The economic rallying cry, "work as hard as you can, save as much as you can, give as much as you can," was articulated by Charles Wesley during the reformation of the Church of England.
Work as Hard as You Can One of the characteristics of God is that He is a creative God. The Bible begins with the words, "In the beginning God created...." This pattern was passed on to man when He made us in His image. In Genesis 1:28 we find these words: "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground'" (NIV) [emphasis mine].
Work is a calling, it gives man dignity. It is a critical part of our mimicking and worshipping our Creator. The Reformers understood that each person had a "calling." The farmer was to milk his cows and plant his field "as unto the Lord." This stands opposed to the thought that it is only the clergy or the missionary that has a sacred calling. Aside from the professional religious calling, all other work is secular and mundane. As pointed out earlier, this division between secular and saved is more Greek than Hebraic in thinking.[1] This also stands in contrast to the mindset that is part of "the curse" or that we work to survive, a mere hand-to-mouth existence. In western materialistic society, the motto is work as little as you can to gain as much as you can. This is hedonism or consumerism at its best.
Save as Much as You Can Working hard produces a profit from our
labors. But what should one do with this
“surplus”? The Reformers said, “Save it.”
This mindset is as old as ancient
The Bible also espoused a non-materialistic philosophy, neither idolizing nor disdaining wealth. This is articulated in Proverbs 30:8-9 "Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God" (NIV) [emphasis mine].
The Reformers understood, articulated and lived an "external asceticism," a simple lifestyle. This stands in contrast to the extravagance of modern materialism and the motto of hedonism: "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." The modern counterpart is expressed by the saying, "In the end, he who has the most toys wins." It is hard work and living a simple lifestyle that leads to the generation of capital. But, what is one to do with this capital?
Give as Much as You Can The creation of wealth combined with a non-acquisitive, non-consumptive and simple lifestyle provides capital for others. The biblical mindset of charity and edification (read "development") makes this accumulated capital available to meet the needs of others.
The apostle John wrote: "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth" (1 John 3:16-18 NIV).
The resources, that are bounty or excess, are to be stewarded to meet the needs of others. This occurs in two primary ways. The first is through charity for the deserving poor or the "widow in deed." God's people have a responsibility to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. However, charity is not for the undeserving poor, those who have the ability to work but who refuse to take responsibility for themselves or their families. To give to these people is to further strip them of their dignity and create paternalism and dependency. The second use of the capital is to provide seed money for the creation of new businesses or for investment in such things as education, health care, the arts, scientific research which will benefit the larger society and in ministry activities. In other words, capital is used for the purposes of development, the building up of people, institutions and the community at large.
Even being financially poor does not lead to an exemption as we witness in the Macedonian spirit. The apostle Paul wrote: "And now brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity" (II Corinthians 8:1-2, NIV).
Saving as much as you can stands in contrast to the miser's hoarding and the hedonist's increased consumption. This obviously applies to material resources, but it may also include the capital of knowledge, time, talents, spiritual gifts, insights and friends.
These three virtues (working, saving and giving) create the moral foundations of free markets. It takes all three to provide the dynamic economic factors that generate wealth and drive market economies. If any one of these factors is removed, the equation will change and the dynamic will be lost. We must be careful not to confuse free markets with the mercantilism of oligarchical and feudal societies or with the consumer-capitalism of the West today.
[1] For more on this see
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