PERSONAL PROPERTY IN THE BIBLE
Larry Burkett, the founder of Christian Financial Concepts, points out that the bible--with more than 700 references to money--says more about economics than many other subjects. He writes:
"Money is such an important subject that nearly two-thirds of the parables that Christ left us deal with the use and handling of it. That alone should tell us the importance of understanding God’s plan for finance.
"What does the Bible says about economics? In the Ten Commandments alone, we have a sound endorsement of private property, the foundation of all good economics. The commandment, ’Thou shalt not steal’ is a divine guarantee of private property. I cannot steal something from you if you do not own it. The same is true of the command in verse 17.
Author John Chamberlain, in The Roots of Capitalism, writes:
’"Thou shalt not steal" means that the Bible allows ownership of private property--for if a thing is not owned in the first place it can scarcely be stolen. "Thou shalt not covet" means that it is sinful even to contemplate the seizure of another man’s goods... As for the Commandment to "honor they father and thy other that thy days may be long," this implies that the family, not the State, is the basic continuing unit of society.’"
(Quoted in D. James Kennedy, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born, Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 1994, p. 117. From a sermon by Gene Gregory, "God’s View of Economics" 2/26/2009)