Golden nets T
By Peder Jothen SHUTTERSTOCK
he legendary opulence of Roman Emperor Nero (A.D. 54-68) was such that he used
golden thread to make fishing nets. In writing about economic prac- tices in On Trade and Usury, Martin Luther took this image of luxury and linked it with the “perverted wisdom of the world.” He recognized that the values of the world conflict with our callings as Christians. Ever ruled by golden thread, the
world calls us to crave profit, self- interest and possessions as signs of worth. Christ, on the other hand, calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to see our value as grounded in being a child of God. In thinking about income, Luther roots all of
our economic activities within our relations to our neighbors. Our neighbors make the clothes, food and electronics that sustain our lifestyles. Tey drive the delivery trucks and update the websites that enable our consumption. Tey work at and own the stores where we shop. Distorted by sin, the self-neighbor relation is imper-
fect, meaning buying and selling are inevitable. But Luther encourages us to see how consuming everything from food to church windows involves our neighbor. Economics is about relations between people, folks with homes, families and real concerns over livelihood, rather than maximizing profit. As in Luther’s day, our buying and selling must be
“practiced in a Christian manner.” Because our eco- nomic choices reflect our relation to our neighbors, as we consume we must respond through Christ’s call to love our neighbors as ourselves. Tis requires seeing our needs as intertwined with those of our neighbors. We must relate what we earn to what our neighbors earn, recognizing that everyone deserves a just wage. Luther even reminds business owners that one’s
profit should reflect “the effort of a day laborer who works at some other occupation and seeing how much he earns in a day.”
Luther on loving your neighbor
Income is never about the solitary individual dili-
gently striving to out-earn everyone else, but rather understood within our communities and task of loving the neighbor. Tis points to Luther’s deeper theological critique: it’s
easy to see wages as merely the consequence of our hard work and possessions as granting us worldly security. Yet by thinking we deserve such worldly goodies, we place our faith in our actions, rather than in God. For Luther, this “worldly faith” is a form of self-love
and idolatry that ignores how “scripture commands us not to put trust and reliance in any man, but God alone.” Only God’s promise fully revealed in Christ frees us from our anxieties about worldly life, allowing us to relate to our neighbors rightfully through love. Ever a pastor, Luther’s primary concern was for
justice. He encouraged people to see their economic practices as acts that ripple outward from their faith in God. In our context,
choosing stores and brands that pay a just wage can help us respond to Christ’s love for us and our neighbors.
Author bio: Jothen is an assistant professor of religion at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.
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