Chapter 2: Individual
Updated: 1/20/20
Why do you look at the tiny piece of straw that is in your brother's eye, but you do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take out the piece of straw that is in your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the piece of straw that is in your brother's eye (Matthew 7:3–5).
The message is clear: all Bible-based reform must begin with self-reform. The reform must begin in the conscience of the would-be reformer. Then he must reform his behavior in terms of his concept of reform. James wrote:
Be doers of the word and not only hearers, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word but not a doer, he is like a man who examines his natural face in a mirror. He examines himself and then goes away and immediately forgets what he was like. But the person who looks carefully into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so, not just being a hearer who forgets, this man will be blessed in his actions (James 1:22–24).Responsibility is always personal. Every person is made in God’s image, which is personal. An individual is responsible for his own thoughts and actions. No one else has his degree of knowledge about himself. No one else has equal authority over his behavior. A reformer seeks the degree of authority that is necessary to reform others, either by force or by example. A biblical principle is this: increased responsibility accompanies increased authority. Covenant-breaking people sometimes deny this principle. They attempt to evade its judicial implications. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. Neither of them escaped responsibility. Neither of them escaped God’s negative sanctions in history.
A familiar figure in history is a reformer who criticizes others’ behavior. He calls upon them to change their ways. Then it turns out that he has committed the same sorts of acts, but far worse. The Bible’s supreme example of this is David, who committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then had her husband killed on the battlefield by the man’s military commander, who withdrew supporting troops. The prophet Nathan confronted him. Nathan told the story of a man with only one sheep. This sheep was stolen by a rich man with many sheep. The rich man ate the sheep. He asked David: What is the correct civil penalty? “David was hot with anger against the rich man, and he raged to Nathan, ‘As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to be put to death’” (II Samuel 12:5). Nathan replied: “You are the man” (v. 7).
Other reformers target the operations of institutions. They invoke the state, which possesses power. Yet among radical reformers who seek to use the power of the state to initiate and enforce their reforms, their lives are often marked by sin or incompetence or both. They have not achieved success in their own lives, yet they seek power in order to reform others. Karl Marx, the co-founder with Frederick Engels of Communism in the 1840's, refused to get a job after he fled the civil authorities in Paris and moved to London in 1849. This was in the aftermath of the collapse of the revolution of 1848, for which he and Engels had written The Communist Manifesto in late 1847 to help launch. Marx missed the deadline. It was published by the tiny Communist League after the revolution had begun. It had zero influence. Until 1849, he had worked only as an editor of a series of tiny revolutionary German-language newspapers, all of which went out of business. Engels, who ran a manufacturing plant owned by his father, supported Marx financially for over three decades. When Marx fathered an illegitimate child, Frederick Demuth, through his wife’s lifetime housemaid, he persuaded Engels to take the blame. Yet Marx, by way of Lenin’s revolution in Russia in 1917, became retroactively the most successful theorist of revolution in modern times. Mao repeated this in China in 1949. Combined, the number of people murdered by Communist states in the Soviet Union and Communist China was in excess of 80 million people.
We can test the reliability of a reformer’s message and his recommended program by examining his public life. This is a biblical principle. No man is to be elevated into the church office of deacon or elder who does not manage his family well. He must have a good reputation.
This saying is trustworthy: If someone desires to be an overseer, he desires a good work. Therefore the overseer must be without reproach. He must be a husband of one wife. He must be moderate, sensible, orderly, and hospitable. He must be able to teach. He must not be addicted to wine, not a brawler, but instead, gentle, peaceful. He must not be a lover of money. He should manage his own household well, and his children should obey him with all respect. For if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for a church of God? He should not be a new convert, so that he does not swell with pride and might fall into condemnation as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with those outside, so that he does not fall into disgrace and the trap of the devil. Deacons, likewise, should be dignified, not double-talkers. They should not drink too much wine or be greedy. They should keep the revealed truth of the faith with a clean conscience. They should also be approved first, then they should serve because they are blameless. Women in the same way should be dignified. They should not be slanderers. They should be moderate and faithful in all things. Deacons must be husbands of one wife. They must manage well their children and household. For those who have served well acquire for themselves a good standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus (I Timothy 3:1–13).
