(389)S15E12 Simplicity: The Church on Riches
Welcome back to the Fourth Wave Podcast. In this episode, we are going to continue our look at riches and how that fits in with our season on simplicity. What I'd like to do for this particular episode is to take a look at the early church. So that's something that I like to do throughout my seasons. It's always important to me to take a look at what the early church thinks about things.
Derek:And that's, you know, that's for a number of different reasons. I think it was G. K. Chesterton who said something to the extent of Tradition is the democracy of the dead or something like that, where you're giving a vote to people of the past, because they had particular insights and they had particular ways of seeing things relating to the world. They had different hang ups, but they also had different strengths.
Derek:And so it's very arrogant to kind of think that we know everything and that we don't have any blind spots. And so seeing seeing the early church doesn't prove what is necessarily the best Christian thing to do, but especially where you see univocality like you do with nonviolence, or where you see that there's a lot of weight given to something, or that there are a lot of people saying the same thing, a lot of respected heroes of the faith who aren't perfect, have their own issues, but where you see them talk a lot about a particular issue in the same way, it should give you pause to think if you differ from them. So in this episode, I am going to pull a bunch of quotes, particularly from the early church the Anti Nicene Church, of course, but then also will extend a few hundred years. And then I'll also take a few looks at some quotes that I find intriguing from from more recent times just to kind of to throw in there and give a little extend the democracy to a little bit later eras as well. I don't know where I got all of these quotes.
Derek:I do know that quite a number of them were sourced from the book All Riches Come From Injustice, which I will be doing an interview with Stephen Morrison, the author of that book. It's a great book where he compiles a lot of early church teachings and quotes, and then he kind of expounds on them in his own way. This is sort of like that. I I wanna just throw out the quotes. Hopefully, I'll do a little bit you know, I won't do too much talking.
Derek:I'll just kinda let you mull them over. But I do wanna give provide you a little bit of thought as well. But I'm also piecing these quotes from a number of other books that I've read. Sometimes the primary sources like Salveen in particular, you don't really see him quoted too much, but it's a book that I read for my season on government, Christian Anarchism. And so that's that's one that stuck out to me where I don't see him get a lot of airtime, and I found some of what he said really intriguing.
Derek:So one final aspect here before I just jump right in. Basically, I am going to go through quotes, but I'm going to go through them in, you know, in order of when they were written. So we're going to start with the earliest to latest. We're not grouping them, you know, by topic, by like, you know, usury or the poor. We're just we're going by date.
Derek:That way you can kind of see the trajectory throughout history and, you know, where we get to. I think that's all. I'm just going to go ahead and jump in. Ignatius of Antioch, thirty five to one hundred eight CE. Let not high place puff anyone up, for that which is worth all is faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred, but consider those who are of a different opinion with respect to the grace of Christ which has come unto us, how opposed they are to the will of God.
Derek:They have no regard for love, no care for the widow, or the orphan, or the oppressed, of the bond or of the free, of the hungry or of the thirsty. The Didache, 70 to 100 CE, sections one point one and one point five. There are two ways one of life and one of death and there is a great difference between the two ways. The way of life is this: give to everyone who asks you, and don't ask for it back. The Father wants His blessings shared.
Derek:Happy is the giver who lives according to this rule, for that one is guiltless. But the receiver must beware, for if one receives who has need, he is guiltless. But if one receives not having need, he shall stand trial, answering why he received and for what use. If he is found guilty, he shall not escape until he pays back the last penny. Also from the Didache, section five two.
Derek:The way of death is the way of those who persecute the good, hate the truth, love lies, and do not understand the reward for righteousness. They do not cleave to good or righteous judgment. They do not watch for what is good, but for what is evil. They are strangers to meekness and patience, loving vanities, pursuing revenge, without pity for the needy and depressed. They do not know their Creator.
Derek:They are murderers of children, destroyers of God's image. They turn away from those who are in need, making matters worse for those who are distressed. They are advocates for the rich, unjust judges of the poor. In a word, the way of death is full of those who are steeped in sin. Be delivered, children, from all of this.
Derek:See that no one leads you astray. All right, I'm going to jump in here after that one. There are three good ones there. You know, talking about not being puffed up, not being arrogant, and a part of how that plays out is that you are you show all of these attributes. You especially see that in the Didache.
Derek:With Ignatius, you see, you know, love is elevated. But in the Didache, what's really fascinating to me is that so they're talking about giving to the one that asks. And, you know, that Bible verse was the one that really hit home for our family when we were over in Romania. When we had a Roma a number of Roma, especially this one lady who continued to come back. And, you know, we got annoyed, like that she would just keep on asking.
Derek:And we came across this passage at one point where we would have family devotions, and so we invited her into the house, and we were reading, and it got to the part where it said, you know, give to the one who asks, give to the beggar, whatever. And you're sitting across from a beggar, and you're like, Dang, man, I don't give to the one who asks. And so that really had a lot of influence on how we looked at things. And of course, you know, people are going to come up with all of these hypotheticals and crazy things like, Oh, so if they ask you for a million dollars, you're going give them a million dollars? Like, oh, no, of course not.
Derek:But like when you really take that to heart and you think about it, it's rather than just saying no and cutting them off, it's figuring out how do you help? So just a, you know, just a basic example. She this lady would tell us things that we knew were lies. You know, talking about how she her child was in the hospital. So he said and she needed money for a bus fare.
Derek:Okay, well, we'll take you. Like, if your child's in the hospital, let us take you. It's going be faster than a bus. We'll take you there. It'll be free.
