God & Robbers
Patrick Henry Reardon on Human & Divine Property Rights
The principle of the ownership of property is complex.
First, as Christians we should insist that it is rooted in the biblical concepts of the person and the family. According to Christian teaching about the nature of human beings, they have a strict metaphysical right to the things that they work for or have inherited from their parents. Property has a metaphysical root; it is an extension of personality and a proper expression of family.
God-Given Right
Ownership of property is not a concession of the government. Indeed, governments exist for the purpose of protecting the metaphysical, God-given rights of the citizens, and one of those rights is the right to the ownership of property. It is not the business of government to take away the rightful property of its citizens.
Taxation, for the purpose of maintaining the services of government—including the care of the poor—is not a violation of this principle. We render to Caesar what is his; however, we do so precisely because Caesar is our servant, not a thief.
Consequently, robbery by the government—for the purpose of redistribution of wealth, for example—is just another form of theft. It is the playground bully stealing the lunch money of those who are smaller than he is and have no ability to stand up to him.
The Lord does not like bullies. God looks on such theft the way he looks on all robbery: He does not like it, and he has very harsh things to say about it. If one is in doubt on this point, let him go back and re-read the sermon of Samuel just before the election of Saul (1 Sam. 8) or the story of Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings 21).
A Prior Claim
This is not the whole story about ownership, however. The right of families to the ownership of their property is likewise subject to a prior claim—the claim of God, the Creator of all things. The very fact of death at the end of a human life testifies to God’s prior claims over all his Creation.
Human ownership of property always has the sense of stewardship, which means that we human beings are really taking care of God’s Creation. It is everywhere the teaching of Holy Scripture that the world and everything in it belongs to God, not to men. An impulse of human nature prompts men to regard their possessions as belonging to themselves. Left to its own lights, this is exactly what philosophy will declare.
Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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