–– Lennox Kalifungwa
The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
The world has grown accustomed to economic turmoil. Despite the veneer of progress, inflation, high taxation, currency instability, unemployment, debt, and dependency have become entrenched as normal. Numerous efforts to mitigate these economic challenges through policy, democracy, government intervention, aid, debt restructuring, and wealth redistribution have yielded persistent issues with incremental devastation.
An economy mirrors the values and beliefs of a culture or society. At the core of every economy lies a belief system that is fundamentally theological. Everyone lives based on their beliefs about God, which influence their thoughts, emotions, and actions. As beings designed to be governed by what they worship, humans live every aspect of their lives within theological frameworks, whether they recognise it or not. Theology is inescapable, shaping the lenses through which we perceive the world.
Therefore, everyone holds a theology of economics. The critical question is whether it is a good theology or a bad one.
Since God is the creator of economies and reigns as Lord over all things, it is essential for humanity to understand His intentions. When man is well-acquainted with who God is, he comprehends himself and his purpose more clearly.
God as Creator means He is a productive worker who innovates and builds. He created a world to be the context in which culture would develop. When man is mandated to work, being made in God’s image, he is expected to be a productive worker who brings order using the things God has created. Economics is God’s idea, and He calls man to actively participate in what He is ultimately accomplishing.
When God gave Adam the cultural mandate, He commanded him to pursue fruitfulness. The goal of truth, salvation, and freedom is to enable us to live as God intended, to be diligent workers equipped to be fruitful and multiply in all things. God places great emphasis on fruitfulness as a necessary part of faithfully bearing His image and experiencing His redemption.
Economics should be defined as the discipline or school of thought that enables human flourishing. The key to human flourishing is exclusive to Christianity. Through God’s Word, humanity is given the only blueprint that will build robust economies. With this in mind, Christians are uniquely positioned and called to assume responsibility for building free and flourishing economies wherever they are. Here are a few ways Christians can go about doing so:
Build Strong Families
Households are the institutions through which economies are established. The word for economics is derived from the Greek words “oikos” (household) and “nomos” (law). The family is God’s minister or government of health, education, and welfare. In any society, true wealth is built, preserved, and maintained at the familial level. This concept is foreign to many who have become accustomed to weak familial bonds. They struggle to think of the family as anything more than a forum where people eat, sleep, play, and experience sentimental emotions for one another. Families are the societal bedrock upon which healthy economies are built. Healthy marriages are good for the economy. A commitment to faithfully having and raising children is good for the economy. These relationships are essential for meeting the holistic needs of individuals.
Think and Build Locally
In a world so connected through various forms of media, thinking locally can be challenging. In a world that idolises federal governments, the significance of our immediate environments can often elude us. Christians can build economies by building right where they are; precisely where God has placed them. As they build their homes, local constituencies, and communities, a ripple effect will occur that will influence much more. The goal should be to be faithful over little before assuming responsibility over much.
Love Your Neighbour
Seeking to meet the needs and highest good of neighbours ought to be the foundation upon which free markets are established. Providing the necessary tools for human flourishing among neighbours aligns with our Lord’s command to love your neighbour as yourself. In loving our neighbours and supplying their wants and needs, we too benefit and create wealth for ourselves.
Own Productive Property
Throughout various portions of Scripture, when God desires to bless His people, He promises and gives them land. He gives Adam a garden to work, He gives Abraham land, He gives Israel a land flowing with milk and honey, and He gives Christ the heavens and the earth. For Christians to build economies, they need to own land they can use productively. This sense of ownership is crucial for true wealth creation and healthy economies. Without full ownership of private property, wealth cannot be created, and healthy economies cannot be built.
Produce More Than You Consume
In a world of consumerism, people are susceptible to believing that life is about the immediate gratification of every desire. Recognizing that people are made in the image of God should remind them that they were made to create and build. People do not exist to idly sit by, facilitate a sense of entitlement, and consume everything. We were created to create. We ought to follow perhaps the most basic principle of wealth creation: produce more than we consume. This means Christians ought to be enterprising, start businesses, pioneer institutions, and take the lead in building solutions to social needs. Let us remember Paul’s words to the Ephesians penned by Luke in Acts 20:35 “In all things, I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” – Acts 20:35.
Grow the Population
Many have been fed the poisonous idea that the world is overpopulated. Nothing could be further from the truth. Birth rates are plummeting in various places across the world so rapidly that many countries with ageing populations are on the brink of economic ruin. Countries such as Sweden and Italy are incentivizing people to have children, promising all kinds of perks and benefits. Christians have the opportunity to do what they have done for a long time and take the cultural mandate seriously to multiply and fill the earth. This is a crucial part of discipling the nations. As the world continues to sow a culture of intentional infertility and infanticide, Christians must be in the business of creating a culture of life. Indeed, Christians should be known as those who are filling the earth in order to subdue it. Multiplying God’s image bearers on earth ought to prompt more productivity, not less. In growing the population, a greater capacity to produce and be fruitful is realised.
Understand Justice and Limited Government
Contrary to popular thinking, God did not mandate the state to preside over all things and assume ownership of all property and resources within a country’s borders. In the history of the world, no state has been able to create, preserve, and pass down wealth to its citizens. At best, the state can protect people’s freedoms to create wealth and punish evildoers who steal, kill, and destroy. God has mandated the state to be His ministers of justice, punishing what is evil and protecting what is good. The state does not define good or evil; God alone does. States that assume more than what God has given to them will inevitably destroy the economies of their countries. Christians should be free from over-dependence on the state and should pursue the inalienable freedoms granted by God.
The world is in a tailspin of economic chaos because it is in the merciless grip of idolatry. Matters of economics are fundamentally moral affairs. Economies tend to be a reflection of what people value and revere. Economies fail because people are sinful and fall short of the glory of God. Christians know a redemption potent enough to build and transform people and economies. It’s time the world became well acquainted with the Truth that produces freedom and flourishing