Derek:We'll get time to talk in the car. We can get something to eat along the way. Oh, no, no, no, no. Right? And you can hear some of those stories if you go back to previous seasons.
Derek:But figuring out, okay, you are asking me for something that you think that you need. But like, let me give you something. Let me provide for your needs. And there's debate on that too, because some people are like, Well, you just you just give to people. And sometimes maybe that's the right answer.
Derek:If somebody asks you for $5, maybe you just give them $5 and just let them deal with that. Because as the Didache says here, which I like, it's not just saying, Well, just give to people and there's no accountability. It basically says, You give, and if that person is asking, and if that person doesn't really need and they're taking advantage of you, then judgment is going to come on them. And in here, it lumps not just giving what people ask, but it also says not pursuing revenge. Okay, well, how can you not pursue revenge, and how can you not worry about how people use your money or if they take advantage of you?
Derek:The only way you can do that is if you have faith that God is a God of justice, and that revenge, justice are in His hands, and it's not up to you to exact those things. When you can give freely, and when you can not return evil for evil, when you can not revenge, you can do that because you trust that God will provide justice. So really, not giving to the poor, not giving to the people who ask you in some way, maybe not exactly the way that they ask you provide for them, but seeking to help them and give, that can only come when you trust God and when you put down your pride and saying, You know what? It's not up to me how these resources are used. If there's somebody in front of me who claims they have a need, you know, with all due diligence that you can provide, if there's something that's obviously amiss, then, you know, whatever.
Derek:But you have to trust in God to be able to hand over your resources, to be able to trust Him with justice. And I feel like the Didache right here encapsulates all of that. You give. That's your responsibility. And leave the justice, the vengeance, up to God.
Derek:The Epistle of Barnabas, 70 to 132. Thou shalt communicate in all things with thy neighbor. Thou shalt not call things thine own. For if ye are partakers in common, koinoniai, of things which are incorruptible, how much more should you be of those things which are corruptible? Shepherd of Hermes, 70 to one forty.
Derek:Be temperate as to what is evil, and do it not. But be not temperate as to what is good, but do it. For if thou be temperate as to what is good, so as not to do it, thou commitest a great sin. But if thou be temperate as to what is evil, so as not to do it, thou doest great righteousness. Be temperate, therefore, in abstaining from all wickedness, and do that which is good.
Derek:What kinds of wickedness, sir, say I, are they from which we must be temperate and abstain? Listen, saith he, from adultery and fornication, from the lawlessness of drunkenness, from wicked luxury, from many vines, rich foods, and the costliness of riches, and vaunting and haughtiness and pride, and from falsehood and evil speaking and hypocrisy, malice and all blasphemy. These works are the most wicked of all in the life of men. Irenaeus of Lions, 01/1930 to 02/2002. From his Against Heresies.
Derek:Now, Christ has not merely related to us a story respecting a poor man and a rich one, but he has taught us, in the first place, that no one should lead a luxurious life, nor, living in worldly pleasures and perpetual feastings, should be the slave of his lusts and forget God. Clement of Alexandria, '1 50 to two fifteen. Just as the foot is the measure of the sandal, so the physical needs of each are the measure of what one should possess. Whatever is excessive, the things they call adornments, but the trappings of the rich are not adornments, are a burden of the body. Scripture declares that really his own riches are the redemption of the soul of man, Proverbs thirteen:eight.
Derek:That is, if a man is rich, he will obtain salvation by sharing his wealth. Clement as well from The Instructor. God has given us the power to use our possessions, I admit, but only to the extent that is necessary. He wishes them to be in common. It is absurd that one man lives in luxury while so many suffer in poverty.
Derek:How much more glorious it is to serve many than to live in luxury. How much more reasonable to spend money on human beings than on stones and gold? How much more useful to have friends as our ornamentation than lifeless decorations? Can possessing lands ever give more benefit to anyone than practicing kindness? Also from Clement, from Concerning the Salvation of the Rich.
Derek:You must not try to distinguish between the deserving and the undeserving. You may easily make a mistake, and as the matter is in doubt, it is better to benefit the undeserving than, in avoiding this, to miss the good. We are told not to judge. Last one from Clement. Koinonia, it is God himself who has brought our race to a koinonia by sharing himself, first of all, and by sending his word, logos, to all alike and by making all things for all.
Derek:Therefore, everything is common, and the rich should not grasp a greater share. The expression then, I own something and I have more than enough, why should I not enjoy it? Is not worthy of a human nor does it indicate any community feeling. The other expression does, however. I have something.
Derek:Why should I not share it with those in need? Such a one is perfect and fulfills the command, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. For I know quite well that God has given us the power to use, but only to the limit of that which is necessary, and that God also willed that the use be in common. Just another little pause here for Clement, Clement, however you say it. You know, one of the things that stands out with him in particular, but you'll see it in some other people, and you'll also see it throughout history, is he questions this idea of property ownership type of thing.
Derek:And, you know, oh, communism, like, it freaks everybody out in the West here that you talk about holding things in common. But that is something I was just reading the other day, was reading Hugo Grotius, The Right to the Law of War and Peace or something like that. And he's writing in the early sixteen hundreds. And it was fascinating because he's like, yeah, you know, basically, like all the laws that we have, the laws of empires, of nation, states, you know, we just kind of that's where we are right now. Like, they didn't used to exist, and we just kind of made them up.