With respect to Christians who call for social reform, they must begin with the institutional church. God mandates this. “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey God's gospel?” (I Peter 4:17). This is not a denial of the legitimacy of reform. On the contrary, it is a call to reform before God imposes negative sanctions.
I have spent my adult life as a reformer. Specifically, I have focused on economic reform. I have spent almost six decades studying this topic systematically, beginning in early 1960. In the first phase of my career, 1960–72, I studied general economic principles while I was completing my academic work in the field of history. I took some economics classes as a graduate student, but mainly I taught myself both economic theory and economic history. I had no one to teach me Christian economics. There were no books comparable to this one. I learned early that it is not sufficient to become a hearer of the word; I also had to become a doer of the word. This applied especially to my economic affairs. As I learned the basic principles of Christian economics, I began to apply them in my life. I have always paid the tithe. I have always taken the day off on Sunday. With only one exception, which I regret, I have avoided consumer debt except for mortgages on houses I have lived in. The one exception was when I bought a low-cost new car in 1971. I signed a three-year debt. That was a mistake. I never made that mistake again. I became an entrepreneur in 1974. I have started several businesses. I have written over 70 volumes of books and over 16,000 articles. I have taught at the university level. I have served as researcher for a United States Congressman. I have been a church member. I have remained married to one wife. Together, we have made a great deal of money. She has always been supportive. She has always kept careful track of the money. We both have always been very frugal. My children have achieved success as independent adults. (One died at age 24 of an unknown disease.) In short, I have tested what I have written. I offer this personal testimony: it has worked.
I am inviting you to begin to apply these principles in your life as you learn what they are. I am therefore calling on you to begin a lifetime program of self-reform. Theologically, this is referred to as progressive sanctification. If you decide to become a Christian activist in the field of economics, this will involve far more than reading books and getting involved in politics. If you accept my invitation to become an economic reformer, it will be time for you to begin to reform your spending habits. I hope you have already done this. Then, you must move on to reforming your family, if needed. Then your church, if needed. Only then should you attempt to reform civil government, beginning locally. This surely is needed. Do not imitate Adam, who grabbed for power before he was mature in the faith. Here is my slogan: politics fourth . . . at the earliest.
1. Theology
God owns everything. This is because He is the Creator. Because of this, He possesses absolute sovereignty. He may do whatever He wants with His property. He made this plain in chapters 38–41 of the Book of Job.
God has a purpose for the creation. This is an implication of the doctrine of providence. Providence and purpose are inescapably bound together I have covered this in Chapter 1, Section A. God also has a purpose for everyone. He has a special purpose for covenant-keepers. Jesus announced the general purpose that should govern each person’s life: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you. Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day has enough evil of its own” (Matthew 6:33–34). This should be done confidently. Paul wrote:.
We know that for those who love God, he works all things together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Those whom he predestined, these he also called. Those whom he called, these he also justified. Those whom he justified, these he also glorified. What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but delivered him up on behalf of us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:28–32).
God providentially sustains His creation. His plan for the ages provides absolute coherence. Covenant-keepers can and should be confident about their roles in history. This should give His people optimism, both with respect to their individual efforts and also with respect to Christ’s kingdom in history, which is a civilization.
2. Implementation
You are made in God’s image. You are a child of Adam. Second, you have been redeemed by God’s special grace. You are an adopted child of God. You must therefore find your role in this cooperative endeavor of kingdom extension. This raises the issue of your calling in life. I define calling as follows: the most important thing you can do for God's kingdom in which you would be most difficult to replace. Your calling is one aspect of the correlation between your purposes and God’s purposes for you. How close is this correlation? How consistent is your plan with God’s? If they are not consistent, you need to begin to reform your thinking. You have purposes in life. You should also have goals that are consistent with these purposes. Reading this book should help you achieve your purposes by means of your goals. If you are not clear about this, let me help you.
Unless you are extremely rich, you have purposes relating to your employment. There should be ethical consistency between your calling and your job. But you should distinguish your job from your calling. In most people’s lives, their calling is not the same as their job. Consider the Apostle Paul. He was a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). We are told nothing else about his trade. He also had a calling: to preach the Gospel to non-Jews (gentiles). He helped restructure Western civilization with his letters (epistles) to churches. But he took no money from the church at Corinth, although he was entitled to payment.
