Love Your Neighbor. Go to Work.

Four Steps to Biblical Economics 101

A major stretch of road that connects me with my Dad in North Carolina is Interstate 40. As I drove that familiar route yesterday to be with him for Father’s Day this weekend, I marveled again at this remarkable engineering feat. Stretching from California to North Carolina, it’s the North Carolina section that posed one of the greatest challenges, as I-40 threads its way along the Pigeon River Gorge through the Great Smoky Mountains.

But in September of last year, Hurricane Helene dropped massive amounts of rain that swelled the Pigeon River (I wrote about it here) and wiped out a ten-mile section of the east-bound lanes. Yesterday I snapped this picture through my bug-stained windshield (they’ll never have the guts to do that again––sorry).

For ten miles I witnessed an army of sun-burned, hard-handed men putting I-40 back together again and my mind wandered back to a point I made in last Sunday’s sermon:

One of most loving things you can do for your neighbor is to go to work.

If you’re in a wreck today, you’ll be glad that first responders, ER nurses, trauma surgeons and pharmaceutical reps got up this morning and went to work. When you sit down to a meal, you can be glad that farmers and ranchers, John Deere dealers, truck drivers, and shelf-stockers at Publix went to work. As I drove that winding roller coaster of transcontinental interstate yesterday, I was glad that for the last eight months, thousands of people have been getting up early and going to work on I-40.

The Picture Behind the Picture

Look at that picture again and consider the vocations required to come together and make this happen: engineers, earth-moving equipment manufacturers, dealers, and operators, steel producers, welders, truck drivers, hydraulic hose manufacturers, steel-toed boot makers, quarry workers, demolition experts, concrete workers, mechanics, medical doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, oil producers, refinery factory workers, tire changers, Jersey barrier salespeople, traffic cone distributors, thousands of mothers who bore children who grew up to build highways, accountants, lawyers, CAD software designers, CAD operators, government officials, EPA agents,…if this was a game I’d make you go next and name 10 more vocations in that picture. All of these people went to work to repair this ten-mile hole in I-40.

Why? To keep trade and commerce humming, to give local citizens quick access to medical care, to assist sons who visit their fathers on Father’s Day, and a host of other things that benefit us and our neighbors.

So, we love our neighbors by going to work. But while Biblical Economics 101 starts with work, it doesn’t end there. Here’s how it goes:

Biblical Economics 101

1. Go to work.

Find a job that provides your neighbors with quality goods and services that meet their needs and cultivate human flourishing. Whether you have a job that requires you to take a shower before you go to work or a job that requires you to take a shower after you get home, there’s great honor in doing good work. When professing Christians refused to work, Paul lovingly and firmly told the church what to do:

For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. (2 Thessalonians 3:10–12)

2. Make more than you need.

Distinguish needs from wants. We need food, clothing and shelter; necessities that go in us, on us, and around us. Paul challenges Timothy, “But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content (1 Tim. 6:8).” It’s not sinful to have more than these basics, and in the 21^st century, refusing electricity and air conditioning can hinder you from helping others. But do we really need the latest model of this or that, or can we make do with what we have a little longer? The point is to choose a simple and uncluttered life that is still culturally relevant and then find a job that provides more income than that lifestyle demands.

This is behind Paul’s thinking when he writes, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (Eph. 4:28). The former thief has something to share with people in need because he made more than he needed.

3. Spend less than you make.

This is another way of saying “live within your means.” The Bible emphasizes avoiding greed and learning contentment:

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ^‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5–6).

Fiscal discipline leads us to say “No” to impulsive spending. We plan a budget, deny ourselves, and delay gratification to avoid consumer debt and borrowing money to purchase goods or experiences that only depreciate. In 2024, the average credit card balance for cardholders with unpaid balance was $6,580. Easy credit is a seductive temptation, and many Americans can’t seem to resist it.

Consequently, Americans aren’t saving much money. The average savings rate is 4%, while financial planners recommend 10-15%. And 59% of Americans couldn’t cover an emergency expense of $1000 if they had to.

4. Invest the rest in your future.

If you don’t do 1–3, there’s not much left over. Which means you can’t invest much in your future. Keep in mind that your future has two parts: earthly and heavenly.

Your Earthly Future

For the rest of your earthly life, you’ll need money. But you probably won’t always be able to work the way you can now. As the body and mind begin to slow, it will be necessary to back off, or even step away, from work. Like the ant who “prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest” (Prov. 6:8), we should all think ahead to a future season of financial winter and make the necessary preparations.

It’s a loving thing to invest money in your earthly future, because if you don’t, the financial burden will fall on your family, your church, or on your tax-paying neighbors.

Your Heavenly Future

But don’t forget your heavenly future. Jesus kept his disciples’ heavenly future in view when he said things like this:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt. 6:19-21).

The treasures are largely unspecified, but we can be sure that heaven will be a place of unspeakable abundance, peace, and prosperity. And one of the greatest treasures will be all the people we’ll meet in heaven who came to Christ and lived God-glorifying lives because of the investments we made in the Lord’s work and the Lord’s workers. By supporting missionaries, pastors, seminaries, and our local church, we finance the Great Commission and fuel the advance of the gospel. For this reason, Paul declared to the church at Thessalonica:

For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy. (1 Thess. 2:19–20).

And how did Paul afford to eat while he served the Thessalonians? A combination of going to work as a tentmaker (1 Thess. 2:9–10; 2 Thess. 3:6–12; Acts 18:3) and receivng financial support from Christians in Philippi who went to work, made more than they needed, spent less than they made, and invested it in their heavenly future (Phil. 4:16).

Never forget. For two thousand years the gospel has advanced to the ends of the earth because, by the grace and for the glory of God, countless Christians loved their neighbors by going to work.

A Final Note

Here’s a simple prioritized budget template I’ve often shared in premarital counseling with a couple on the verge of marriage.

1. ____% Pay God (invest in your heavenly future by giving generously, proportionately, sacrificially, and systematically to the Lord’s work and workers).

2. ____% Pay Caesar (taxes are non-negotiable)

3. ____% Pay yourself (invest in your earthly future; savings; 401k, etc.)

4. ____% Enjoy the rest!