And what does the LORD require of you?
To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God
(Micah 6:8).
by David Befus and Stephen Bauman
A theologian was preaching on the nature of injustice when a group of Latin American women called out, “We know what justice is—it is bread for our children.”17 In a world where more than a billion people live on less than one dollar a day, business moguls earn more than the economic output of entire nations and malnourished countries export their grain to the highest bidder, the notion of economic justice has never been more relevant. Living as Christians today, surely we must ask, “What does the Lord require of us?”
The Biblical Foundation of Economic Justice
We serve a God who loves justice (Isaiah 61:8; Psalm 11:7; 33:5; 37:28; 99:4), delights in it (Jeremiah 9:23), demands it (Deuteronomy 16:20) and executes it for the needy (Psalm 140:13). He leads with it (Isaiah 9:7), promises it (Isaiah 42:3) and ultimately judges us with it (Isaiah 58:6). He is the “God of justice” (Isaiah 30:18) and requires us to “do justice” (Micah 6:8) as a community of faith. While the Bible does not present a systematic treatise on economic justice, it offers a profound paradigm on economic justice through the hundreds of texts scattered throughout the Old and New Testaments. While not comprehensive, the following statements attempt to summarize the biblical vision of economic justice:
(a) Economic justice originates in God’s nature and character. Justice is a moral attribute of God and is indispensable to his nature and moral character (Is 30:18). Because economic justice is one dimension of justice it is, therefore, rooted in God’s nature and character. Given the fact that God’s Trinitarian nature is relational, justice (economic and otherwise) is not an abstract, but relational concept.
(b) The biblical vision for justice is founded in God’s creative act in history. Every person is created in the image of God (Genesis 1) and endowed with great creative potential (value, conscience, gifts, talents, and creativity). God’s creation is a gift to all, not to be appropriated for the benefit of only a few and to deny dignity or opportunity to any one person desecrates the image of God.
(c) God worked for six days in designing the world, and He created man in His image to work productively. The Christian notion of work implies calling, as expressed by the German reformation word beruf, meaning “a task set by God.” The encouragement to work is founded (Genesis 2:15) and presented throughout the Scriptures and the expectation that those who follow God’s path for their lives will “work with your hands… so that your life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody” (1 Thessalonians 4:11). Jesus teaches us to pray “give us this day our daily bread,” (Matthew 6) and work, not alms, is the foundation for the realization of that prayer.
(d) Sin has corrupted God’s plan for economic justice. The idea that economic activity “benefits consumers and maximizes efficient utilization of the earth’s scarce resources”18 has proven false due to man’s sinful nature evident in greed, corruption and the concentration of resources in the hands of a few. Evil is manifested not only in the behaviour of individuals, but also in structural evils that preserve the wealth of upper classes. However, the love of money, not money in and of itself, is evil. In spite of the fall, the field of economics is legitimate and, in fact, based in God’s cultural mandate (Genesis 1:26-28). Put simply, wealth is a resource, and economics a tool.
(e) Economic justice demands righteous relationships. Economic justice is not only concerned with a sense of what is right, or what should happen, but with a righteous heart in relationship to God (vertical) and within society (horizontal). The relationship of the members of the divine Trinity provides the theological paradigm for our social mandate to serve in and through community.
(f) The biblical vision of economic justice is redemptive. The reconciliation of “all things” in Christ (Colossians 1:20) includes the economic realm. The scriptures link justice with deliverance from oppression (Judges 5:11), freedom from captivity (Isaiah 41:1-11) and salvation (Psalm 79:6; Isaiah 63:1). The biblical foundation of human dignity, coupled with the emphasis on love for our neighbour (Genesis 4:9, Luke 10:33), implies that we must seek reconciliation in all areas of life, including the economic sphere.
