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Dear bro. Turner:
 What
are your thoughts on insurance? Is it an indication of
covetousness: of wanting security or protection for nothing, or
without meeting our own responsibilities? Is there scriptural
justification for it? HG
Reply:
"For
nothing" is a bit hard to understand, as I look at my own
insurance costs. And if some buy out of covetousness, they are
poorly in formed. The Company makes money off of the
buyer — you pay for the protection you get. While some
may overbuy insurance, and others may have sufficient funds to
make insurance unnecessary, I believe a well-planned insurance
program is good business management and a conservative business
measure. However, I would make a poor business advisor. You will
have to use your own head for investments; I only deal with this
because of such queries and their moral implications.
Averages
— of life, accidents, etc. kept by experts, and constantly
updated, give insurance companies actuary tables by which
probable needs are figured very accurately. They are not
gambling when they take your money. And those same tables, with
laws governing the allowable "take," mean that you are
only paying a reasonable profit to the Company for protection
they offer you. Investment for profit is a scriptural business.
(Matt. 25:27) (The Company's BIG profit is from the reinvestment
of funds; but they must keep available the protection they
offered you. Probabilities allow them to do this.) The bigness
of companies and their impact on
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money market, etc.; is another matter,
not directly related to individual moral problems. Providing for
our own household (1 Tim. 5:8) imposes a responsibility for wife
and small children. One can not wait until he has one foot in
the grave to do this. As already stated, the
"probability" of leaving family with bills and an
unpaid mortgage has been carefully estimated. Insurance enables
one to pay for stored resources that (while not his own in a
primary sense) are his to rely upon. The Company can't say YOU
are going to die, nor can YOU say you are going to live. But
actuary tables and government supervision take standard
insurance out of the "gambling" category. A
"balanced" use of money will not be greedy or
covetous, nor will it neglect current needs for God's work.
Buying
locks for the doors, giving preventive medical attention, or
installing fire-fighting equipment are protective measures taken
because of probabilities. Yes, they cost money for something
that may not be needed. Yes, we could become overanxious. Yes,
we could go over-board or to excess in buying these, or
insurance. But excesses do not argue against a reasonable effort
to protect our own.
People
who do not make reasonable protective measures a part of their
"regular expenses," may live above their means,
spending on boats, TVs, etc.; and then have to ask for alms when
trouble comes. THIS is covetous living — thinking only of self
and today — when more responsible use of funds would have been
literal "oil in their lamps" (Matt. 25:1-f).
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