Derek:Property, yeah, we just kind of made that up, but you know, it's where we are now. So this is natural law. This is what we deal with. But the idea that somebody would own property, Grotius didn't seem to think that that was like natural law. And in fact, that's something, you know, for as much crap as we give the imperialists of the day, like people coming over to The United States and taking land, and they'd look and they'd be like, The Native Americans, they're not using the land, so it's up for grabs.
Derek:You know, in some ways, that's actually somewhat of a, like, communistic sort of thought today, where it's like, you should not just be able to claim this property and just all of a sudden, like, it's yours, and you have a 100 acres, and you have a house on one of those acres, and the other acres just look pretty. Like, I mean, why are you said to own that? Because at one point you just like put a fence around it and that's it? So the idea of property is very, very contested throughout history, and it's not something that people just kind of come to and like, Oh yeah, that just makes perfect sense. Joseph Pierre Prudin, he wrote about it.
Derek:He was an anarchist in like the 1800s, so he's writing when a lot of people assume private property a lot more. But you can see all the way back with Clement of Alexandria. Like, no. Like, why why should you have something and why do you why do you want to get this inanimate property, these stones, this gold, all this other stuff? So there's a big questioning of, number one, ownership, like who owns things.
Derek:Sure, you say you own it, and maybe you have the power to keep others from getting it, the power of the sword, or the power of charisma, or the power of information. Like, it is, you can keep other people from getting it, great. But like, what ought to be? Like, does that is that really natural law? Is that really a law that you think God endorses?
Derek:Or do you think God endorses the law of, no, all properties to be held in common, and so if you have an excess, if you have two coats, you should give your brother one if your brother needs one. So there's a lot of presuppositions, a lot of assumptions we have in our day, especially in the capitalist West that just totally OD's on, you know, individualism and private property and all of that stuff, which are very, very new in a lot of ways, and to the extent that we take it. And, you know, I don't even remember where I was reading it. I don't think it was from Grotius, but it something I was reading recently as well, where they were talking about how, like, wealth today is also very different. Like, today, a lot of us, we want wealth for us and, like, our immediate family and stuff to be able to live high on the hog.
Derek:And sure, like a lot of people, they had tons of parties and crazy things back in the day too. But if you look at ancient Rome, and especially there are lot of books that have come out about, you know, like what does what does grace mean? And like, what is this relationship? Because it seems to be connected to like a patron system, like this this verbiage of, like, being patrons. So back in the day, if you were wealthy, you might be the godfather to a bunch of different kids because you would be able to pay for their weddings and christenings and whatever else.
Derek:Like your wealth, yes, you got the credit for it, but like it was it was used socially more so than it is today. Today, it's used more individually. And so in some ways, even the rich people back in the day, like, they held things in common to a certain extent because they incurred more social obligations to people for things like weddings, festivals, that kind of stuff. Alright, moving on. Tertullian, 01/1955 to February from Apology.
Derek:Family possessions, which generally destroy brotherhood among you, pagans, create fraternal bonds among us. One in mind and soul, we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. All things are common among us but our wives. Novation, two twenty to two fifty eight. Many things were called unclean, not as being condemned in themselves, but that the Jews might be restrained to the service of one God because frugality and moderation in appetite were becoming to those who were chosen for this purpose, And such moderation is always found to be approximate to religion, nay, so to speak, rather related and akin to it, for luxury is inimical to holiness.
Derek:Dang, luxury is inimical to holiness. Don't chew on that one too long. Alright, Lactantius, two forty to three twenty. The two veins of justice are piety and equality. All justice springs from these fountains.
Derek:While piety forms its source and origin, equity provides all its energy and method. The whole force of justice lies in the fact that it makes equal everyone who comes into this human condition on equal terms. This is the greatest and truest fruit of riches. Not to use wealth for one's own personal pleasure, but for the welfare of many, and not for one's own immediate enjoyment, but for justice, which alone endures. Hillary of Poitiers, 03/15 to March.
Derek:If you are a Christian, why do you scheme to have your idle money bear a return and make the need of your brother, for whom Christ died, the source of your enrichment? So just a quick note on that one. You know, usury, getting interest, is something that was a huge no for Christians for the vast majority of Christianity. And that's part of the reason that the Jews were kind of looked down on because the Jews were allowed to do it since they weren't Christians. They could exact interest from non Jews.
Derek:I don't think they exacted interest from their own. And so Christians and other people would go to Jews to get loans, then they'd get you know, because the Jews were the only ones who would be able to have interest on them, they'd get I don't know if taking advantage of is the the right word, but at least back then, like, that was just it was viewed so negatively, like somebody's just taking advantage of you, kind of like loan shark type things. Know, usury today, probably a little bit different because of the monetary system that we have. Certainly, there are unfair rates of usury, like I think credit card companies are certainly exploitative, but because of inflation and the fact that your money devalues so if I loan you money and I only get paid back five years from now, the $1,000 I loaned you now might only be worth 800. And so there is there is a certain extent to which interest in our monetary system might be different than the way that it used to be, where perhaps money was a little bit more stable.
Derek:Nevertheless, the point is taking advantage of people and having idle money. Like, think of stock brokers, stock traders. You know, people who do that for a living and literally just shift money around, I mean, what good do they do for society? Maybe they do. Maybe I don't know enough about what they do, but it seems like when you're just shifting money around and you've got all this idle money, you're exploiting the system.
Derek:Sure, it's legal, but you're exploiting, you know, the way that things ought to be. So anyway. Basil of Caesarea, 03/29 to March. The most miserable of deaths is, no doubt, that by starvation. Now what punishment should not be inflicted upon the one who passes by such a body?