Do you not know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple? Do you not know that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living from the gospel. But I have not claimed any of these rights. And I do not write this so something might be done for me. I would rather die than anyone deprive me of this boast (I Corinthians 9:13–15).I robbed other churches by accepting support from them so that I could serve you. When I was with you and I was in need, I did not burden anyone. For my needs were met by the brothers who came from Macedonia. In everything I have kept myself from being a burden to you, and I will continue to do that (II Corinthians 11:8–9).
He therefore had independence from this church. Then he asked members to donate money to help the destitute church at Jerusalem (Acts 11:27–30; I Corinthians 16:1–2).
His job was not his calling. He could have earned money doing other jobs besides tentmaking. He was easily replaceable as a tentmaker. He was not easily replaceable as the apostle to the gentiles. Unless you are a minister of the gospel, or unless you are an inventor, your job is probably not your calling. You do not get paid a full-time wage to perform your calling.
1. Theology
God delegates ownership. This is the origin of stewardship. The New Testament model of individual stewardship is the Incarnation. It is a model of service. It is also a model of supremacy. More to the point, it is a model of supremacy by means of service.
Do nothing out of selfishness or empty conceit. Instead with humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should take care not only for your own needs, but also for the needs of others. You should have the same attitude toward one another as was in Christ Jesus. He existed in the form of God, but he did not consider his equality with God as something to hold on to. Instead, he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, and he was born in the likeness of men. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death of a cross! Therefore God also highly exalted him. He gave him the name that is above every name. He did this so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend, the knees of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth. He did this so that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:3–11).
The first point of the biblical covenant is sovereignty: God’s. God is the Creator. Therefore, He is sovereign. The second point of the biblical covenant is authority. God delegates partial ownership and limited sovereignty to individuals and groups. He holds people responsible for the administration of His property. Therefore, basic to authority is hierarchy. There is hierarchy because of the original creation: God> man> earth. Mankind exercises dominion over the earth because every person is under the authority of God. There can be no rulership apart from followership.
Christ was a servant to mankind. He emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. This position of servitude was inherent in the Incarnation. He was under God the Father. He was also under the judicial and economic authority of His earthly parents. He was under Roman authority and the authority of His family’s synagogue. Subordination is inherent in the work of redemption: buying back. His life of redemption was definitive. It met God’s standards judicially. He did so on behalf of His people judicially. “Jesus gave himself for us in order to redeem us from all lawlessness and to make pure, for himself, a special people who are eager to do good works” (Titus 2:14). This is the basis of Jesus’ program of leadership.
But Jesus called them to himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles subjugate them, and their important men exercise authority over them. But it must not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your servant, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25–28).
Christ’s people are to follow His lead. “By this we know love, because Christ laid down his life for us. We also ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (I John 3:16). This is implementation by imitation. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
2. Implementation
God began with a purpose for the creation. “God chose us in him from the beginning of the world, that we may be holy and blameless in his sight in love. God chose us beforehand for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Ephesians 1:4–5). He had a plan before time began. He is implementing this plan, day by day.
You should have a major purpose in your life. You also need a plan. This plan must be consistent with your purpose. A plan always involves the allocation of resources. Some of these resources constitute capital: knowledge, tools, raw materials, money, and especially time. You must allocate these resources among competing ends or goals. There is no escape from this responsibility. “No allocation” is nevertheless an allocation. It is passive allocation. You must therefore decide what the highest use is for your capital. Then you must assess less valuable uses.
To maximize the benefits of your service, you must allocate your capital. The economist says that all people do this in order to maximize their return on investment. But Christian economics insists that this maximization must always be representative. It is supposed to be on behalf of God. This is the message of the parables of stewardship. This does not mean that what men gain for God constitutes a loss to them. The parables reveal that there are great rewards after the final accounting.
A Christian strategy of resource allocation was described by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in a 1744 sermon, The Use of Money. He wrote: “Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then ‘give all you can.’” He emphasized hard work, thrift, and charity. He explained:
Gain all you can, by common sense, by using in your business all the understanding which God has given you. It is amazing to observe, how few do this; how men run on in the same dull track with their forefathers. But whatever they do who know not God, this is no rule for you. It is a shame for a Christian not to improve upon them, in whatever he takes in hand. You should be continually learning, from the experience of others, or from your own experience, reading, and reflection, to do everything you have to do better to-day than you did yesterday. And see that you practise whatever you learn, that you may make the best of all that is in your hands.
