Economics and Spiritual Life – Interpreting the Law of God (67)

Economics and Spiritual Life

Interpreting the Law of God (67)

All of life is spiritual, according to the Law of God.

“You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.” Leviticus 19:13

This statute teaches one more matter that we must not overlook. It helps us to see that all of life is spiritual. There is no separating between what God expects of us and what we ought to expect of one another, or how we ought to treat one another.

So that even the economic interests that engage neighbors with one another are rooted in spiritual convictions, beliefs, and disciplines. We love God, so we learn His Law. As we learn His Law, He teaches us to love our neighbor. Loving our neighbor includes the ways we relate to our neighbors in matters of work, money, contracts, and the like.

We must not try to separate the life of faith from the rest of life. This is what the secular mindset does and what it insists on as ground rules for living in secular society. While it may be easy for secularists to insist that religion is simply a “private matter,” for the follower of Jesus Christ this can never be true. Religion is a matter of all aspects of life, including economics, politics, the arts, education, government, culture, and everything else. Because everything we think or do is in some sense related to and expressive of our love for God and neighbors, or the lack thereof.

If we love God, we will love our neighbors. If we love them, we will enter into fair and honest contracts with them—whether we’re building a patio, buying a car, or writing a check at the grocery story. Economics and spiritual life must not be separated for the believer. And the believer understands that society can only flourish under the blessings of God to the extent that all of life is regarded and lived as a spiritual adventure.

The question is not whether or not all of life is spiritual. The question is, Which spirit—the Spirit of God or the spiritus mundi—is the guiding spirit for how we live. The Law of God leaves no doubt as to which of these choices leads to the way of blessing and life.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.