Derek:What cruelty can surpass that? How can we not count someone like that among the fiercest of beasts and consider that person as a sacrilegious one and a murderer? The person who can cure such an infirmity and refuses one's medicine because of avarice can with reason be condemned as a murderer. That's I don't remember if we talked about this in one of our episodes or if we're going to or if I totally dropped the ball on this one, but there's, you know, Peter Singer has an article on this type of thing where, hey, if you pass by a drowning kid, you know, you know, should you go and save him? Like, we'd all think you're terrible if you didn't.
Derek:But like at this point in history, we could all save some starving people, right? Because of globalization, like we have access, we can transfer money wherever we need to. We could prevent people from starving. And so there's a really big challenge here where, yes, you would be cruel if there's somebody in your church congregation or somebody like one of your neighbors that's gonna starve and you can prevent that and you don't, like, you're horrible. Like, that is sacrilegious.
Derek:Like you don't know God. You have you do not have love for your brother. Therefore, you don't know God. What where does that obligation extend now, with globalization and all of that now that we have access? Like, at what point are you trying to play God, and at what point are you just doing what you can with the resources you have?
Derek:And what should you do? Alright. Gregory of Nazianzus, 329 to March. On the Love of the Poor. How can we enjoy pleasures amidst the calamities of our brethren?
Derek:May God preserve me from being rich while they are indignant, from enjoying robust health if I do not try to cure their diseases, from eating good food, clothing myself well and resting in my home if I do not share with them a piece of my bread, and give them, in the measure of my abilities, part of my clothes, and if I do not welcome them into my home. You who are strong, help those who are weak. You who are rich, assist those who are poor. You who have not stumbled, raise up those who have fallen and are afflicted. You who are full of spirit, comfort those who are discouraged.
Derek:You who enjoy prosperity, aid those who suffer adversities. Ambrose of Milan, March to March. God has ordered all things to be produced so that there should be food in common for all, and that the earth should be the common possession of all. Nature therefore has produced a common right for all, but greed has made it a right for a few. John Chrysostom.
Derek:I got a bunch from him, so we'll just go down the list. The gold bit on your horse, the gold circlet on the wrist of your slave, the gilding on your shoes means that you are robbing the orphan and starving the widow. When you have passed away, each passerby who looks upon your great mansions will say, how many tears did it take to build that mansion? How many orphans were stripped? How many widows wronged?
Derek:How many laborers deprived of their honest wages? Even death itself will not deliver you from your accusers. If wealth is a good, but is increased by greed, the greedier one is, the better the possessor must be. But is not this plainly a self contradiction? But suppose the wealth is not gained wrongfully.
Derek:But how is this possible? So destructive a passion is greed that to grow rich without injustice is impossible. But what if you say a man succeeded to his father's inheritance, then he received what had been gathered by injustice? Someone must probably have unjustly taken and enjoyed the goods of others. From Letter to Hebedah.
Derek:All riches come from iniquity, and unless the one loses, the other cannot gain. And so the common saying seems to me to be well put: the rich man is either an unjust man or the heir of one. Strictly speaking, the rich man has not committed an act of injustice against Lazarus since he did not rob him of his possessions. His sin consisted rather in not giving part of his own possessions. This is robbery, not to share one's resources.
Derek:Perhaps what I am saying astonishes you, yet be not astonished, for I shall offer you the testimony of the sacred scriptures, which say that not only to rob others' property, but also not to share your own with others, is robbery and greediness and theft. Reproaching the Jews through the mouth of the prophet, God says, The earth has produced its fruit, but you have not brought in tithes, and robbery of the poor dwells in your house. He says this in order to make it clear to the rich that what they possess belongs to the poor, whatever the source. Elsewhere, God also says, do not rob the poor man of his livelihood. A robbery is taking and keeping what is not one's own.
Derek:These texts therefore teach that if we refuse to give alms, we will be punished in the same way as robbers. Tell me then, from where do you get your riches? From whom do you receive it? And from whom did he receive who transmits it to you? From my father, and he from my grandfather.
Derek:But can you, going back through many generations, show that the riches were justly acquired? No, you cannot. The root and origin of them must have been injustice. Why? Because God, in the beginning, made not one man rich and another man poor, nor did he afterwards take and show to one treasures of gold and deny the other the rich of searching for it.
Derek:Rather, he left the earth free to all alike. How come then, if it is common, you have acres and acres of land while your neighbor has not a portion of it? My father transmitted them to me, you say. But whom did he receive them from? From my grandfather.
Derek:But you must go back and find the original answer. But if I do no evil, even though I do not do good, it is not bad, you retort. True. But is not this an evil that you alone should enjoy what is common? Is not the earth gods and the fullness thereof?
Derek:If then our possessions belong to one common lord, they belong also to our fellow servants. The possessions of the Lord are all common. We share them equally. Observe further now concerning things that are common. There is no contention, but everything is peaceful.
Derek:But as soon as someone attempts to possess himself of anything to make it his own, then contention is introduced. As if nature itself protests against the fact that, as God brings us together in every way, we are eager to divide and separate ourselves by appropriating things using those cold words mine and yours. Then struggles and hatred arise. But where this does not happen, no strife or struggles appear. Hence, we should conclude that common sharing is more convenient and more agreeable to our nature.
Derek:I think this is a a great one to pause on cause this goes very well with our, you know, our podcast on nonviolence. Just we've said it over and over again, a lot of times, violence stems from this type of thing, greed. You want to protect something that you own. You build hedges and moats and walls around things, and if somebody you feel somebody pressuring that, then that leads to violence. I mean, that's what leads to violence in empires.
