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S gaining profit from someone else’s work exploitation?

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Revmitchell, Oct 2, 2014.

  1. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    In contrast to Marxist theory, the Bible does not view it as evil for one person to hire another person and gain profit from that person’s work. It is not necessarily “exploiting” the employee. Rather, Jesus said "the laborer deserves his wages" (Luke 10:7), and by this statement he implicitly approved of the idea of paying wages to employees.

    In fact, Jesus’ parables often speak of servants and masters, and of people paying others for their work, with no hint that hiring people to work for wages is evil or wrong. And John the Baptist told soldiers, “Be content with your wages” (Luke 3:14).

    Employer-Employee Relationship

    For some occupations, being employed by someone else is necessary, because some people sell services and not goods. In the ancient world, a maid or a messenger or the laborer in a field would work for someone else; and in the modern world a teacher or a babysitter, or a painter or a plumber, earns money when hired by another person. But the hiring of one person by another is also necessary for a greater production of goods. Many products can only be produced by a group of people working together. In the ancient world, shipbuilding and shipping could only be done by hiring many people, and in the modern world, building airplanes, ships, steel mills, and in most cases houses and computers, and many other consumer goods, can only be done by hiring other people, because the tasks are too large and too complicated for one person alone. But working in groups requires the oversight of a manager, and this is most often an owner who pays the others for their work.

    This is a wonderful ability that God has given us. Paying another person for his or her labor is a uniquely human activity. It is shared by no other creature. The ability to work for other people for pay, or to pay other people for their work, is another way that God has created us so that we would be able to glorify him more fully in such relationships.

    http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/is-gaining-profit-from-someone-elses-work-exploitation
     
  2. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    The parable of the workers in the vineyard comes to mind. (Matt 20) The landowner hired people at various points of the day (morning, nine, noon, three, and five) and hired them for one denarius. When it came time to get paid, the workers that had worked since morning complained because they were getting paid the same amount as those that got hired at five o'clock.

    The lesson was that the landowner had the right to pay them what they had agreed to be paid, regardless of the length of time. It's a picture of God's sovereignty, and a definite endorsement of God approving of a person hiring another person to do work for them.

    I do love the story, and it can be found here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+20&version=NIV

    I provide the link so readers will have no excuse to click on it and read it.
     
  3. corndogggy

    corndogggy Active Member
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    Not really. As one example, cichlid fish exhibit behavior similar to sharecropping, basically if another fish helps rear an established fish's offspring, the outside fish is granted access to better breeding grounds, basically the established fish is paying the other fish for work with access to real estate. No they don't use dollar bills but there is definitely a payment-for-work scheme going on.
     
  4. go2church

    go2church Active Member
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    Okay. Is this related to something currently being talked about that I missed? Is this article directed to something/one advocating for a position that says otherwise?
     
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