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The Dangers of a Welfare State
“For oppression makes the wise look foolish and welfare continually destroys the heart.”
(Ecclesiastes 7:7)
I think that I just got political without intending to do so. Then again, politics formed the vast majority of Solomon’s life for not only was he a king over Israel from Jerusalem, he grew up as the favored son of a king over Jerusalem. So, maybe we are not so far off chasing down this rabbit hole.
The oppression being spoken of is the kind of oppression that is harsh and heavy-handed, something Solomon knew well as a king when he was building the Temple and his houses and stables. It is using one’s power to force others to do things that they otherwise would not be doing…hence some translations will render עֹשֶׁק (‘osheq) as “extortion.” The real question has to do with why this behavior makes the wise appear foolish. The simple action is that when you oppress, you end up breaking God’s law. For example, believers are forbidden from oppressing (same word) their neighbor or robbing from him (Leviticus 19:13). Similarly, believers are also forbidden from oppressing (same word again) a hired worker, especially if he is poor (Deuteronomy 24:14). And since wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10), one ends up looking like the fool when his actions go down this pathway.
Thus, those who are in a position of authority, in businesses, in governments, and in institutions should always pay a fair wage to those who labor under them. One of the traps that Christian institutions often fall into is the idea that since their work is a “ministry,” those people who work for them should somehow be paid less than their secular counterpart. This too, is a form of extortion and it will be something for which many Christian overseers will be called to task when they stand before Christ’s judgment seat. It is not uncommon, for example, for Christian schoolteachers to earn only about 60% of what their public school counterparts earn. That does not mean that people ought not make sacrifices for the work of ministry, but a worker deserves his wages (1 Timothy 5:18).
So far, while the application may step on some of your toes, we haven’t found ourselves getting too political. Yet, the second half of this verse begs a question about the morality of the practice of welfare. Solomon writes that this destroys the heart. The term that I chose to translate as “welfare” is the Hebrew word, מַתָּנָה (matanah), which can be translated variously as a gift designed to gain influence (a bribe), a gift to provide for the needs of another, or as a gift to provide for the needs of the poor (welfare). This, Solomon writes, destroys the heart.
Let us begin by asking why a gift might destroy the heart. The simple answer is that when people begin to get accustomed to receiving gifts and benevolences from others, it is very easy for them to fall into the trap of relying on those things. And, when we rely on the benevolence of others, we often seek to engage in productive work ourselves. As human beings made in the image of God, we are made to work (Genesis 2:15) and our lives are not to be filled with passivity or sloth (Proverbs 6:9-11). In facing this problem in the early church, the Apostle Paul instructs the Thessolonians that if people are unwilling to work, do not give them food — insisting that believers in the church earn their own livings (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12). Even widows, if younger than the age of 60, were not allowed on the rolls of the church benevolence lest they become idle and gossips (1 Timothy 5:9-16).
This does not mean that benevolence is bad. There is a place for it and it is a good thing if applied wisely. At the same time, benevolence becomes a social welfare program when people learn to live on the gifts of the people rather than seeking gainful employment. Thus, benevolence is meant to be for a time and a season, not for an indefinite period. Furthermore, there is a great deal of satisfaction and a sense of self-worth that comes from putting in a hard day’s work and earning your wages. That self-worth tends to produce self-respect. And the heart (which in the Hebrew language speaks of the mind and personality of an individual) is then strengthened. But, when you live on the benevolence of others, that self-respect dwindles — the heart is destroyed.
Again, there is a place for benevolence and aide (though it should come through the Deacons of the church and not the government). Use it when you need it and there are seasons when hard-working people do need a helping hand. But, don’t fall into the habit of relying on it. As soon as you are able, go back to work and earn your keep; it is good for your soul.
Embezzled Grace
“Nevertheless, love those who are hostile to you — do good and lend money without disappointing anyone — and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is benevolent to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be compassionate just as much so as your Father is compassionate”
(Luke 6:35-36)
“Yahweh is good to all; his mercy is over all his works.”
(Psalm 145:9)
“In the generations which have gone by, he permitted all of the nations to go on their own paths. Yet he did not abandon them without a witness. Doing good giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and cheerfulness. Even with these words, they barely caused the masses to cease sacrificing to them.”
(Acts 14:16-18)
When Christians talk of God’s grace, we talk about it in two separate ways. We talk about God’s Saving Grace, given to those that God has elected from all of the earth, by which he draws men and women to himself. And we talk of God’s Common Grace, which is the grace that he gives to all of the world — the rains in spring, the sun to make the crops grow, joy, laughter, and fellowship — things that the believer and the unbeliever enjoy alike, things which come from God’s own hand. Scripture tells us that this Common Grace is given so that no people at no time can ever say that they have not known the reality of a God who created the earth and who created them (Romans 1:18-20), yet the masses of people in the world choose to worship the created order or the works of their own hands rather than the one who created them.