Derek:Wanting more land has been a a huge source of of war and just horrible terror throughout the nations. Alright. Continuing with John Chrysostom, a couple more. And perhaps one of you will say, every day thy discourse is about covetousness. If only I could speak about it every night too.
Derek:Would that I could do so, following you about in the marketplace and at your table. Would that both wives and friends and children and domestics and tillers of the soil and neighbors and the very pavement and walls could ever shout forth this word, that so we might perchance have relaxed a little. For this malady hath seized upon all the world and occupies the souls of all, and great is the tyranny of mammon. We have been ransomed by Christ and are the slaves of gold. We proclaim the sovereignty of the one and obey the other.
Derek:All things, in fact, are God's. When then he calls and chooses to take things away from us, let us not, like ungrateful servants, flee away from him and steal our master's goods. Your soul is not yours, much less are your riches your own. How is it then that you spend on what is unnecessary, the things that are not yours? Do you not know that we will soon be on trial if we use them badly?
Derek:But since they are not ours but our master's, we should spend them for our fellow servants. Say not then, I am but spending my own, and of my own, I live a voluptuous life. It is not your own, but belongs to others. Others, I say, because such is your own choice. For God's will is that those things should be yours which have been entrusted to you on behalf of your brethren.
Derek:Now these things which are not your own become yours if you spend them on others. But if you spend them on yourself unsparingly, your own things become no longer yours. For since you use them cruelly and say that it is fair to spend your own things entirely for your exclusive enjoyment, I say they are no longer yours. For they are common to you and your fellow servants, just as the sun is common, and the air, and earth, and all the rest. So also regarding wealth, if you enjoy it alone, you have lost it, for you will not reap its reward.
Derek:But if you possess it jointly with the rest, then will it be more your own, and then will you reap the benefit of it. What, too, of the Earth, is not this left common to all? No, he saith. He sayest thou so? Tell me, because the rich man, even in the city, having gotten himself several acres, raises up long fences around them, and in the country cuts off for himself many portions.
Derek:What then? When he cuts them off, does he alone enjoy them? By no means, though he should contend for it ever so earnestly, And his enjoyment of the earth is no more than thine. For sure, he fills not 10 stomachs, and thou only one. Last one from Chrysostom.
Derek:For mine and thine, those chili words which introduce innumerable wars into the world, should be eliminated from that holy church. The poor would not envy the rich because there would be no rich, neither would the poor be despised by the rich, for there would be no poor. All things would be in common. Basil of Caesarea, 03/29 to March. I am wronging no one, you say.
Derek:I hold fast to my own, that is all. Your own. Who gave it to you to bring into life with you? You are like the man who takes a seat in a theater and then keeps out newcomers, claiming as his own what is there for the use of everyone. Such are the rich.
Derek:They seize what belongs to all and then claim the right of possession to monopolize it. If everyone took for himself enough to meet his own wants and gave up the rest to those who needed it, there would be no rich and no poor. Why are you rich and another poor? Who is the covetous man, one for whom plenty is not enough? Who is the defrauder, one who takes away that which belongs to everyone?
Derek:And are you not covetous? Are you not a defrauder when you keep for private use what you were given for distribution? When someone strips a man of his clothes, we call him a thief. And one who might clothe the naked and does not, should not he be given the same name? The bread in your hoard belongs to the hungry.
Derek:The cloak in your wardrobe belongs to the naked. The shoes you let rot belong to the barefoot. The money in your vault belongs to the destitute. All you might help and do not, to all these you are doing wrong. Gregory of Nyssa, March to March.
Derek:Therefore, the creatures in need should be made equal to the one who has a larger share, and that which is lacking should be filled by what has abundance. This is the law mercy gives men in regard to the needy. Mercy is a voluntary sorrow that joins itself to the suffering of others. Mercy is the loving disposition towards those who suffer distress. For as unkindness and cruelty have their origin in hate, so mercy springs from love, without which it could not exist.
Derek:Mercy is intensified charity. Hence, a man of such dispositions of soul is truly blessed, since he has reached the summit of virtue. For all things would be common to all, and man's life as a citizen would be marked by complete equality before the law since the person who is responsible for the government would have his own free will be on a level with the rest. Ambrose of Milan, March March. Not from your own do you bestow upon the poor man, but you make return from what is his.
Derek:But what has been given as common for the use of all, you appropriate to yourself alone. The earth belongs to all, not to the rich, but fewer are they who do not use what belongs to all than those who do. Therefore, you are paying a debt. You are not bestowing what is not due. Hence, scripture says to you, if a poor man speak to thee, lend him that ear without grudging.
Derek:Give him his due and let him have patient and friendly answer. It is the bread of the poor which you are holding back. It is the clothes of the naked which you are hoarding. It is the relief and liberation of the wretched which you are thwarting by burying your money away. On Naboth.
Derek:You rich, how far will you push your frenzied greed? Are you alone to dwell on the earth? You cast out men who are fellow creatures and claim all creation as your own. Why? Earth at its beginning was for all in common.
Derek:It was meant for rich and poor alike. What right have you to monopolize the soil? Last one from Ambrose. For the philosophers say that the first duty of justice is not to harm anyone unless provoked by injury, but this is voided by the authority of the gospel. Next, they deem it a duty of justice to consider the things that are in common, that is, those what are public property as public property indeed, and those that are private as private.
Derek:But the latter term is not according to nature, for nature has brought forth all things for all in common. This God has created everything in such a way that all things be possessed in common. Nature therefore is the mother of common right, usurpation of private right. Oh, that last one. That last one's interesting.
