Does Matthew 25:29 mean that free market capitalism makes the rich richer and the poor poorer?
Matthew 25:29 'For whoever has will be given more and they will have abundance. Whoever does not have even what they have will be taken away from them'. Free market capitalism produces excessive inequality.
Read the entire chapter, the parable of the talents. It is all about using your money wisely and being a good steward of what the Lord provides for you. The Lord encourages investing your money and making it grow even if it means putting it in the bank to gain interest, or keeping it out of the bank to gain $100 per month.
‘For whoever has will be given more and they will have abundance. Whoever does not have even what they have will be taken away from them.’
Taking your post 100% at face value, it can be interpreted either in a way that has no relation to capitalism whatsoever or that it specifically refers to capitalism. Either side of a pro-capitalism vs anti-capitalism argument can theoretically use the verse for or against its stance.
Furthermore, the verse can also be applied to any literal or figurative “thing” that can be given to people, in other words, it doesn’t even have to be money. Salvation, grace, trust, children, good weather, war, vitality, comfort, power, land, livestock, knowledge, dignity, hope, blessings, food, manna, talent(s), trials, health, crops, safe passage, peace, prizes, challenges, influence, skills, poverty, enlightenment, friends, love, pestilence, beauty, life, mirth, etc. ~
Jesus was a Socialist, his cousin John the Baptist a pre-Marxian Marxist. Compare Lk 3:11 "He who has two coats should give one to whis brother who has none. Likewise if you have meat" with "From each, according to his means. To each, according to his needs" in Das Kapital.
Sharing equally and having compassion for the destitute is a recurring theme throughout the NT, as was Jesus' outright contempt for hypocrisy and greed. He didn't schmooze up to the bankers in the Temple and ask for campaign donations, He plaited a makeshift whip and drove them out shouting imprecations and abuse at them. There's the gross metaphor of pushing a camel through the eye of a needle (NOTHING TO DO with the narrowest gate in the wall, had He been referring to that He'd have said "Eye of THE needle" - He didn't). And my personal favourite, "I was hungry and you didn't feed me, I was thirsty and you didn't give me a drink, I was sick or in prison and you didn't visit me. Now depart into the fire prepared for the Devil and his angels."
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