This lifestyle will produce gain. But added wealth is not enough. It must not be used for vain show.
Having gained all you can, by honest wisdom and unwearied diligence, the second rule of Christian prudence is, “Save all you can.” Do not throw the precious talent into the sea: Leave that folly to heathen philosophers. Do not throw it away in idle expenses, which is just the same as throwing it into the sea. Expend no part of it merely to gratify the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life.
But this still leaves charity: “give all you can.” Wesley concluded:
f there be an overplus still, "as you have opportunity, do good unto all men." In so doing, you give all you can; nay, in a sound sense, all you have: For all that is laid out in this manner is really given to God. You “render unto God the things that are God’s,” not only by what you give to the poor, but also by that which you expend in providing things needful for yourself and your household.If, then, a doubt should at any time arise in your mind concerning what you are going to expend, either on yourself or any part of your family, you have an easy way to remove it. Calmly and seriously inquire, “(1.) In expending this, am I acting according to my character? Am I acting herein, not as a proprietor, but as a steward of my Lord’s goods? (2.) Am I doing this in obedience to his Word? In what Scripture does he require me so to do? (3.) Can I offer up this action, this expense, as a sacrifice to God through Jesus Christ? (4.) Have I reason to believe that for this very work I shall have a reward at the resurrection of the just?” You will seldom need anything more to remove any doubt which arises on this head; but by this fourfold consideration you will receive clear light as to the way wherein you should go.
He preached this message to the poor in England. Millions of them took it to heart. Within a century of his death in 1791, Methodists in England and the United States had become middle class.
Implementing this lifestyle demands self-discipline. It demands systematic budgeting. Jesus taught the principle of budgeting when He told His disciples to count the cost. “For which of you who desires to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost to calculate if he has what he needs to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’” (Luke 14:28–30). This applies to your entire life. It also applies to your daily decisions that involve the allocation of scarce resources.
A Christian is supposed to tithe 10% of his income to his church, just as Abraham tithed 10% to Melchizedek (Hebrews 7). God must be paid first. Next, a person must set aside money for investing. This enables him to buy capital in the broadest sense, including education. A wise person avoids debt for anything except a life-threatening emergency, the purchase of a home, or the purchase of capital, which may appreciate if he uses it wisely to serve customers. Debt must not be used to purchase consumer goods other than housing. Consumer goods depreciate. They lose value. But the debt remains.
In 1996, a book that became an instant best-seller was published in the United States, The Millionaire Next Door. It was a report on the lifestyles of rich Americans. It also described how they got rich. By “rich,” the authors meant families in the top 2% of Americans in terms of wealth. The United States was a very rich nation in 1996. The authors discovered through hundreds of interviews of rich people that about 80% of them had made their fortunes. They did not inherit their wealth. The authors also learned that most of these people were frugal. Husbands were frugal, and so were their wives. They bought nothing with debt except their homes. They paid cash. They did not buy new cars every year. They did not buy expensive clothing. They used their money for investing. In their early years, they invested mainly in their family-owned businesses. They reinvested most of the profits in these businesses. The main means to wealth was through a family-owned business. These people did not live in poverty, but the title of the book revealed a little-known secret: Americans living in middle-class neighborhoods may be living next door to a millionaire.
Do these wealth-building techniques work? They worked for me. I have been the millionaire next door for many years. I did not inherit money. My parents did pay for my college education, which was a great benefit. That was more than 50 years ago. I earned money to pay for graduate school. I also received academic fellowships. I did not begin to become rich until I was 37 years old. My wife and I started our publishing business when I was 32. What about our lifestyle? I drive an older car. So does my wife. She buys her clothes in used clothing shops. She prefers shops that sell used clothes that have been owned by rich women. These women sold their used clothes cheaply to these stores. My wife takes advantage of this. She buys bargains. I rarely buy new suits. I have worn some of them for 30 years. I buy styles that do not go out of style. We pay cash for everything. If I want to buy anything, I can afford to buy it. But there is almost nothing I want to buy except used books. Once every five or more years, I buy a new computer. Computers are tools of my trade. I believe in buying the best tools of your trade when you have become highly skilled. Buy the best tools you are capable of using. The tools that I use are cheap. I write articles and chapters in books. I also record videos. The tools to do this keep getting better and cheaper. We give away money beyond the tithe. We have learned that John Wesley’s rules work. “Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then ‘give all you can.’”