Derek:Nature, therefore, is the mother of common right, usurpation of private right. Goes back to chrysostum, you know, those terrible words, mine and thine. Right? It's setting up our own domains, trying to carve out what we call ours. But Ambrose highlights as well as others, but I think Ambrose the most clearly so far, where he's like, you go and you help a beggar.
Derek:He's like, you're not being generous. You're giving him what you owe him because you've got this stuff that's not really yours. It's everybody's, and you're really just paying him what he's he's owed. He has a need. You you have hoarded this stuff.
Derek:You have this stuff that you don't need. That's not even yours. It's God's because common right is natural. Private right is usurpation. Dang.
Derek:Man, they would be they were in some South American countries in in the fifties, man. CIA would have been all over these guys. Alright. Augustine of Hippo, March to 04/30. Assisting the needy is justice.
Derek:Riches are neither real nor are they yours. The superfluities of the rich are the necessaries of the poor. They who possess superfluities possess the goods of others. God commands sharing not as being from the property of them whom he commands, but as being from his own property. The love of money is the root of all evil, first Timothy six ten.
Derek:If by love of money, we mean general avarice by which each desires something beyond what is appropriate for its own sake and a certain love of one's own property, which the Latin language has wisely called private, for it connotes more a loss than an increase. For all privation is diminution. Last one from Augustine here. Those who wish to make room for the Lord must find pleasure not in private, but in common property. Redouble your charity.
Derek:For on account of the things which each one of us possesses singly, wars exist, hatreds, discords, strife among human beings, tumults, dissensions, scandals, sins, injustices, and murders. On what account? On account of those things which each of us possesses singly. Do we fight over the things we possess in common? We inhale this air in common with others.
Derek:We all see the sun in common. Blessed therefore are those who make room for the Lord, so as not to take pleasure in private property. Let us therefore abstain from the possessions of private property or from the love of it. If we cannot abstain from possession, then let us make room for the Lord. In property which each possesses privately, each necessarily becomes proud.
Derek:The flesh of the rich person pushes out against the flesh of the poor person, as if that rich flesh had brought anything with it when it was born and will take anything with it when it dies. Salvian from On the Government of God, April April. In their time, the magistrates were poor, but the state wealthy, whereas now the wealth of officials makes the state poor. What madness, I ask you, or what blindness leads men to think that private fortunes can survive in the midst of the need and beggary of the state? Such were the ancient Romans.
Derek:So they in their day scorned riches, though they knew not God, just as in ours men who follow the Lord still scorn them. For instance, who would deign even to listen to our savior's bidding not to take thought for the morrow? Who obeys his order to be content with a single tunic? Who thinks the command to walk unshod possible or even tolerable to follow? These precepts then I pass over.
Derek:For here, our faith in which we trust falls short so that we judge superfluous the precepts the Lord intended for our benefit. Love your enemies, said the Savior. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Who could keep all these commandments? Who would deign to follow God's commands in respect to His enemies?
Derek:I do not say in wishes, but even in words. Even if a man compels himself to do so, still, it is his lips alone that act and not his mind. He lends the service of his voice to the action without changing the feeling of his heart. Therefore, even if he forces himself to say a prayer for his adversary, his lips move, but he does not really pray. In The Slave, you punish an infrequent overindulgence of the appetite while you constantly distend your own belly with undigested food.
Derek:You think theft is servile fault, but you too, oh rich man, commit robbery when you encroach on the things forbidden by God. Indeed, every man who performs illicit actions is guilty of theft. Why do I dwell on these petty details and speak in a sort of allegorical fashion when absolutely unconcealed crimes make it clear that the wealthy commit not mere thefts, but highway robbery on a grand scale. How often do you find a rich man's neighbor who is not himself poor, who's really secure in his acts and position? Indeed, by the encroachments of overpowerful men, weaklings lose their property or even their freedom along with their goods, so that it was not without reason that the sacred word alluded to them both saying, Wild asses are the prey of lions in the wilderness, so poor men are a pasture for the rich.
Derek:And yet not only the poor, but almost the whole human race is suffering this tyranny. Last one from Think a minute. The remedies recently given to some cities. What have they done but make all the rich immune and heap up the taxes of the wretched? To free the rich from their old dues, they have added new burdens to those of the poor.
Derek:They have enriched the wealth by taking away their slightest obligations and afflicted the poor by multiplying their very heavy payments. The rich have thus become wealthier by the decrease of their burdens that they bore easily, while the poor are dying of the increase in taxes that they already found too great for endurance. So the vaunted remedy most unjustly exalted the one group and most unjustly killed the other. To one class, it was a most accursed reward, and to the other a most accursed poison. Hence, I say that nothing can be more wicked than the rich who are murdering the poor by their so called remedies, and nothing more unlucky than the poor to whom even the general panacea brings death.
Derek:Okay. This is gonna be our latest early church quote right here. We got two from Gregory the Great, May to 06/2004. In vain do they think themselves innocent who appropriate to their own use alone those goods which God gave in common. By not giving to others that which they themselves receive, they become homicides and murderers inasmuch as in keeping for themselves those things which would alleviate the suffering of the poor.
Derek:We may say that every day they cause the death of as many persons as they might have fed and did not. When therefore we offer the means of living to the indignant, we do not give them anything of ours, but that which of right belongs to them. It is less a work of mercy which is performed than a payment of a debt. Last one. Those who neither make after others' goods nor bestow their own are to be admonished, to take it well to heart that the earth they come from is common to all and brings forth nurture for all alike.
