Part 1: Having ownership and control over tangible assets Is an expression of what it means to be human. Moreover, property rights also are essential to economic and personal freedom
ONE: Exodus 20:15
You shall not steal.
TWO: Exodus 20:17
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
Part 2: Who Has the Responsibility of Meeting the People’s Needs?
THREE: Exodus 20:8-11
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
FOUR: 2 Thessalonians 3:10
For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.
FIVE: 1 Timothy 5:8
But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Part 3: God’s Design Fosters Responsibility, Freedom, and Fulfillment.
SIX: Genesis 23:14-20
14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 15 “My lord, listen to me; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? So bury your dead.” 16 And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out the silver for Ephron which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, currency of the merchants.
17 So the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, which were within all the surrounding borders, were deeded 18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.
19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 So the field and the cave that is in it were deeded to Abraham by the sons of Heth as property for a burial place.
SEVEN: Deuteronomy 8:18
And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
EIGHT: Genesis 1:26-28
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Part 4: Work, Freedom, Rights, and Ethical Boundaries: Essential Elements of a Fair and Just Free Market.
NINE: Proverbs 10:4-5
4 He who has a slack hand becomes poor,
But the hand of the diligent makes rich.
5 He who gathers in summer is a wise son;
He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.
TEN: Ephesians 4:28
Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
ELEVEN: Matthew 20:15
Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’
TWELVE: Acts 5:3-4
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”
This series copyright © 2023 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
top image credit: photo by ElasticComputeFarm from Pixabay
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- Part 1 of this series is available here.
Having ownership and control over tangible assets Is an expression of what it means to be human. Moreover, property rights also are essential to economic and personal freedom — types of freedom that also are at the heart of what it means to be human.
June 29, 2023 - Part 2 of this series is available here.
Who Has the Responsibility of Meeting the People’s Needs?
July 3, 2023 - Part 3 of this series is available here.
God’s Design Fosters Responsibility, Freedom, and Fulfillment
July 6, 2023 - Part 4 of this series is available here.
Work, Freedom, Rights, and Ethical Boundaries: Essential Elements of a Fair and Just Free Market
July 11, 2023
- Part 1 of this series is available here.
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