(g) We are called to steward wealth in a manner that extends the Kingdom of God. “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1). He is the only absolute owner (Leviticus 25:23); we are merely commissioned as stewards (Genesis 1:29-30). When God blesses and gives wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18), it is for the purpose of making his ways known on the earth and his salvation among all nations (Psalm 67:2). While God can and does, allow the accumulation of wealth through unjust means he does not condone it. God takes into account how and on what basis, wealth has been accumulated and stewarded (Isaiah 58). As Christians, we enjoy the profound privilege of participating with God in the administration of His kingdom, which includes the creation of economies that respect and nurture the dignity and worth of every human being. Finally, while the biblical vision of justice allows for economic differences, it condemns significant disparity in society as unjust and holds us accountable for economic injustice (Isaiah 58). While equality of income is not necessarily the biblical norm for equity, equality of opportunity is perfectly in line with biblical principles. In short, economic differences are “morally acceptable, even, in fact, morally necessary,”19 but only to a certain extent.
(h) The biblical vision of economic justice is restorative. The scriptures present a restored, just economy that contains a “dynamic, community-building character” (Isaiah 63:1). We recognize that restoration, shalom, is not possible without justice. Human life unfolds between the first and second creations (Romans 8:18-25) and it is here where God requires us to demonstrate justice measured by our treatment of the powerless in society (Isaiah 58:6). We also recognize the biblical mandate calls us to care for the environment (Genesis 2:15). Finally, this vision of restored creation (Isaiah 11:4-6; 25:1-8), where love and justice govern (Psalm 9:7-8), begins here and now. However, in keeping with the already/not yet view of the Kingdom of God, we must seek to effect change in this life while recognizing that perfect economic justice will only be achieved with the final coming of the Kingdom.
The Church’s Mandate
The church has a biblical mandate to embrace, pursue, and model economic justice. Indeed, economic justice is integral to holistic mission and it is incumbent upon the church to take a leading role in addressing issues of economics and injustice, both at the macro and micro levels. It should be mentioned, however, that confronting this problem is complex, and, thus, we should not expect clear-cut solutions for the world economy. Often, instead, in evaluating economic issues, we encounter trade-offs. Moreover, while “economic analysis allows us to measure reasonably well who the winners and losers from trade will be, and what they will win or lose…[it] gives us no insights to judge which trade-offs are indeed most ‘fair.’”20 It is the church that must provide a clarion voice to the issues of economic justice.
A summary of the church’s mandate is as follows:
(a) The church must pursue a holistic theology where economic justice is integral to its mission. It is morally incumbent upon the church to embrace, model and teach economic justice as an expression of the Kingdom of God.
(b) The church must embrace and teach a biblical understanding of the poor and poverty. It is essential to distinguish between various expressions of poverty, such as poverty as oppression, where compounding factors, often systemic and structural, leave the poor in a state of utter powerlessness;21 poverty of being22 where a “lifetime of suffering, deception, and exclusion is internalized by the poor in a way that results in the poor no longer knowing who they truly are or why they were created,23 and; poverty of spirit (Matthew 5:3), which is, in essence, humility, or brokenness of heart — clearly a kingdom value sought and celebrated by Christians worldwide. How we understand poverty influences how we relate to the poor. Most importantly, we must be careful in labelling any person in view of the creative potential24 with which God has endowed all of us, both individually (for example, value, innovation, conscience, talents, and gifts) and as a community (for example, the unique gifts of hospitality or perseverance in certain cultures).
(c) The church must demonstrate economic justice through word, deed and sign incarnationally, among the poor, involving the presence of the poor in the process of transformation. For economic justice to authentically occur, the poor must be actors in their own transformation, not merely receptors.
