The noun μισθος (misthos) means wage, and a wage is a payment for work that is considered an equivalent of that work by both the payer and the payee. That means that a wage always follows a voluntary transaction, and any exchange of effort and compensation that is not voluntary or mutually agreed upon equals theft or slavery (when work is done but not paid for) or tyranny (when work is done but not asked for). An exchange of wage for work is a commercial transaction and is governed by property rights, and since the guarantee of property rights is the foundation of all complex economy, and a complex economy the basis of all human collectivity and thus culture and thus language and information technology and finally science and ultimately the knowledge of God (Romans 1:20), the concept of wage is tied into the very core of the human definition.

An economy based on a perfect law of recompense (give and take, cause and effect, supply and demand) is like a perfect machine. And although, on average and in general, machines are a great blessing, human reality should always exceed it. If "love" is a force that brings people together (what gravity is to the material world; see our article on αγαπη, agape), then the "love of money" (not the love for money, but the love of money: the economic engine) is a perfect machine in which nothing happens if it isn't paid for. Contrarily, the "love of Christ" additionally respects quantum uncertainty, and so surpasses all knowledge (Ephesians 3:19), and thus all linear and mechanical correlation. Neither mind nor life nor the material universe could exist if it weren't for the non-mechanical margin in which everything is possible and all bets are off. The "love of money", on the other hand, is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). It is defeated and destroyed by the concept of the "free gift" (2 Corinthians 9:15).

A single binary data point comes about when a single difference is observed (of a thing against its background, like a black nose of a white rabbit at the far end of a snow covered field). When a second single difference (of another thing against its background) is observed, a second binary data point is the result. But there is a third difference, namely the difference between the two points (rather than each against their own backgrounds), which results in a third binary data point. Intelligence is defined as the ability to create data from data. And the more data is generated from the same set of primary data points, the more intelligent the observer is (perfect intelligence is able to comprehend the whole primary set into a single understanding of it, and that defines monotheism; not a religion, but the understanding that creation is one since it reflects a Creator who is One).

Likewise, an economy is all about differences and differences between differences. Wealth is defined as the experience of security and community (these two general ideas are basically what all our purchases are about), and the quicker an economy is able to generate wealth from wealth, the more intelligent it is. And the intelligence of an economy is proportional to the velocity of its money: a ten dollar bill that changes hands ten times per day generates much more wealth than the same ten dollar bill that only exchanges hands once per week.

The guarantee of property rights is the beginning of an economy's intelligence. The equivalence of work and property is a big step up. The invention of a unit of account is an even bigger step up. And all this helps to explain why the Bible so often equates silver and gold with wisdom (Psalm 12:6, Revelation 3:18).

Money is precious because the distribution of money is a perfect symbol of the distribution of value, and the map that shows the highways, byways and alleys through which the money zips, slushes and trickles is a perfect symbol of the distribution of wealth. That is why money cannot simply be given away for free, because if money changes hands without a simultaneous corresponding exchange of value (work, service, goods), the value that's missing is deducted from the total value and wealth inferred in all money. If all the gold in the world would suddenly be distributed equally among all people on planet earth, nobody would be short of gold, and nobody would go to work for any. That means that the value of gold would plummet and the economy would implode. The often lamented unfair distribution of wealth in the world is actually the very glue that keeps the whole thing together, and the solution to this horrible problem lies not in an even more unfair distribution of value to areas where there is no wealth to account for it, but rather in an increase in wealth (and thus the velocity of money) were it's now missing. This is achieved by motivating people to become intimately involved with their neighbors, simply because the familiar layer of financial settlements always sits atop a much thicker layer of social transactions of kindness and favors. Without the vibrant, breathing health of that first layer, the second will never form, just like no seed will sprout in an unplowed field.

Crimes like theft, or the refusal to pay someone their proper wage, are not only inconvenient to the victims, they are also detrimental to the economy at large. When Paul calls death the "wage" of sin (Romans 6:23), he not only indicates that the transaction is entered voluntarily by both parties, but also that death must follow sin to protect the consistency of life at large. Likewise, although the existence of all human economy is the great gift of God, the "wage" of the righteous must follow their righteousness and their righteousness must be voluntary (Matthew 5:12).

Registering one data point for every difference against some background is not intelligent but merely a matter of making some mechanical copy. Likewise, a one-on-one correspondence between what you want and what you pay for does not result in an increase in wealth. Any successful entrepreneur will attest that the trick to a vibrant economy is to not focus on the narrow bouquet of one's own desires, but rather on the broad spectrum of desires in the economy at large, even when those desires are incomprehensible to the entrepreneur herself (Matthew 5:46). Value, like anything else, lies in the eye of the beholder, and if the beholder isn't able to recognize value in the average passerby (Mark 9:41), the eye of the beholder isn't really worth keeping (Matthew 5:29).

Our μισθος (misthos) is used 29 times in the New Testament, see full concordance, and from it derive: