A Theology of Ownership (Leviticus 25)

“The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.”

There are passages that make people uncomfortable, and then there are passages like Leviticus 25. Of course, since it is in Leviticus no one ever reads it, which is a good thing. If people in churches in the West read Leviticus 25, they might have a crisis of faith regarding the inerrancy and timelessness of God’s Word.

Or more likely, they would assuage themselves with the idea that this is one of those passages that doesn’t apply anymore.

Truth is, the principle truths of this passage have never ceased to be true. And they may be more applicable today, for the church, than ever before.

God is the owner of everything. Anything we have—our things, our money, our land, and our lives—are His. We just steward them for a time. And if you think this Old Testament passage goes overboard, remember that Jesus clarified the Biblical economy telling us that ALL we have is God’s, not just ten percent!

And the principles of justice and economic protection in this passage are being ignored today—even by supposed followers of Jesus—leading to as wide a disparity between the wealthy and the despondent as ever the world has seen. When “believers” speak out, for the rights of corporations over individuals, for the interests of the wealthy over the poor, against refugees and families, something is seriously screwed up.

Secular governments have long fought the evils of monopoly and disparity. Until recently even the USA was careful in this regard. Jefferson, regarding legislation to redistribute wealth, wrote:

“The consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property.” 

And Adam Smith, concerning taxing the wealthy, wrote,

“It is not unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”

God was way ahead of them. But as Evangelicals embrace neoliberal capitalism, they run the danger of rejecting God’s Kingdom principles.