Question

Economic transactions take a major part of our daily life. How does the Christian worldview guide you in your day-to-day economic transactions?

Answer 1

Most of us think that there is no connection between economics & Christian thoughts. But in reality bible addresses economic issue in a moral perspective. In the protestant reformation theology whole sections are devoted to government & economics. Ancient Christian theologies have questions about what is a just price? & how we should deal with poverty? Which represents interests of Christian theologists in economics. They have worked on human nature related to wealth & finance & what should be our attitude towards them. Bible gives a general description about human nature related to day to day economic transactions.

From the biblical chapters we can find some important guidance about our behavior in day to day economic transactions.

1) According to Christian thoughts human beings are created in the image of god. So we have responsibility & rationality. This gives us opportunity to choose between products & services with maximum utility. Since we are rational in our thinking we should make meaningful choices in a market system.

2) According to Christian thoughts we are supposed to be fruitful which requires better use of resources we have for the welfare of the society. If we look from the perspective of economics it is concerned with concept of ‘scarcity’ meaning limited resources & maximum wants. This creates necessity of choices & presence of tradeoffs (benefits & costs) among choices. So according to bible we should make good decisions in our daily life considering the benefits & costs of available options.

3) According to Christian thoughts we all are sinful & tend to be selfish, greedy & exploitative. Bible teaches us about bad effects of sinful behavior which leads to chaos in the society. Therefore we should reject exploitative economic policies. Bible also speaks about frauds in measurement & weights in our daily life. It condemns frauds in weights & measurements therefore we should refrain from such practices.

4) Bible speaks of charity & prosperity of human beings. Since everyone is not economically prosperous the concept of aid, charity & trade in Christianity can help less fortunate in day to day life.