1. Theology
God prohibits theft. This protects His property. But because He has delegated it to men and institutions, this law protects private property in general. “Property” is a catch-all word that describes the resources entrusted by God to individuals and groups. It includes everything that a person has the lawful authority to allocate. It is protected by God’s commandment against theft (Exodus 20:15). Theft is a major crime. Adam and Eve stole the forbidden fruit. This was an invasion of God’s zone of authority. It was protected by legal boundaries. These boundaries constituted the leasehold He established with them. It was designed to protect God’s property.
With ownership comes responsibility. Property is a judicial mark of responsibility. Biblical laws against theft provide protection against any unlawful interference by others in the exercise of personal responsibility in allocating property. God has identified a person or an organization as being legally responsible to Him for the care and development of specific pieces of property. Any violation of the boundary against property is an assertion of autonomy. It announces to God that His allocation of property was incorrect. The thief is implicitly saying that his allocation of someone else’s property is superior to God’s allocation. He may decide to consume it. He may decide to use if for his own purposes. His theft is an illegal transfer of property from God because it is a transfer from God’s designated economic representative. This transfer reduces the ability of the victim to participate in the process of dominion, including the victim’s enjoyment of the fruits of his efforts. Such enjoyment is certainly part of the process of dominion. This is why God promises economic blessings to people who obey him.
A major component of personal capital is knowledge. The knowledge associated with ownership may be as valuable or even more valuable than the market price of the asset. The individual has developed skills in the use of his property. This is obviously true in the case of a physical tool. But this principle applies to all forms of capital including intellectual capital. Over time, an individual gains knowledge about how to maximize his return from the use of his capital. This knowledge is scarce. It is possessed by individuals in local geographical regions. The owner has learned how to use this capital in a competitive marketplace in order to serve others: God, customers, employees, and himself.
Consider David and Goliath. David was ready to challenge Goliath. King Saul provided David with armor. Saul knew how to use it. David did not.
Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze upon his head, and he clothed him with a coat of chainmail. David strapped his sword on his armor. But he was not able to walk, because he had not trained with them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go out to fight with these, for I have not trained with them.” So David put them off. He took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones out of the brook; he put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand as he approached the Philistine (I Samuel 17:38–40).The stones were free for the taking. Their market value was zero. But in David’s sling a stone was highly valuable militarily. With one stone, David removed the giant, and the giant’s death led to the routing of the invading army. This outcome was a unique combination of rare courage, rare skill, and a free stone. All three were necessary in combination.
Saul’s armor would have been a liability for David, despite its market value. Saul had knowledge of how to use armor. This knowledge was basic to Saul’s role as a military leader. But he lacked courage. All of the members of the army lacked courage. Their armor did them no good. The outcome of the battle did not hinge on the armor. The key to victory was not the physical capital. It was David’s unique combination of courage and skill.
Knowledge is crucial to success. “How much better it is to get wisdom than gold. To get understanding should be chosen more than silver” (Proverbs 16:16). Each person possesses specialized knowledge of his own skills and circumstances. To maximize his output, he must bring knowledge to deal with specific circumstances. For society to maximize its output, it must gain access to the knowledge of workers and investors. This must be relevant knowledge. How can society achieve this? By allowing people to cooperate through voluntary exchange. This extends the division of labor.
Two people work better than one; together they can earn a good pay for their labor. For if one falls, the other can lift up his friend. However, sorrow follows the one who is alone when he falls if there is no one to lift him up. If two lie down together, they can be warm, but how can one be warm alone? One man alone can be overpowered, but two can withstand an attack, and a three-strand rope is not quickly broken (Proverbs 4:9–12).
Knowledge is decentralized. No central planning committee possesses the knowledge that is possessed by individuals. The more distant the committee, the less its members understand the operations of a local economy. The dominion covenant is extended by means of knowledge, courage, and capital that are dispersed through the economy. The division of labor is above all the division of intellectual labor.
2. Implementation
What is your unique contribution to the division of labor? You may not know yet. Your salary tells what you are worth to your employer. You may be worth more to your employer. You may be worth more to a different employer. The market enables people to bid for your services. It also enables competitors to bid against you.
To increase your value to employers, you must improve your skills. This is a form of capital investment. This form of capital is transportable. It is in between your ears. You can take it with you wherever you go.
