Galatians 4:1: “Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;” Near the turn of the Twentieth Century, Eugene Debs saw that labor was being exploited by capital. Masters were not treating their employees justly or fairly. Wages were low and often in worthless company scrip. Employees lived in company-owned settlements as tenants of their employers. It was not good. So, Debs got as many workers together as he could and attempted to make the value of these souls felt by those who relied on them. It was a massive strike that brought the country to a halt, but in the end, capital was able to weather the storm, and only mild concessions were won. It was a great epoch in American History, a story we do not seem to have learned from. It may be the story we are about to repeat as the economic unrest continues to grow all around us. Americans especially were promised a fair deal. Work hard, go to school, and you will be able to raise a family and enjoy a high quality of life, then retire in your golden years. Maybe that American dream isn’t fully compatible with the Christian calling, but there was something Biblical about it. You were to work for your employer and to give them your best while on the clock, and they were to take care of you economically.
The Problem of Labor and Capital
Colossians 4:1 and Ephesians 6:9 give grounds for men like Eugene Debs to call employers to account for how they treat their employees:
- Colossians 4:1: “Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.”
- Ephesians 6:9: “And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.”
James has some very stern words for capital in the fifth chapter of his epistle. See James 5:1-6: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.”
These verses could keep a lot of executives up at night. They have their commandment to keep, and if they do not heed it, they shall answer to the one who gave it. The commandment is very brief as given in Colossians 4:1, but there is a lot packed into the short and simple verse. Truly, there is enough in that one verse to shift the whole paradigm of business away from the purity of numbers and towards something far more human and so more humane.
Ah, but numbers are simple, and ethics is not. The incentive to stick with numbers is straightforward. There is safety in financial stability and in excess, and there is great comfort in maintaining a certain way of life. Most of us are looking at the rich rulers of the age from the outside, and from outside we really cannot appreciate fully their perspective on things. What I am getting at is this: the people who employ many of us still deal with economic pressures and fears. Even though they have a lot, they still have to trust God with it, and the more you have to trust God with the harder it becomes to trust Him.
What is the poor laborer to do then? James goes on to counsel patience in James 5:7-8: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
Peter also says to submit to masters even when they are cruel 1 Peter 2:18: “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.”
I believe Paul also had these unfair situations in mind when he wrote in Colossians 3:22-25: “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.”
It is easy to justify shoddy work, laziness, and even theft when we feel we are being slighted at work. “Why not check social media on the clock? They do not pay me enough to work these hours anyway.” We are only trying to exact some justice. Well, justice is not ours to exact. We may not be getting what we ought from our earthly employers, but the Lord always pays His people generously. The employee living below the poverty line also has to trust God, paycheck to paycheck.
Now, if everyone were trusting God and trying to do things according to His precepts, employers and employees would take care of each other. However, it only takes one person taking advantage of this trust to break everything. So, we try to enforce trust by leverage. This is where Debs and so many others fail, it is where we so often fail. We make the problem of labor and capital a struggle against one another, we try to wrestle the other side into concessions and, ultimately, submission.
The problem is not that capital is greedily hoarding the wealth. The problem is not that labor doesn’t know how good they have it. The problem is not that capital is exploiting the laborer or that the laborer is taking advantage of capital. No, the real problem is that we are selfish and greedy. We do not know what enough is or how to share.
We worry far more about our own comfort and far too little about the comfort of those we work for, or with, or who work for us. Eugene Debs was out to do a good work, but he missed the mark when he went to work on economic engines. The work that needs to be done is on all of our hearts. No political agenda, economic program, or mass movement will ever bring about a fairer economy. Only the love of Christ, which inspires and enables the love of neighbor, will lead to equitable distributions of wealth and more widespread prosperity for all. No regulating committee, representative body, or legislation will ever keep men from exploiting one another. Only the fear of God can accomplish that.
See Proverbs 22:2: “The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.”
We need those who take risks to build businesses and lead them. We need those who follow, support, and do all the daily tasks that keep the economy and society going. We all need each other. We all answer to the Creator. These are the commonalities of all within the economy. There is a lot more to be said about the theology of economy, but for now, I pray this humble offering will be balm for the hurting, an encouragement to faltering, and an invitation to the wandering to find solace and solutions within the Holy Word of God. Amen.
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