Derek:Idly then do men hold themselves innocent when they monopolize for themselves the common gift of God. In not giving, what they destroy all the starving poor whose means to relief they store at home. When we furnish the destitute with any necessity, we render them what is theirs, not bestow on them what is ours. We pay the debt of justice rather than perform the works of mercy. Of Dives, in the gospel, we do not read that he snatched the goods of others, but that he used his own unfruitfully and avenging hell receive him at death, not because he did anything unlawful, but because he gave himself up utterly and inordinately to the enjoyment of what was lawful.
Derek:Alright, I've got just a few more. I wanna touch on a few other prominent people from a couple different eras. Thomas Aquinas, six hundred years after Gregory the Great, or in 12/25 to December, from his Summa deologica. In cases of need, all things are common property, so that there would seem to be no sin in taking another's property, for need has made it common. I answer that things which are of human right cannot derogate from natural right or divine right.
Derek:Now according to the natural order established by divine providence, inferior things are ordained for the purpose of suckering men's needs by their means. Wherefore, the division and appropriation of things which are based on human law do not preclude the fact that man's needs have to be remedied by means of these very things. Hence, whatever certain people have in superabundance is due by natural law to the purpose of suckering the poor. For this reason, Ambrose says, and his words are embodied in the Decretalis, it is the hungry man's bread that you withhold, the naked man's cloak that you store away. The money that you bury in the earth is the price of the poor man's ransom and freedom.
Derek:This is one really interesting to think about. Because if you if all these early church fathers are right about property being common to all, and really, the one who hoards is actually the thief because he is taking what is rightfully somebody else's, then what Aquinas is saying is he's like, if there's somebody who's starving and they steal bread from you because you have more than enough, then really, he's taking what's rightfully his because it's his. And maybe using bread isn't the best example. I think it's a little bit harder. Like, because let's say there's bread, right?
Derek:You went out to the store and bought it, and you or maybe you lived on a farm back in the day and you harvested grain. You planted the grain. You did all kinds of like so certainly, there's an aspect of like, well, you put work into it and you made it. But at the same time, if you've got so much abundance, then really there comes a point, and I don't know where that line is, but there comes a point where you are not just wisely, you know, saving. You know, you have not just food for tomorrow and the next week and maybe for the next month, but like, you've got you know, you've got a bomb shelter that's got five years worth of food down in there.
Derek:You're gonna shoot anybody who comes to take it. I think the early church fathers would be like, if you got five years worth of stuff, like, think of all of that all of that money that you are hoarding and putting into yourself. If somebody would come along and try to take that, they'd be justified in doing that. If they were starving, and you had all of that excess, not only would you be guilty of murder for killing them, you know, but they're on my property, your property, God's property, right? So they would you would not only be guilty of murder, but you'd be guilty of theft.
Derek:Like, you would be keeping the person from getting their rightful possessions if they were starving and you had all that excess food. And there's some significant implications here to the way that we think about looting and rights and poverty, and you know, who has the rights in a society. I think of Jean Valjean and Les Mis. That's one where I think most people would side with Jean Valjean, yet in our society, we have the undeserving poor somehow, right? They don't deserve my hoarded food, my hoarded wealth.
Derek:So Thomas Aquinas gives us some insight. He provides implications, like moral, actionable implications to if the early church fathers are right and Aquinas seems to think that they are even using Ambrose, which is somebody that we quoted from, then Aquinas would be like, no, you're you're the thief. The poor have a right to take what's rightfully theirs from you. Okay. Martin Luther from his Catechism of 1529.
Derek:I like using this because a lot of times, I think people think of the reformers as maybe being a little bit more legalistic or dry or uncaring, you know, because the Calvinism doctrine, right? You think of them just being not caring about people. And and Calvin and Luther both have some stuff. I think I have one from Calvin as well. But let me read Luther's here.
Derek:Alright. Fifteen twenty nine. Secondly, under this commandment, not only he is guilty who does evil to his neighbor, but he also who can do him good, prevent, resist evil, defend, and save him, so that no bodily harm or hurt happen to him, and yet does not do it. If, therefore, you send away one who is naked when you could have clothed him, you have caused him to freeze to death. You see one suffer hunger and do not give him food, you have caused him to starve.
Derek:So also, if you see anyone innocently sentenced to death or in like distress and do not save him, although you know ways and means to do so, you have killed him, and it will not avail you to make the pretext that you did not afford any help, counsel, or aid thereto, for you have withheld your love from him and deprived him of the benefit whereby his life would have been saved. Therefore, God also rightly calls all those murderers who do not afford counsel and help in distress and danger of body and life, and will pass a most terrible sentence upon them in the last day, as Christ himself has announced, when he shall say, I was hungered, and ye gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you took me not in. Naked, and you clothed me not.
Derek:Sick and in prison, and you visited me not. That is, you would have suffered me and mine to die of hunger, thirst, and cold, would have suffered the wild beasts to tear us to pieces, or left us to rot in prison or perish in distress. What else is that but to reproach them as murderers and bloodhounds? For although you have not actually done all this, you have nevertheless, so far as you were concerned, suffered him to pine and perish in misfortune. It is just as if I saw someone navigating and laboring in deep water and struggling against adverse winds, or one fallen into fire and could extend to him the hand to pull him out and save him, yet refuse to do it.