You own other forms of capital. Money is the most versatile form of capital. To increase your wealth is to increase your supply of capital. Capital is a tool of production. If you are a good investor, you can increase your wealth by putting your monetary capital at the disposal of producers. They can use it to increase production. Wesley said “save all you can.” The money that you save can be invested in tools of production, whether to be used by you or others.
Jesus said this: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth [mammon]” (Matthew 6:24). Nevertheless, wealth can serve you and thereby serve God. The parables of the stewards make it clear that God requires us to make a positive rate of return on whatever He delegates to us as His stewards. In business and in our jobs, this means the accumulation of wealth. The question is this: what is your purpose in accumulating wealth? Wesley understood this.
Gain all you can, by common sense, by using in your business all the understanding which God has given you. It is amazing to observe, how few do this; how men run on in the same dull track with their forefathers. But whatever they do who know not God, this is no rule for you. It is a shame for a Christian not to improve upon them, in whatever he takes in hand. You should be continually learning, from the experience of others, or from your own experience, reading, and reflection, to do everything you have to do better to-day than you did yesterday. And see that you practise whatever you learn, that you may make the best of all that is in your hands.
1. Theology
God evaluates performance. He began by evaluating His own performance. God had a purpose for creation. He had a plan for the creation week. Each day, He completed one aspect of the plan. He then pronounced the results good. This is the model for all human judgment. Men have purposes. They have plans. These plans involve forecasts. They face uncertainty. Paul wrote: “For now we see indirectly in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I have been fully known” (I Corinthians 13:12). Man is finite. He does not possess exhaustive knowledge. His judgment rests on incomplete knowledge.
For economic theory, judgment is a matter of imputing value to assets. An individual decides what something he owns is worth to him. He then decides what to do with it. He may lawfully sell it, keep it, or give it away. But judgment is much more comprehensive than imputing economic value. It involves applying your worldview to specific circumstances. In the Bible, this ability is called wisdom. Biblical wisdom is the evaluation of circumstances in terms of biblical ethics.
My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, make your ears pay attention to wisdom and incline your heart to understanding. If you cry out for understanding and raise your voice for it, if you seek it like you would seek silver and search for understanding as you would seek hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of Yahweh and you will find the knowledge of God. For Yahweh gives wisdom, from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for those who please him, he is a shield for those who walk in integrity, he guards the paths of justice and he will preserve the way of those who are faithful to him. Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and equity, and every good path (Proverbs 2:1–9).
It takes a lifetime of decision-making to build experience. There may come a time in old age when a man loses this ability. In the Bible, the best example is Barzillai. Kind David invited him to return with him to Jerusalem. Barzillai refused. He had a good reason: the weaknesses imposed by old age.
Barzillai replied to the king, “How many days are left in the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am eighty years old. Can I distinguish between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be a burden to my master the king? Your servant would like to just go over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward? Please let your servant return back home, so I may die in my own city by the grave of my father and my mother. But see, here is your servant Kimham. Let him cross over with my master the king, and do for him what seems good to you.” The king answered, “Kimham will go over with me, and I will do for him what seems good to you, and whatever you desire from me, I do that for you.” Then all the people crossed the Jordan, and the king crossed over, and the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him. Then Barzillai returned to his own home (II Samuel 19:34–39).
Barzillai was a wise man. He was wise enough to know when to turn down an honor. With that honor would come responsibility. He recognized that he was too old to exercise this responsibility responsibly. The king accepted his explanation.
There may be times when you accept more responsibility than you are capable of exercising. In English, there is a saying: “He bit off more than he could chew.” But it is also easy to avoid added responsibility. I believe that most people are more likely to avoid responsibility than to accept more responsibility than they can handle. Only a minority of people willingly seek out added responsibility. This refusal of most people to seek greater responsibility creates opportunities for those people who are willing to accept responsibility. Power and influence flow to those who accept responsibility. In business, so does money.
It takes time to develop good judgment. It takes patience. Adam did not honor this principle. He wanted instant judgment. He took action to obtain it. Because of this, he came under judgment before the day was over. He learned by experience. He learned the hard way.
When Israel was in the wilderness, God had the people build the tabernacle, which was portable. He endowed two men with the skills necessary to direct the enterprise.
