Governed not by envy

"What would an encounter of the gospel with our post-Enlightenment cultured involve for the public arena - the political, economic, and social aspects of our life?" (Foolishness to the Greeks p95)

I think about that question daily. Where are the places that the good news of Christ calls political, economic and social life into question? As I ask the question, I hear the answer, "Everywhere!"

Recently I read in Ecclesiastes 4:4

"Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind."

To be born again by the Spirit is to be born to a new reality that is no longer governed by envy. Toil and skill are no longer the servants of envy, but the servants of love. When Christians engage in the economic life of their society, we ought to do so in a way that demonstrates a radically different relationship to work. Our toil and skill should be engaged to love our neighbors as ourselves - to seek their good as ours, rather than to desire their good for ourselves.

To live in this way is to blaspheme Adam Smith's doctrine of the invisible hand. It proclaims that the way the betterment of the public life consists not in each person seeking his own private gain, but in each person seeking the good of his neighbor - and that the miracle of new birth is essential for this reality to take hold. This is our call to conversion, the call to the Kingdom of God.