The question that this raises is why does God show Common Grace to the world and when will that grace end? In the broadest sense, the answer to the question, “why,” stems back to the character of God. As the psalmist states, God is good and as a result of his goodness, he is merciful to all of his works. Jesus clarifies that statement even further in the Sermon on the Mount where he states that God is benevolent to the ungrateful and to the wicked and then, of course, God’s benevolence becomes a model for our benevolence toward the same class of people.
Yet, to narrow this matter down somewhat, we can pose another related question. What is the purpose of this grace? In a portion of the Apostle Paul’s sermon to the people at Lystra, Luke records Paul teaching that God has given his grace in this way as a witness to them — a sign of his existence with the intention that the sign would point people toward seeking the God who had set the sign into the world. In his letter to the Romans, Paul develops this line of thinking further by stating that because of this Common Grace, all men and women of the world instinctively know and understand the “invisible attributes” of God — his power and divinity (Romans 1:19-20). In turn, all mankind, because of God’s Common Grace, are left without excuses in terms of the day of judgment for their actions.
For the unbeliever, Common Grace is just as undeserved as Saving Grace is undeserved for the believer — yet, there is a distinction that must be made. While the believer is undeserving of Saving Grace, the cost of that grace was paid for by Jesus upon the Cross of Calvary. If you will, by his perfect life, he earned the glory of heaven and by his sacrifice, his shed blood atoned for the sins of those trusting in him as Lord and Savior. Believers stand before a righteous God clothed in the righteous work of Jesus Christ, not in our own works.
And thus, Common Grace is not so much the design of Jesus’ work on earth as it is the byproduct of what Jesus did. Were Jesus not to have agreed with the Father to take on flesh and to atone for fallen man, there would have been no reason for God to have done anything other than to enter into judgment and to allow this world to become as bad as it could be…a veritable “hell on earth.” Yet because of Jesus’ work, redeeming the elect through all of the generations from Adam to the end of time as we know it, the goodness of God can be seen by all through Common Grace. The unbeliever who will not trust in Jesus as his or her Lord and Savior — those whose names have not been written in the Book of Life since before the foundation of the world — benefits from Common Grace because Saving Grace is given to others.
The term “embezzle” means to misappropriate something that does not belong to you though it may happen to be in your trust. Thus, an accountant who steals from his employer by fudging the books is called an “embezzler.” Common Grace truly belongs to God and is shed into this world because he has given his Son as Savior to those who would come to him in faith. But, as mentioned above, Common Grace is also designed to demonstrate to the unbelieving world that God does exist and that they stand guilty in rejecting the God who has given them such grace. Thus, the one who would receive such Common Grace and not acknowledge the God from whom that grace is coming, is in a real sense, guilty of embezzlement. Certainly, it is not embezzlement without God’s knowing (like an accountant who would embezzle from his employer); God knows and allows it to go on as the unbelievers enjoyment of the benefit of Common Grace simply heaps judgment upon his or her own head. In a sense, it is like the employer who discovers his accountant is stealing from him, but lets it go until the accountant has stolen so much that any judge in the land would throw the book at him without question.
And indeed, the book of the law will be proverbially thrown at the unbeliever in the day of judgment. Thanks be to God for the redeeming work of Jesus Christ that I and all of those who are trusting in Jesus as Lord and Savior will not receive what we rightly deserve were we left to our own devices. The question for us really is whether or not we will continue to allow those we care about to embezzle the grace of God to their own destruction, or whether we will share the good news of Jesus Christ with them that they too might be saved.
Seeking Your Good
“On behalf of the house of Yahweh, our God,
I will seek out good for you.”
(Psalm 122:9)
Do you intentionally seek out the good of those in your Christian fellowship? This does not mean that you do them a favor now and again when they ask, but do you intentionally go out of your way to bless those around you even apart of their asking. Such is what the psalmist is stating. The Hebrew word that he uses in the second clause is the word vq;b” (baqash), which means to diligently search something out—to hunt it down or to demand of yourself that you find what you are looking for.
One of the things I love to do is to rummage through stacks of old books looking for those rare treasures that often get buried and forgotten. I have been known to haunt the shelves of used book stores, happily spending hours looking for books. It is granted that different people find their interest in different things, but I think that most people like hunting for treasure in one sense of the word or another. Some enjoy bargain hunting at yard-sales, some online. Some enjoy combing the beaches with a metal detector and some love reading a good mystery novel, searching the pages diligently for clues. The recent popularity of pirate movies and stories in American culture is once again a testimony that we enjoy hunting things out.
Yet apply this to the life of the church. What would it look like in a congregation if the members were as diligent in seeking ways to bless each other as they were in seeking bargains for themselves. What if, instead of being students of the value of worldly goods, we became students of one another, doing so with the intention of bringing good into another’s life. Understand, too, that the motivation for doing good is not so that others will do good to you, but simply to bless another individual and by doing so, honor God. How different our churches might be.
Beloved, on behalf of the house of God—our God—let us diligently seek to do good to one another and to those who visit with us. Indeed, how different our fellowships would look if our members were going out of their way to bless each other—even to the point of demanding of themselves, I will make sure that I bless this person or that person today.
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