Moses said to the Israelites, “See, Yahweh has called by name on Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, from the tribe of Judah. He has filled Bezalel with his Spirit, to give him wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, for all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs and to work in gold, silver, and bronze; also to cut and set stones and to carve wood—to do all kinds of design and craftsmanship. He has put it in his heart to teach, both he and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, from the tribe of Dan” (Exodus 35:3–34).
This took special intervention by God. This is not a normal process.
2. Implementation
You have many skills. You cannot become an expert in all of them. You must pick a few things that you do well. You must then devote time, energy, and money to mastering them. Mastery takes time. For most people, there are no productive shortcuts early in the mastery process. As you become more skilled, you will learn to rely more heavily on familiar shortcuts. Shortcuts save time, and time is precious. They may also save money, and money is scarce. But you must avoid what are called moral shortcuts.
You must constantly work to improve your skills. No matter how well you perform, you can do better unless your physical or mental skills erode, as happened to Barzillai. But this may not happen until old age. Until then, you remain responsible to God for whatever skills you have received from God. You must improve them.
It is legitimate to develop new skills in a new field. But if you multiply these fields, you will not be able to develop your skills sufficiently to become a superior performer. There are a few skills that can be transferred to more than one field. One is the ability to speak in public. Another is the ability to write. I had the ability to speak persuasively in public by age 15. I had the ability to write by age 16. It took me a decade to improve my writing sufficiently so that I could sell my articles to a national magazine, The Freeman, and also write a serious book, Marx’s Religion of Revolution (1968). But I did not improve my speaking ability proportionately. I did not have as many opportunities to speak. Also, by age 15, I could hold the attention of any audience. This was an innate gift. This is not normal.
As you gain the reputation of being a superior performer, more people will come to you for advice. Without such a reputation, people will see no reason to consult you.
After you have attained mastery in your job, seek to match this level of performance in your calling. Do not remain content with merely above-average performance. A good way to master a skill is to teach it. Teaching is part of a program of inheritance, but you may decide to teach primarily to improve your performance. Once you are satisfied with your performance, you should try to learn a new skill every year or two. This can be an extension of your existing job skills or calling skills. This may involve learning a new piece of software. It may involve some other tool.
Here is something that is not in the standard self-help books. Take one day off each week. This is required by God.
Remember the Sabbath day, to set it apart to me. You must labor and do all your work for six days. But the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God. On it you must not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the foreigner who is within your gates. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart (Exodus 20:8–11).
This will force you to work more efficiently on the other six days. I have followed this rule for over 50 years.
1. Theology
God mandates growth. Economic growth is supposed to prevail down through generations. This is an aspect of the pre-fall fifth point: inheritance. Death has broken every person’s historical continuity. This creates major problems for obeying this commandment. A man has little control over the wisdom or abilities of his heirs. Solomon put it this way:
I hated all my accomplishments for which I had worked under the sun because I must leave them behind to the man who comes after me. For who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master over everything under the sun that my work and wisdom have built. This also is vapor. Therefore my heart began to despair over all the work under the sun that I did. For there might be someone who works with wisdom, with knowledge, and skill, but he will leave everything he has to a man who has not made any of it. This also is vapor and a great tragedy (Ecclesiastes 2:18–21).
This is the problem of the dissipation of capital. A man who leaves an economic inheritance has no direct authority over it after he is dead. The best he can do is to provide rules in his written will or trust document governing the use of the money. But no one can think of all the ways that heirs can waste the inheritance. The larger the inheritance, the more money the heirs can spend to hire lawyers to get around the terms of the document governing the inheritance.
An individual can give money to charities. But charities are not profit-seeking institutions. They face no market sanctions. There are no customers to persuade salaried bureaucrats to change the organization’s policies by the hope of making sales. There are no market-driven success indicators. Future boards of directors of a charity may alter its mission unless the founding document is legally unbreakable because of a narrow definition of the institution’s authorized activities. Such documents are rare.
What about a non-monetary legacy, such as classroom teaching? This also dissipates rapidly. The teacher’s students usually do not teach. They do not spread the vision of the teacher. Within two generations, there are no traces of his face-to-face instruction. Because of printing technologies adopted widely after 1450 in the West, and Internet technologies that were developed after 1995, it is possible to leave an intellectual legacy. But as to who will ever learn from a lesson, a teacher cannot say or even imagine with any degree of accuracy. Furthermore, heirs can distort the original message. This is another form of dissipation.
