Lately, our benevolent government has been grappling with a glaring problem: the ever-increasing debt. The wrangling back and forth between the two parties has resulted in a bill signed by the president that effectively reduces spending by about one penny!
Now, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. I phrased it that way to put a perspective on it that us little folk can understand. After all, if the bank or auto company came to you insisting that you reign in your spending habits or they were going to repossess your house or car, and you promised to do so by reducing your spending by one cent, do you think they would agree that that would be sufficient? I think not!
However, our benevolent government thinks we will be satisfied with this token reduction in spending of our tax dollars.
Now, obviously, the real reason for out of control spending is two-fold in nature:
One, a horrible accountability factor that is only dealt with by adding more watch dog layers of bureaucracy in the name of protecting the innocents. Two, an increasingly dependent citizenry on those expenditures in the form of benefits, including Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, and the many other forms of government subsistence payouts.
As much as I would like to force the government to open their ledgers for closer inspection by the common man, it is to the second point I take issue. The truth is, we are in danger of raising a nation of takers at a time when there are fewer givers than ever.
As such, I will endeavor to default to my favorite source of examples to show that, once again, as long as we are more willing to take from the makers, we will be a nation in decline. That example would be-drum roll- the Bible! In so doing, I will endeavor to build the case that there are way too many on the government dole that need to get a job instead!
According to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3 verse 10: “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat”. In verse 12 they are admonished to “work quietly and eat their own bread”. There is also the biblical mandate that, including the need to “bear one another’s burdens” found in Galatians Chapter 6 and verse 2, there is also the command that each “bear his own load” in verse 5.
Add to this Paul’s admonition found in 1 Corinthians Chapter 9 to explain that those “treading out the corn” should be fed by those receiving the benefits. It is further revealed that those who preach the gospel should expect to live by the gospel through the support of the members being fed the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:14). You can also find this in Galatians 6 verse 6.
There is also the principle of sowing and reaping, with those sowing according to God’s will reaping a harvest, and those who sow sparingly expecting to reap sparingly as well (Galatians 6: 7, 8). In addition, Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica in chapter 3 verses 7 through 9 that they were not beholden to the church, but worked with their own hands to provide for their needs.
The glaring overview is this:
Anyone who is both able in body and mind needs to earn his way in this life and not expect others to pay his way while he ‘finds’ himself!
Another way of putting this is found in the footnotes of Thessalonica chapter 3:
“Paul’s counsel and his example, both at Thessalonica (3:7,8) and Corinth (1 Cor. 9:3-6, 12, 15) were that if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. Refused employment leads to becoming busybodies and to avoid that, they should simply go back to work.”
In fact, the conclusion found in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 14 and 15 reads as follows:
“And, if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”
This word ‘admonish’ can also be translated ‘warn’. And, that is what the whole thing is about!
It is our responsibility to warn anyone consuming the labor of another without any intent of paying it back to resist becoming both slothful and complacent. To lose track or focus that, no matter how you slice it, someone has to work in order for someone to eat is dangerous. It can lead to long term expectancy that living free at the expense of another is the norm when it is not freedom in any sense of the word!
It is a trap laid by the enemy of our souls, an affront to what God’s original command to Adam was: To tend the garden, not simply lay around and consume it! And, when someone is well able to work in order to eat, that should be the goal instead of allowing complacency to become the norm.
Consider this bit of wisdom that warns against becoming a willing ally to the ultimate destroyer, satan:
He who is slothful in his work
Is a brother to him who is a great destroyer. -Proverbs 18:9
Even though it is true that we are to bear one another’s burdens, it is also true that we are to recognize the difference between that and bearing someone else’s load; especially if it ends up that the load bearer is carrying the other’s load unnecessarily because the one needing to carry their own load is allowing that to take place! In the end, neither individual is gaining favor with God.
In closing, I offer a powerful, age-old bit of wisdom from the book of Proverbs chapter 6 verses 6 through 11 that is just as true today as it was when first written:
Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise,
Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler,
Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest.
How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep—
So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.
Thus the distinction between a hand up and a hand out. And this should be abundantly clear to anyone naming the Name of Christ.
And, since this nation was founded upon these very biblical principles, it would do us well (Christian or not) to return to these tried and true principles before we find ourselves once again banished from the Garden, discovering what we should have known all along: that work is not a dirty four letter word and God is a rewarder to those who are willing to work in order to then eat!
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