The Bible affirms the temporal efficacy of hard work, thrift, and the other personal disciplines that we associate with the phrase, “the Protestant ethic.” But these virtues are not sufficient to produce the results hoped for by the wicked. In the language of the economist, the Protestant ethic is “necessary but not sufficient” for long-term economic growth. This ethic must be sustained by the theology that created it. It is not an autonomous ethic that can be effectively adopted, long term, by any and all cultures, because covenant-breaking cultures cannot sustain this ethic indefinitely. They will either abandon it or else adopt the confession of faith that undergirds it.–Economic Commentary on Proverbs
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