Government and Personal Property – The Law of God and Public Policy

Government and Personal Property
The Law of God and Public Policy

Governments tend to play God with personal property.

“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:18

In an economy based on material prosperity, people increasingly look to government to ensure a “fair” and “just” distribution of available wealth.

Taxes and tax breaks, welfare and other forms of public assistance, special consideration in matters of hiring, firing, and promotion—all these are means whereby people whose primary devotion is to getting and spending look to government to help maximize their well-being or the well-being of their fellow citizens.

Politicians delight to play this game, for it allows them to explore endless possibilities for purchasing the support of various constituencies through the manipulation of public policy. In the American economy the State presumes to be the arbiter of all things “good” and “fair” and “just.” It alone possesses the power to enforce its views and to shuffle and distribute resources according to its preferences and policies.

Governments thus feel free to compel those who have means to yield those means to the State for its purposes in “spreading the wealth” around, to use a phrase from a well-known contemporary politician. The State thus violates individual responsibility, taking away the freedom one has to steward his personal property as he sees fit and, especially, as accountable to God alone.

In an economy based on material gain, government attempts to play God result in loss of freedom and cancellation of individual responsibility for the wise, just, and loving use of the resources provided by the Lord.

Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and study the question for yourself.

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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.