The Law of Life in Economics
Where economics is mentioned, most people think the subject is about money. That is because money, in terms of currency or bank credit, is both a controlling and limiting factor in modern life.
Money is not a commodity. Proof of that is the fact that it has no value, until you part with it. Money is anything which someone will accept in payment for anything else. Its proper use is simply as a medium of exchange.
Our Heavenly Father provides us with the basic essentials of life. So well has God kept His covenant with the fathers of the Anglo Saxon race that as a people we have never lacked for these essentials. The task of distribution has been allotted to man, There in the exchange and distribution of goods and services is the place where money serves a useful purpose.
Economics simply explained is the management of our household affairs. The scope of our household may be a family, a city, a Province or State, a Nation or a Commonwealth of Nations. The term “Economics” includes what we term in politics, trade and commerce, production, distribution and consumption.
In the plan of God for the well being of his creation man, He not only provided for the sustenance of man, but He also gave to us in our own language a complete set of laws to govern our worship of God, and human relationships and economic laws to govern the production and distribution of all our physical requirements.
The requirements of the Ecclesiastical law pertaining to the worship of God as given to ancient Israel were fulfilled by the atonement of Jesus Christ on Calvary which fulfilled the law of sacrifice for sin. We may now receive the gift of eternal life by accepting Christ as our atonement and being born again a new creature.
I do not find any Scripture that would release us from the observance of the moral and economic laws given to us in the Old Testament. They are fundamental Commandments, Statutes and Judgments, which were given to us for our wellbeing. The penalty for replacing a part of them by man made statutes should be apparent as we examine the conditions that prevail all about us in our own country. I ask you to read the statement of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 5:17 19.
The Law of the Lord is based on the Ten Commandments. The first four of these define man’s duty and relationship to God. The remaining six define man’s duty and relation to his fellowmen.
Perhaps the greatest economic commandment is found in Deut. 25:13 16:”Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and. a just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. For all that do such things and all that do unrighteously are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.”
We are all familiar with our law of weights and measures, of the pound, the foot and the yard, etc. These are strictly obeyed by all civilized nations, with severe penalties for those who fail to observe them.
Modern usage of the dollar (or its equivalent) as a measure of value is so far reaching that it is certainly the greatest measure used by mankind.
The fact that the relationship of this measure of value to essential goods and services is permitted to fluctuate widely has been a basic cause of human suffering, poverty and want that is beyond description.
We, who have lived during this generation of the past forty years, have experienced a generation of war, depressions, increased debt and taxation that seems to recognize no bounds.
Anyone who lives in the U.S.A. or in Canada, is all too well aware that the dollars that they had in 1939 are in relation to goods and services not worth even 50 cents today by comparison. Most of you will admit that you have not benefited from the depreciated value or measure of the dollar. If so then why have you permitted this depreciation to take place without registering your objection to your representative legislators? They are the only people who have the power and authority to do something to correct this situation.
The New Testament command of our Lord is: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matt. 6:33.
Is it possible or logical that a Christian can “Seek first the kingdom of God” and at the same time ignore the laws which God has given for the well being and government of that Kingdom?
