Answering this question requires examining three main features of the market economy:

• Institutions that provide for a system of well-defined and readily enforced property rights
• Voluntary exchange of that property
• The ability to associate freely with other people and organizations

Today, we’ll look at the issue of markets and justice by taking a look at property rights.

Property Rights from an Economic Perspective

To the economist, there are numerous well-known advantages to a system of well-defined and enforceable property rights.

First, such rights put a damper on destructive fights over resources. When property rights are clearly defined, no one has ammunition to start a battle over whose resources are whose.

Secondly, well-defined and stable property rights encourage investment in long-lasting goods, what economists call capital.

Why bother to invest in factories, facilities, or equipment that can be stolen as their profitability becomes evident? Without stable property rights in the market, people will shy away from starting businesses for fear that they will be seized as soon as they start to succeed. This aspect of property rights is incredibly important in the foundation of the market because it gives people incentive to be innovative and enterprising, leading to economic growth.

Well-defined property rights also encourage owners to be good stewards of their property.

Think about a bike-sharing program on a local university campus. Without ownership, students use and abuse the bikes with little thought. It is another case of the tragedy of the commons, in which no one cares for the bikes because they think everyone else using the bikes will. Compare the communal bikes to a bike someone owns. The owner knows she is the only one who will take care of the bike. She locks it up, pumps air in the tires, and takes it inside on a rainy day. She is a good steward of her bike.

Property Rights from a Biblical Perspective

Having made the economic case for well-defined and stable property rights, is that all that anyone, specifically a Christian, can say about issues regarding the market system, property rights, and justice? I think not.

A Christian can draw upon scripture and its moral implications to argue that some forms of property rights are unjust. The most obvious case is that of abusive chattel slavery in antebellum America in which individuals, by accident of their birth, did not possess the right to their own labor.

However, there are also many passages in the Bible that affirm property rights, including:

• “You shall not steal.” (the eighth commandment – Ex. 20:15)
• “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (The tenth commandment – Ex. 20:17)

The underlying assumption in these two commandments is that people have property rights. If we are not supposed to steal from our neighbor or be jealous of our neighbor’s house, we are assuming that our neighbor is allowed to own property and it would be unethical and unjust to take that property from him. This is the very basis of property rights.

Further, the Bible has harsh words for those who combine political power with a disregard for property rights, especially those of the poor. For example, Amos condemns dishonest business practices such as perverted weights and measures (Amos 8:5), judging those who have taken from others what they do not deserve.

Amos also talks of those [trampling] “upon the needy and [bringing] the poor of the land to an end” (Amos 8:4). This can be interpreted as illegal expropriation of land from the poor. Again, the Bible condemns this kind of behavior. The Lord says,

Will not the land tremble for this and all who live in it mourn? (Amos 8:8).

These passages indicate that violating someone else’s personal property is not only ill-advised but viewed as unjust from a biblical perspective. The Bible is affirming the idea of property rights by condemning the seizure of other people’s possessions.

Property rights are essential to society from both a biblical and economic perspective. They provide a basis for innovation and enterprise and are affirmed as a just principle by the Bible.

Editor’s Note: This post is an excerpt from For the Least of These: A Biblical Answer to Poverty. The excerpt is from the beginning of Dr. R. Mark Isaac’s chapter, entitled “Markets and Justice,” which examines the justice of the institutions behind the market system.

On “Flashback Friday,” we publish some of IFWE’s former posts that are worth revisiting. This post was first published on Jan 3. 2014.