This series was originally published as an article in Vocatio, Vol. 8, No. 1, FALL 2005. Vocatio: A publication of the Marketplace Theology concentration at Regent College, offering reflection on the ministry of the whole people of God in the workplace.
Competition and the Human Condition
No presentation of the problem of competition is complete without considering the human condition and the reality of sin. Everything God created for good is subject to corruption.1 The free market is society’s most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to human needs by assuring the lowest prices, proper supply, and adequate labor at reasonable wages, as well as the wealth of the society.2 An ethicist of modern economic theory once confronted the Socialist agenda:
With moral conceptions in many respects far ahead of the existing arrangements of society, they have in general very confused and erroneous notions of its actual working; and one of their greatest errors, as I conceive, is to charge upon competition all the economical evils which at present exist.3
By avoiding competition, monopolies and cartels undermine free enterprise, resulting in oppressive pricing of goods and services.
There are real challenges associated with competition in the marketplace. As unvarnished history, the Bible records competitive activity: Cain and Abel; Jacob and Esau; Joseph and his brothers. In Luke 22:24, a dispute (philoneikia – ‘love of strife, eagerness to contend’) broke out among the apostles over who was greatest among them. Much of 1 Corinthians deals with competition between groups in the church vying for superiority in spiritual status – following Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Christ. Chapter 9 concerns Paul’s apostleship and, in 2 Corinthians 11:5, he compares himself with the ‘super apostles.’
Humans seem compelled to compete. Never satisfied with the status-quo, we are images of God. The parables of the ten virgins, the talents, and the prodigal son reveal that “God is not committed to equality of results.”4 Yet, for all our striving, we are reminded that God is sovereign: “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”5 One must be cautious when constructing doctrine from the silence of scripture. Some passages place limits on the competitive nature, while others clearly prohibit the seeking of dominion over other human beings, yet God seems never to condone, nor specifically condemn, competition. Although we have limited record of human interaction prior to ‘The Fall’ or in eternity, it is difficult to imagine the work, given by God in the creation story,6 bereft of healthy or playful competition. Christ is certainly capable of redeeming competition in all realms of life.
Next Post: Competition Needs Boundaries
1 See Psalm 53:3; 14:3 and Romans 3:10.
2 First described by Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations.
3 John Stuart Mill, “Private Property and Its Critics” in On Moral Business: Classic and Contemporary Resources for Ethics in Economic Life, Max L. Stackhouse, Dennis P. McCann, et al. eds., (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1995), 224. Excerpts from Political Economy (1848), pp. 201-20, 746-94.
4 Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, 345.
5 Romans 9:16.
6 See Genesis 2:15. Further, if God is Ruler or Judge, what is it exactly that he will preside over in heaven?
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