Few books prior to the World Wide Web and also low-cost print-on-demand technologies survived the first printing of a few thousand copies. Publishers found no market for them. They were sold off very cheaply to wholesalers of cheap books. A small percentage of books went into large university research libraries after 1900, but few books are ever checked out or even taken off the shelves in these libraries. As for academic journal articles, few are ever read, let alone cited by other scholars. They grow obsolete fast.
A person can give money to a church. I cover this in Chapter 4.
2. Implementation
Most men in history have left little or no economic inheritance. Even in my day, if they leave something, their widows inherit most of it. If a widow does not consume this money, their children usually receive the rest of it. Perhaps in the future technologies of vast production will change this, but that is not the case today. This is why, if you are not yet rich, and you do not have a plan for becoming rich, you should focus on teaching as your legacy outside the family.
Because of digital technologies, it is now cheaper to teach than ever before. This constitutes a social revolution. Online books and articles barely existed prior to 1995: the year of the marketing of the graphical user interface browser. They exist today. If you develop speaking or writing skills, you can leave a legacy. But you will be competing against armies of other hopeful instructors.
If you have a clear message to pass on, start recruiting students. Volunteer to teach in any setting where listeners can assemble. This may be in a Sunday school course. That is a good place to begin. It may be in your home. Invite friends who may be interested in your topic. It may be after the workday at your office. It may be in a club or a fraternal organization. It may be in a homeschool cooperative. It may be one-on-one with an interested student. You must get practice in speaking in public. This may mean joining an organization that teaches people how to speak well in public. One of them is Toastmasters International. Another way is to record yourself speaking in front of a digital camera. Use a lapel microphone. Then watch your videos. You will find many ways to improve your speaking. Practice, practice, practice.
If you have considerable wealth, begin to investigate non-profit charities that are devoted to a cause you believe in. Study their operations in detail. For extremely rich people, setting up a non-profit charity is a good idea. Set up several. One of them may get taken over if there is too much money in its portfolio.
The individual covenant is central in everyone’s life. Each person will stand alone on the final judgment day. Jesus Christ will either be the prosecuting attorney or the defense attorney. As with the blood avenger or the kinsman redeemer under the Mosaic law, it is the same office.
The individual economic covenant has five aspects: purpose, stewardship, property, judgment, and inheritance. Each aspect has repercussions in everyone’s life, whether he is a covenant-keeper or a covenant-breaker.
An activist is necessarily a reformer. He seeks to change things for the better. Activism is legitimate because reform is legitimate. This is what it means to build the kingdom of God. This program of reform replaces fallen man’s autonomous kingdom with God’s kingdom. This is what Christ’s redemption means: progressively buying back a fallen world, one purchase at a time. But biblical reform must begin with self-reform. This is the message of Jesus’ metaphors of straw, log, and eyes. To see well enough to help your brother to begin a minor reform his life, you first must have a view unobstructed by a major failing in your life.
The process of reform must apply to each of the covenants that a person belongs to: individual, family, church, and state. A covenant-keeper is required by God to be a member of a church and a state. Most covenant-keepers belong to a nuclear family. Only an adult whose parents are dead and who has never married, or whose spouse is dead, is not part of a family. So, reform must be comprehensive in each covenant-keeper’s life. God does not give a covenant-keeper the option of concentrating all of his reform efforts on only one covenant. This is especially true of the state covenant. Political reform must be an extension of individual, family, and church reform. There is specialization in every area of life, including reform. Some people are specialists in a particular form of reform, but this is never to be to the exclusion of other covenantal reforms. Everyone has obligations in multiple covenants.
Reform begins with personal reform, as Jesus clearly taught. This is because each person is uniquely responsible before God in his personal life. He will reap the positive eternal sanctions of covenant-keeping. He will reap the negative eternal sanctions of covenant-breaking. He will give credit to God for his faithfulness. He will not be allowed to blame anyone except himself for his faithlessness. Jesus is the model.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “he has put everything under his feet.” But when it says “he has put everything,” it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to himself. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to him who put all things into subjection under him, that God may be all in all (I Corinthians 15:26–28).
If this is good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for the rest of us.
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To read the entire book, go here: https://www.garynorth.com/public/department197.cfm.