Derek:What else would I appear, even in the eyes of the world, than as a murderer and a criminal? Therefore, it is God's ultimate purpose that we suffer harm to befall no man, but show him all good and love, and as we have said it, especially directed toward those who are our enemies. For to do good to our friends is but an ordinary heathen virtue, as Christ says in Matthew five. Okay. I got one from John Calvin here.
Derek:This is from his commentary on Isaiah 58. Point seven, it looks like. Is it not to break thy bread to the hungry? He goes on to describe the duties of love of neighbor, which he had described briefly in the preceding verse. For having formally said that we must abstain from every act of injustice, he now shows that we ought to exercise kindness towards the wretched and those who need our assistance.
Derek:Uprightness and righteousness are divided into two parts. First, that we should injure nobody, and secondly, that we should bestow our wealth and abundance on the poor and needy. And these two ought to be joined together, for it is not enough to abstain from acts of injustice, if thou refuse thy assistance to the needy, nor will it be of much avail to render thine aid to the needy, if at the same time thou rob some of that which thou bestowest on others. Thou must not relieve thy neighbors by plunder or theft. And if thou has committed any act of injustice or cruelty or extortion, thou must not, by a pretend compensation, call on God to receive a share of the plunder.
Derek:These two parts therefore must be held together, provided only that we have our love of our neighbor approved and accepted by God. By commanding them to break bread to the hungry, He intended to take away every excuse from covetous and greedy men who alleged that they have a right to keep possession of that which is their own. This is mine, and therefore I may keep it for myself. Why should I make common property of that which God has given me? He replies.
Derek:It is indeed thine, but on this condition that thou share it with the hungry and thirsty, not that thou eat it thyself alone. And indeed, this is the dictate of common sense, that the hungry are deprived of their just right if their hunger is not relieved. That sad spectacle extorts compassion even from the cruel and barbarous. He next enumerates various kinds, which commonly bend hearts of iron to sympathian fellow feeling or compassion, that the savage disposition of those who are not moved by feeling for a brother's poverty and necessity may be the less excusable. Alright.
Derek:Last last little section before I offer some concluding thoughts. I wanna read from the Westminster Larger Catechism, numbers one thirty five and one thirty six. By the way, this is from 1647. Okay. One thirty five.
Derek:What are the duties required in the sixth commandment? The duties required in the sixth commandment are all careful studies and lawful endeavors to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any By just defense thereof, against violence, patient bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit, a sober use of meat, drink, physics, sleep, labor, and recreation, by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness, peaceable, mild and courteous speech, and behavior, forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiring good for evil, comforting and succoring the distressed, and protecting and defending the innocent. Question one thirty six. What are the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment? The sins forbidden in the sixth commandment are: all taking away the life of ourselves or of others, except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defense the neglecting or withdrawing the lawful and necessary means of preservation of life sinful anger, hatred, envy, desire of revenge, all excessive passions, distracting cares, immoderate use of meat, drink, labor, and recreations provoking words, oppression, quarreling, striking, wounding, and whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life of any.
Derek:And that, you know, whatever you think of the reformers and all that stuff, they were spot on in regard to this. I mean, Luther, Calvin, they're they're right in the vein of all that the early church was saying. Aquinas, right in the vein of that. Well, Aquinas, you didn't get as much of a glimpse of, but man, that that idea of our obligation to the poor and the needy. Now maybe they didn't practice it right, and it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't.
Derek:But at least what they're jotting down, think about think about, like, when I think of the larger catechism, the questions one hundred thirty five and one hundred thirty six, the sixth commandment, by way, in case you didn't know, was the the commandment against murder. Like, how do they get in the commandment against murder? I mean, bring up all kinds of virtues and things. But let's see. You need to have a sober use of meat, drink, physic, sleep, labor, and recreation.
Derek:Like, you need to be moderate with your goods. And they, of course, they talk about, you know, meekness, gentleness, courteous speech, cheerfulness. There are all kinds of things because they recognize that all of those things lead to the hatred of others, so the murder of them in our hearts, but also actual real murder where somebody ends up dead. So that's, to me, that's just so powerful. You look at the people who you could respect, and even some of these people that you might not be able to respect, like John Calvin.
Derek:You look at them, and this ethic of helping the poor, even if it's just words given to them, they did not have this Western American, Western, whatever it is, mindset of individualism, the undeserving poor. Like, they would not countenance that in their words, even if they were inconsistent in their actions. Like, they recognized the truthfulness of the importance of simplicity in living. And, of course, there's still a whole lot of gray. And I I told you from the the beginning of the season that there's gonna be a lot of gray.
Derek:I can't draw lines for you here, but there are some very hard things that tradition and our history should cause us to be thinking about and reflecting on as it relates to our own lives. Because I can pretty much guarantee you, I know I am, and probably just about everybody listening to this, is a murderer. We have failed to preserve the life of others, in part because we we count things as our own and do not hold them in common. We don't hold them loosely enough to save the lives of others, not even brothers and sisters. So hopefully, this is encouraging but also convicting.
Derek:And I challenge you to really dig in to the early church. Obviously, these quotes are all snippets, you know, a lot of them from larger sermons or commentaries and stuff. And there might be some things around them that that might shed more light on them, either make them more harsh or soften some of them up too. So don't don't just listen to my excerpts here, but definitely go out and read these on your own. So we'll do a couple more episodes on on mammon and and wealth in relation to simplicity.
Derek:And hope you enjoyed. That's all for now. So peace, and because I'm a pacifist, when I say it, I mean it. This podcast is a part of the Kingdom Outpost Network. Please check out the links below to find other great podcasts and content related to nonviolence and Kingdom Living.
