the structure of humanity from the beginning. This is why God held Adam and Eve responsible individually, but this is also why He held them responsible as a family unit. God kept the family together when He expelled them from the garden of Eden. He showed grace to them as individuals, and He showed grace to them as family members. They were responsible to God as individuals, and they were responsible to God as family members. This delegation of ownership and responsibility is neither pure individualism nor pure collectivism. It is a mixture. It reflects the Trinity: one and many.
Point four of the biblical covenant is sanctions. It asks: "What do I get if I obey? Disobey?" How does this apply to stewardship under God?
The archetype model is God's final judgment at the end of history, where all people will be held legally accountable (Matthew 25). God holds each person responsible for all of his actions. This is true in every area of life, not simply economics. Individuals are held eternally liable for their actions unless Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension have judicially erased their sins. Negative or positive sanctions are associated with disobedience or obedience to God. Negative sanctions fall heavily on covenant breakers in eternity. The New Testament's doctrine of the final judgment makes it clear just how responsible individuals are (Luke 16; Revelation 20:14--15). But it was also clear in the rebellion in the garden. God cross-examined Adam first. Adam blamed Eve. God cross-examined Eve second. Eve blamed the serpent. God didn't bother to cross-examine the serpent. He simply cursed the serpent. My point is this: in the garden, the two individuals who made up the family of man, Adam and Eve, were quick to try to shift responsibility away from themselves as individuals, despite the fact that this blame-shifting would undermine the unity of their family. Adam after the fall had no loyalty to his family above his loyalty to himself. He had no loyalty to Eve above his loyalty to himself. This is a characteristic feature of sinful man in every society and in every time period. This is because individuals are responsible to God as individuals.
Everyone in history has received his life as a gift of God. Grace precedes law. Individuals are responsible to God from the moment of their conception. But if this is true, then there is individual ownership of property. Some people like to say that ownership begins with self-ownership, but this is incorrect except with respect to God. It begins, not with self-ownership, but with a lease from God for whatever property they possess. Everything they own comes from God. Delegated ownership is the foundation of ownership by mankind. Original ownership is God's, but He delegates ownership to individuals, families, and other covenantal and non-covenantal institutions. Ownership is both individual and collective. That is because no one is ultimately autonomous. At the same time, no one can escape personal responsibility for his administration of whatever God has given to him. This is clear in Jesus' parable of the talents. A talent was a unit of weight: gold or silver.
For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.' But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:14--30).
Immediately following this passage is Jesus' description of the final judgment (vv. 31--46).
Point five of the biblical covenant is succession. It asks: "Does this outfit have a future?" How does this apply to stewardship under God?
Genesis 1:28 reads as follows:
And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
This made it clear to Adam and Eve that biological reproduction is basic to the extension of mankind's authority across the face of the earth. God began testing them in the garden, but the garden was not to be their permanent place of residence. They were to use the garden as a training ground of dominion, but then they were to reproduce biologically, train up their children, and send their children out to replicate the process. They might have gone themselves, leaving the garden as a sanctuary. It was the place where the tree of life was planted, where they had eaten their first communion meal, thereby sealing the covenant by an oath-sign.
The economic idea here is the idea of economic growth. It has to do with biological expansion over nature. It has to do with increased productivity of individuals and families. It has to do with extending knowledge in history, which means also applying that knowledge to nature and society.
Despite the fact that God repeatedly announced to Himself regarding His work that it was good, there was more to be done. There was no flaw in the creation. It was not in some way inherently evil. But it was undeveloped. In this sense, the creation is a means of grace. Grace precedes law. God gave mankind a grant of capital. Mankind is to increase the value of this capital. It is God's capital, and it is mankind's responsibility to increase the value of this grant of capital. Everything is geared to growth. Everything is geared to expansion, meaning most importantly, the expansion of men's authority under God across the face of the earth. With each increase of the value of their capital, individuals and families increase the responsibility to continue to expand the value of their capital. This is the foundation of the concept of economic growth: an increase in personal responsibility.
At this point, I must make it clear that I have broken fundamentally with Adam Smith and virtually all modern economic theory. Here is Smith's formulation of the primary goal of production. He stated categorically that the goal of production is consumption.
Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer. The maxim is so perfectly self-evident that it would be absurd to attempt to prove it. But in the mercantile system the interest of the consumer is almost constantly sacrificed to that of the producer; and it seems to consider production, and not consumption, as the ultimate end and object of all industry and commerce. (Wealth of Nations, 1776, Book IV, Chap. 8, par. 49)
In stark contrast with this, the Bible teaches that consumption is a reward for production. The Bible makes it clear that God owns the world, and mankind administers the world for the benefit of God. God is originally productive; mankind is derivatively productive. The assigned goal of mankind is to extend mankind's dominion across the face of the earth, but only on behalf of God. This requires thrift: consuming less than we receive as income. It also requires wise investing, i.e., entrepreneurship: allocating capital in the present in order to meet customer demand in the future. Dominion is the primary purpose of all production. Consumption is a gracious reward and a means of motivation that God offers to those whom He determines have served him most faithfully, which means most efficiently. He does this through the profit-and-loss system. The profit-and-loss system is representative of the final judgment. It is a warning of things to come. But in the garden, there was only one way to experience a loss: by eating from the forbidden tree. Everything else that man could do would have been ethically and judicially acceptable to God, even 100% consumption. But this would not have produced greater wealth. This would have delayed dominion.
There are people who love their work so much that they say that they would do it, even if they were paid nothing. But they have to be paid something, or else they would starve to death. Still, the attitude of those who say this is correct. If somebody asked me if I write for a living, I would tell the person that I live for my writing. It happens that I earn money for some of my writing, which I call my job. But the most important writing that I do is in the field of Christian economics, for which I have never been paid. I did this from the beginning. I made sure that I would take no money from my writing in the field of Christian economics. I wanted to make it clear that any money that I raised to print books and market my materials was to be used exclusively for this, not to provide a source of income for me. I distinguish between my job and my calling. My job is what puts food on the table. My calling is the most important work that I can do in which I would be most difficult to replace. That is my work to develop Christian economic theory.
God is the absolute Owner of the entire creation. In His grace, He created man to represent Him in the subduing of the earth. God announced to Adam and Eve that they were His stewards, and they were responsible to Him. This is why they were not allowed to eat from the forbidden tree. There would be negative sanctions against them if they did.
With respect to everything else in the garden of the world, they had full authority. They could do whatever they wanted with it. They and their children and their grandchildren were to spread across the face of the earth, bringing the whole world under their authority. But their authority was not autonomous. Their authority was representative. It was representative judicially, and they would be held accountable. But it was also representative economically, and they would prosper to the extent that they were effective in subduing the earth.
None of this has changed as a result of the fall of man. Man is still defined as a representative agent of God, both judicially and economically. Man is still defined in terms of the assignment given by God at the time of their creation. In fact, God announced this even before Adam and Eve were created. The announcement began: "Let us." Adam and Eve were not present to hear that announcement. It was made on their behalf covenantally, but they had no part in accepting it at the time of the announcement was made. Grace precedes law, but there is always law in a covenant. There are always sanctions, both positive and negative. Christian economics teaches explicitly that ownership is delegated from God, and is therefore representative, not autonomous. Any attempt to say that man's ownership is autonomous, including his self-ownership, is a denial of the biblical doctrine of ownership. I will deal with this in greater detail in chapter 7.
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