Acts 4:32-35, Ephesians 1:11-14
9. Ownership
Ownership
The Lord established the principle that each family would own their own home. Home means house and land – house to live in and land to live off.
Even the Levites – the ones who worked solely for the Lord – were to own their own home. The Levites were provided for through the tithes and offerings but also had their own means of sustenance. Similarly, church ministers, today, are provided with a house while serving and are helped to buy a house to live in when not serving in a parish.
God provided a family reunification scheme every fifty years. Each family to be given back their land “…each of you returns to the lands that belonged to your ancestors and rejoins your clan.” (Lev. 25: 10)
Ownership without owning
The Bible concept we have here puts a whole new perspective on the idea of ownership – to have all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of ownership yet not actually own the land. We hold land in sacred trust. Everything ultimately belongs to God yet we get to treat it as ours.
When pakeha people came to Aotearoa New Zealand and wanted to buy land the Maori people had a problem because in Maori society there was no one with the authority to sell land and it wasn’t something that could be sold permanently. This was something the English didn’t understand (maybe a concept they didn’t want to work with). Many of us would want the same rules to apply today wrt land sales to foreigners.
Private ownership
Notice that The Bible assumes private ownership of house, land and personal effects as well as communal ownership where appropriate.
The 8th commandment says ‘do not steal’. That’s clear. Don’t take what’s not yours – things, money or anything else.
The 10th commandment says don’t want what isn’t yours. It means, be satisfied with what you have. If you’re not satisfied with what you have it means you’re not trusting God to provide for you. You are saying that God’s not given you enough. You actually need to get it sorted with God, not go taking someone else’s stuff.
In Acts 2 and 4 we are told the believers shared their belongings with one another. They also sold possessions and shared the proceeds. They didn’t sell someone else’s stuff, they sold their own, but, apart from that, they held their property in common.
The point
The point of everyone owning a home is to ensure that everyone’s needs are provided. As people manage human affairs we are to ensure that everyone is provided with – has the means to provide themselves with – the necessities of life. The principle of ownership is to help achieve this.
Provide for your family (food and shelter and work) “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1Tim.5:8)
My colleague, Chris Bedford, has been travelling in Europe recently and he sent these photos back from Slovenia with this comment: “Worth emulating: have just read that 71% of Slovenians produce their own fruit and vegetables at home. Not surprised it’s that high – we have seen gardens in every possible piece of tillable ground.” I’m sure that we in New Zealand can too. There is plenty of land even in our cities which are very spread out – mostly stand-alone houses on a plot of land. Hence 71% of us could grow a good proportion of the food we need. Grow enough for selves; share or trade any excess. That would be a good outworking of the principle of ownership.
Jesus said, you can’t follow me unless you give up everything you have. I’m sure there are various ways of giving up everything. The early church did it by sharing their stuff (Acts 2,4).
Forsake all, yet own your home. Surrender all to God; trust him to provide. Under the Bible scheme it’s still yours. This is how Jesus wants you to manage it.
Spiritual ownership
I’m going to look at another aspect of ownership.
Redemption is a term that is used a lot in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. God spent a lot of effort through the Old Testament teaching his people what redemption means so that when Jesus came along they would get the hang of what he was doing.
You redeem something that used to be yours when you buy it back and it becomes yours again. This is what God did with people.
Because God made people they belonged to him, they were his. He owned them in a special way. He loved them and wanted them to love him but that meant he had to let them choose to love him, or not. People preferred to run their own lives so they chose not to love God. The few who wanted to love God found it quite a hard thing to do.
The further people went from God the harder life got. Instead of being free, as they expected, they got tied up in all sorts of tangles. Instead of owning themselves they found themselves controlled by all sorts of owners – people, sin, money, addictions and so on.
God didn’t like this situation his creatures were in, and nor did they, but the people were powerless to solve their problem. God could do it and he did – he redeemed his people. He bought them back at the cost of Jesus’ life. Theologians will tell you that Jesus’ death was necessary and sufficient. It was the only thing that would pay the redemption price and it was all that was required. It had to happen and it did the job. Nothing else will do and nothing else is needed.
Redemption is an exchange. We give our lives to Jesus and Jesus gives his life to us. I think it’s great. I get rid of my life which is a mess, and I get Jesus’ life which is perfect. This actually means that I get owned by God. Is that a bad thing? Far from being restrictive, as so many people think it is, to live in God’s love is to live in freedom.
We choose to love God. He chooses to love us, forgive us and give us life. And he gives us his Holy Spirit to seal the deal.
Ephesians 1:13 And you also became God’s people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised.
2 Corinthians 1:22 It is God himself who has set us apart, who has placed his mark of ownership upon us, and who has given us the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.
So let’s all live like we belong to God.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not make God’s Holy Spirit sad; for the Spirit is God’s mark of ownership on you, a guarantee that the Day will come when God will set you free.