![]() Humans are created in his image, and thus we have biblical accounts of humans making promises to each other. The biblical narrative is a story of God’s promises kept. We Make Promises Back to Table of Contents Back to Table of Contents Finance can exist because God created people with an ability to act on behalf of others. An entire branch of finance literature is devoted to better understanding the many agency relationships in finance. Lawyers apply their expertise to serve their clients’ interests in financial transactions. Mutual fund managers act on behalf of investors to decide which stocks or bonds in which to invest. Executives act as agents for the shareholders of a corporation. Jesus’ parable of the talents illustrates that we are his stewards, and will be held accountable for acting as he would want us to (Matthew 25:14-30).įinance depends on people acting as agents or stewards on behalf of others. We also see that God called Joseph to act as a steward for both Potiphar and Pharaoh (Genesis 39:2-6 41:41-44). Prime examples are that God mandates us to steward his creation and steward his grace (1 Peter 4:10). People were created to act on others’ behalf, to be stewards or agents. ![]() We Act as Agents Back to Table of Contents Back to Table of Contents Others will be savers at some periods of their lives and will be able to lend to meet that borrowing need. For example, some of us will want to borrow money to pursue a business opportunity or build infrastructure to fulfill some unmet need in society. This heterogeneity is a foundation of financial markets because at any given time some people will have excess resources while others will have need or opportunity to use resources beyond what they currently possess. Some people are young and not yet able to provide their own food and shelter, others are just beginning to be able to do so, others are in their prime productive years and have resources in excess of their current needs, and still others are older and need help in supporting themselves, or need to draw on resources accumulated during their earlier years. In addition, since we were not all born at the same time, human society has a rich variety of ages and life stages. Paul emphasizes that we are each gifted differently (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). In the Bible, we see this in God’s creation in his endowment of people with a wide variety of skills to build the tabernacle (Exodus 35:30-36:5) and to rebuild Jerusalem upon the return of the remnant from the Babylonian captivity (Ezra 7:6-7 Nehemiah 1, 2). People are created with a wide variety of skills, needs and desires. We Are Heterogeneous Back to Table of Contents Back to Table of Contents In a world where people’s needs, opportunities, and available resources vary over time, finance is the primary means of matching resources to needs across time. Financial resources are needed for a few days because of production or shipping time, or a few months due to seasonal business, or a half year due to a growing season, or for several years for new product development and launch, or for decades to build a factory or buy a house, or for most of a life time for retirement savings. Īllocating resources among people across different time periods is the underpinning of finance. Kana argues that time is God’s resource and we are stewards of time. Further we need to be aware of time and will be held accountable for our time (Psalm 90:12, Ecclesiastes 3, Proverbs 6:6-11, Proverbs 20:4). By God’s creation, we have days, seasons, generations and lifetimes (Genesis 1, Psalm 104). God created a world with time and where human time is limited. ![]() We Are Timebound Back to Table of Contents Back to Table of Contents ![]()
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