Economic Motivation (3)

Applying the various love commands to economic behaviour has the following implications.

• Our first priority is to serve God. He has a purpose of each one of us. Every person should find their calling and pursue it to God glory. If our calling is to business, then we should take it just as seriously as if we were called to be an evangelist.

• Self-interest requires that we produce food, clothing and shelter to sustain our lives. This is legitimate activity for everyone as we will not be in a state to make economic decisions, if we do not sustain our body and soul.

• Self-interest is dangerous if it gets out of control and dominates our lives. We must not live just for ourselves. The man who built barns to hold his surplus crops is an example of someone who did this.
  

  Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself’ (Luke 12:18-20)?

  Taking things easy is not the goal of human life. Eating, drinking and being merry is not a meaningful calling. The person who ignores their calling and lives for themselves is a fool.

• We are all required to care for our families. Each person needs to produce enough to provide food and shelter to sustain them.

• Most of us will not be capable of producing everything that our family needs. It will usually be more effective for us to focus on something we are skilled at, and sell some of what we have produced to buy what our family needs. This is sensible.

• Some people will sell their labour to someone else to earn enough to provide for their families. This is legitimate too, but less ideal, because anyone who is employed by another, loses some freedom. This makes it difficult for them to serve God with all their heart, soul and strength, because their employer wants some of our soul and strength for his purposes.