Loving Our Neighbors Through Competition as Cooperation

As Christ-followers in a fallen world, we are called to love, and therefore work for the benefit of, our households, customers and communities. In virtually every culture in history, this has involved participating in competitive economic markets. The pride, envy and greed of fallen humanity are all around us at every turn. Yet God is at work in the world, using the legitimate structures of human culture – including competitive markets – to accomplish his purposes. Competition can be, and often is, a form of cooperation in which markets and prices shape the activity of competitors to benefit customers, companies and the public good. We can participate in economic markets in ways that manifest and promote competition as cooperation; this is our most promising strategy for promoting the common good of our communities and resisting the sinful abuse of market structures.