(d) The church has an indisputable mandate to care for the poor. There are more poor people today than ever before in history and in many cases they are getting poorer.25 Jesus came to “lift up the humble, and to fill the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53). As we follow this example, we must give special consideration to the impact of globalization on the poor. The ability of the poor to access capital, markets, and work are three critical factors that must be weighed in considering the effects of globalization.26
(f) The church has a prophetic mandate to denounce systemic and structural sins of injustice in business, government and culture, both at the national and international levels. Specifically, the church should be at the forefront of confronting the problem of an economic segment described by secular experts as “the bottom of the pyramid, where four billion people reside whose per capita income is less than $1,500 per year.”27 As the church, we must take an active role in the public sphere where, for example, corruption is often present, but we must avoid the promotion of specific economic frameworks, whether capitalism, socialism, or other as it can result in the misuse of the Christian faith to legitimize practices that may not be compatible with the Christian worldview. Likewise, scrutiny and open-minded debate is required of macro economic policy.28 Christians are often not aware of the economic impact of their country policy on the poor and needy populations of the world.
(g) At the same time, the church must prophetically announce economic justice within and without the church locally and globally through word, deed and sign. It is morally incumbent upon the church to grapple with, and seek to understand, the complex issues of economic justice. Out of this understanding, the church must teach and model economic justice as an expression of the Kingdom of God. As we seek to address issues of economic injustice, we must give consideration to the issues of freedom and equality. The promotion of freedom highlights individual rights and the free market for maximizing economic production. The promotion of equality focuses on how wealth is shared, and how profits are distributed. There is a difference between poverty and inequality; these are two separate issues. There are realworld cases where inequality is high, but poverty is low and vice versa. There are also tradeoffs between poverty and inequality currently evident in globalization. God is concerned about both. Furthermore, as economic policy is considered, we need to differentiate the concept of absolute and relative comparisons of income and poverty.
(h) The church must prioritize its efforts in understanding and addressing economic injustice as both a cause and symptom of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. In 2004, 8,000 people died each day from the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and the number continues to escalate. The church must respond holistically, recognizing that poverty is central to the HIV/AIDS issue.
(i) The church has a prophetic mandate to address lifestyle issues related to consumerism. Unfortunately, self-indulgent economic activity and materialism is promoted in some Christian communities as having intrinsic value, with no regard to Christian witness, responsibility to the poor, or any other objective except the affluent lifestyle of the “successful Christian.” The market place is a context for ministry, but ministry only takes place if the people of God proclaim His word, show love and compassion, exercise stewardship of creation, and engage in spiritual warfare. Accumulating wealth for one’s own material status is not inherently Christian, and is criticized by Jesus.
(j) The church must give a high priority towards searching out the causes of economic injustice as it relates to terrorism. September 11th, 2001 and events thereafter, underscore the importance of addressing the causes of terrorism, especially in understanding its relationship to economic injustice.
Footnotes
17 Duncan Forrester, Christian Justice and Public Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 55.
18 Robert Gilpin, Global Political Economy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), 23.
19 Ron Sider, Just Generosity (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 67.
20 Diane Whitmore, “Faithfulness and the Dismal Science,” Faith and International Affairs (2003), 54.
21 Christopher Heuertz, The Cry 8:3 (2002), 5.
22 We must promote awareness, understanding, and engagement in the local church, on issues of economic justice, business as mission, and wealth and innovation. Specifically, we must encourage grassroots discussion and action groups at the local church level to deal with issues of economic injustice.
23 Bryant Myers, Walking with the Poor (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999), 76.
24 Realized or unrealized creative potential, that is.
25 Special consideration must be given to Sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for only 1% of total world trade, is left out of the world economy, and continues to fall further behind.
26 Capital tends to concentrate in the pockets of the upper classes, as does critical information about technology, prices, and transport requirements for imports or exports.
27 C. K. Prahalad, The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value With Customers (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2004), 3.
28 For example, U.S. representatives at the Doha round of GATT/WTO trade negotiations rightly criticized the European Union Common Agricultural Policy that provides huge export subsidies and impossible restrictions on agricultural imports, but then did not acknowledge the injustice of the steel tariffs, U.S. farm bill, and blockage of a deal that would have given poor countries access to cheap essential medicines (Fortune, 9/1/2003), 35.
