Scriptur
01-12-2007, 03:54 PM
There is one occupation towards which the Bible looks unfavorably, and that is the job of trading. This is something to which I wish to call your special attention. If it be possible, I would hope young believers would avoid this occupation. In order for us to have a clearer view, I shall enlarge upon this subject as follows. Suppose we have a hundred people here, each with a million dollars. The total amount of wealth is therefore a hundred million. Naturally, in trading we expect to make a profit; so now, let us say I am able to double my money within one month, that is to say, I double my original million to two millions. Ignoring the fact of whether I trade righteously or unrighteously, one thing is certain: if I make a million more, some among the one hundred men must have suffered loss in the process, that is to say, they will most likely each have less than a million dollars in their respective hands.
We are all Christians, and therefore brothers. Is it fitting for me to win your money? Is it right for me to be richer but you poorer? Even if my competitors are heathens, I myself am still a Christian. And hence as a child of God, I have the obligation to maintain a dignity and position that is in harmony with God’s viewpoint. It is consequently unfitting for me to take advantage of not only other believers but of the unbelievers as well, however righteous may be the way I trade. Let us see that in trading, one particular situation is clearly unavoidable: that to transfer money from your pocket to mine, I have to make you suffer. This is a fact.
But in the occupations which God has ordained for men, such problem does not exist. For if I am farming, I shall harvest—say, a hundred loads of rice—without lessening what you have stored in your home, not even a pound less. No one will suffer because of my reaping a hundred loads of rice. We cannot call this profiteering; it is simply increasing the wealth of the land. We need to perceive the great difference between these two. God does not wish His children to set their minds on the one purpose of making profit. He wants us to take up employments which will increase wealth. This basic principle is quite simple and clear. Do not be occupied from morning till night with the one thought of making money. Keep well in mind instead that if you make money, somebody else must incur loss. To increase my money is to decrease another’s money. And this is what we call trading.
Hence we have to choose among these three kinds of occupation: trading, laboring, and producing. The noblest occupation as sanctioned by God in the Bible is that of production, for in production I increase the wealth without at the same time making others poor. If after a few years of pasturing I increase my flock from a hundred to four hundred, I indeed have an increase, but no one else will have experienced a decrease because of me; for I have only increased the wealth directly from nature.
It is not so, however, with trading. For instance, I buy a hundred sheep in one place and transport them for sale to another place. In the process of selling them I make ten dollars on every sheep, and thus I have a net profit of a thousand dollars. This money I gain without my having produced one sheep more. With the result that the world is not any the richer in its wealth because of me, and what is even worse, some people have even suffered loss because of my trading. Trading simply means profiteering without production; I increase my own money, but I do not increase the wealth of the world.
From the standpoint of God’s word, trading is the lowest form of all employments. If opportunity is given us to choose our occupation, may we choose that which will increase wealth or value rather than that which only increases our money. It is very selfish if we choose the latter.
We are all Christians, and therefore brothers. Is it fitting for me to win your money? Is it right for me to be richer but you poorer? Even if my competitors are heathens, I myself am still a Christian. And hence as a child of God, I have the obligation to maintain a dignity and position that is in harmony with God’s viewpoint. It is consequently unfitting for me to take advantage of not only other believers but of the unbelievers as well, however righteous may be the way I trade. Let us see that in trading, one particular situation is clearly unavoidable: that to transfer money from your pocket to mine, I have to make you suffer. This is a fact.
But in the occupations which God has ordained for men, such problem does not exist. For if I am farming, I shall harvest—say, a hundred loads of rice—without lessening what you have stored in your home, not even a pound less. No one will suffer because of my reaping a hundred loads of rice. We cannot call this profiteering; it is simply increasing the wealth of the land. We need to perceive the great difference between these two. God does not wish His children to set their minds on the one purpose of making profit. He wants us to take up employments which will increase wealth. This basic principle is quite simple and clear. Do not be occupied from morning till night with the one thought of making money. Keep well in mind instead that if you make money, somebody else must incur loss. To increase my money is to decrease another’s money. And this is what we call trading.
Hence we have to choose among these three kinds of occupation: trading, laboring, and producing. The noblest occupation as sanctioned by God in the Bible is that of production, for in production I increase the wealth without at the same time making others poor. If after a few years of pasturing I increase my flock from a hundred to four hundred, I indeed have an increase, but no one else will have experienced a decrease because of me; for I have only increased the wealth directly from nature.
It is not so, however, with trading. For instance, I buy a hundred sheep in one place and transport them for sale to another place. In the process of selling them I make ten dollars on every sheep, and thus I have a net profit of a thousand dollars. This money I gain without my having produced one sheep more. With the result that the world is not any the richer in its wealth because of me, and what is even worse, some people have even suffered loss because of my trading. Trading simply means profiteering without production; I increase my own money, but I do not increase the wealth of the world.
From the standpoint of God’s word, trading is the lowest form of all employments. If opportunity is given us to choose our occupation, may we choose that which will increase wealth or value rather than that which only increases our money. It is very selfish if we choose the latter.