Several months ago, one of my students gave me a sheet of paper written top-to-bottom with a series of questions related to God and the Christian’s role in the economy. I went through and answered each question in turn, and gave him my typed responses. While the document has been slightly edited – to remove identifying information, for example. The italicized headings are the student’s questions, and what follows are my responses.
God and the Economy
What is God’s ideal economic system? Although this question may seem more secular than religious, I still wonder how we in our Christian mindset should view the quarrels in the Capitalist vs Communist question.
As with many academic definitions, the definition can be far more involved and nuanced than a typical person might expect. The system of Capitalism entails far more than free markets in the minds of economists, but to the average person, Capitalism boils down to private property and free exchange. I own my stuff, and I get to choose what I do with it. That guy over there owns his stuff, and he gets to choose what he does with it. This implies things like voluntary transactions. I can’t force him to buy my apples if he doesn’t want them, and he can’t just take my stuff either. Each of us owns our own labor, so we get to work for whomever we choose to, but we also have to negotiate for our wages by convincing another person that our labor is worth paying for. This is the same as the apples situation, but we are now exchanging our labor for currency instead of a tangible commodity. When I personally consider the core of the non-academic idea of Capitalism, that’s what comes to mind, and that’s about as deep as I’ll get. I don’t know what other things might be attached to this economic system in academic circles.
In Communism, the state owns labor and property. Transactions are not always voluntary, and you do not get the final say on who you work for. One example of this is farmers in Ukraine that didn’t want to give away all their produce to the USSR only to receive back less than necessary for their needs. The Soviet Union executed those farmers, and then relocated city-dwellers to suddenly be farmers. As expected from a bunch of city people suddenly becoming farmers, the result was widespread famine. Moreover, you are not entitled to your pay (or any product of your labor), but the government gets all of it to distribute as it sees fit. Socialism is the economic system, while Communism is the governmental system, but in practice, you don’t get one without the other. Each person is distributed to – regardless of their input into the system. This removes incentive for people to work harder, because high performers are punished by having a higher percentage of their labor taken from them, only to see non-contributors get as much as they did. Governments almost always have to make up for the lack of positive motivation by providing an incentive through the threat of a bullet.
I’m not going to give a full description of “God’s ideal economic system,” but I’m going to go through principles that God gives for the handling of material resources. I defined Capitalism and Communism for the sake of revisiting them later, but most of this conversation will take place without referencing them.
God and Private Property
A helpful place to start regarding private property is the Ten Commandments. Two of the Ten Commandments – “You shall not steal” and “You shall not covet” – deal with private property. Consider especially the 10th command: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17, [ESV]). With exhaustive repetition before outlawing the coveting of “anything,” God leaves nothing in-bounds. Now, read that again and notice this: who owns that stuff? The answer is, the person being coveted against. That person owns his own property. The fundamental presupposition that this command works out is private ownership, and while that seems needless to point out, it can sometimes be easy to miss things like that. In the Ten Commandments, there are two commands given to a single issue: respecting private property. There is only one other thing that receives that sort of real-estate: The exclusive worship of God. The first and second commands are about worshiping no other Gods and not making idols. Clearly – based on their positions in the list – private property is not on the level of monotheism, but it is worth noting that even in the Ten Commandments, private property is affirmed, and acting against that reality is sinful.
This can make more sense when you ask where private property comes from. It might be simple to think that people earn, steal, or simply luck into their property. There’s an extent to which that is true, but in reality, each person has what God has given him. Even when a person steals his wealth, God is more than capable of taking it from him anyway. Instead, God allows people to keep their own wealth for a time.
One of the earliest places this pops up is in Genesis 14. Abram rescues Lot from captivity by warring against the kings that had captured him, and he is met by Melchizedek after his victory. Abram gives a 10th of his spoils to Melchizedek, and when Melchizedek offers to give Abram gifts, Abram responds, “I have lifted my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’” (Genesis 14:22-23). Abram knew he was going to be blessed by God, and so he actively refused a gift of wealth because he wanted everyone else to know what he knew: God gave him his wealth.
Another situation where this comes up is when God makes David king over Israel instead of Saul. Saul sacrifices unlawfully, and Samuel tells him, “You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you. For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue” (1 Samuel 13:13-14a). This is repeated in a few places, but one notable instance is God’s rebuke of David after his sin with Bathsheba. Through Nathan, God declares, “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more” (2 Samuel12:7b-8).
Throughout the Bible, the principle is confirmed that a voice proclaims to Nebuchadnezzar: “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will” (Daniel 4:31b-32, emphasis added). Simply put, “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). All wealth – commodities, land, or authority – is God’s because God owns everything. “The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts” (1 Samuel 2:7). The Bible is just rife with this reality.
One of the reasons it is sinful to reject another person’s ownership of his property is that it is not that other person’s property. It is God’s property, and God has given it to that person. This does not mean that there are not ways for a person to wrongfully come across wealth, and in fact, the government is tasked with enforcing private property and correcting infringements of private property. In God’s government, theft was met with forced repayment plus extra. Consider Exodus 22:1, “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.” Even if a person were to steal out of need, “people do not despise a thief if he steals / to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry, / but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; / he will give all the goods of his house” (Proverbs 6:30-31). Agur son of Jakeh asks God to “give [him] neither poverty nor riches; / feed [him] with the food that is needful for [him], / lest [he] be full and deny [God] / and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ / or lest [he] be poor and steal / and profane the name of [his] God” (Proverbs 30:8-9, emphasis added). In fact, a person is allowed to kill in defense of his property. God legislates this for Israel: “If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him” (Exodus 22:2).
God cares about the Needy
This should naturally raise the question of how to deal with the desolate. Those that are in need, either because of injustice or circumstance. There are those that suffer from injury, famine, lack of opportunity, or any other circumstantial thing that robs them of their sustenance. Is the answer that we just accept that God didn’t give them material wealth, so we should let them suffer?
The short answer is this: no, of course not.
First of all, God does not care less about poor people. God loves all people – regardless of class, race, or gender. Solomon writes in the Spirit, “Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, / or crush the afflicted at the gate, / for the LORD will plead their cause / and rob of life those who rob them” (Proverbs 22:22-23). This is actually a repetition of God’s own words in Exodus, “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless” (Exodus 22:21-24).
In addition to the prohibitions against mistreating the poor and the desolate, God actually legislates for their provision. Consider Leviticus 19:9-10:
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.
In this situation, God prohibits a person from gathering all of the harvest that God gives his field. Rather, a portion is left for those in need. Something to note is that not every Israelite would have been a landowner. Is this command only given to the landowners? To the “aristocracy” or the “rich?” Not at all. Rather, generosity was a general principle that God required of His people. Consider Proverbs 19:17, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, / and he will repay him for his deed.”
One example from the New Testament is John the Baptist preaching to all those that came to hear him in the wilderness. When asked how to live out repentance, John teaches that “whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise” (Luke 3:11). John is not preaching to the aristocracy in this statement. He is preaching to a crowd of commoners that might have enough food for today and tomorrow, and he is commanding them to give tomorrow’s food to the one that has no food for today. Notice that this is not qualified with the statement, “unless there’s a rich person over there that should be giving them charity.” Additionally, rich people were present. Shortly after, John refers to Tax Collectors – rich people who obtained their wealth through fraud. Despite the presence of the rich, John still orders the poor to be generous.
Each individual is commanded to use his own resources as he ought, regardless of the actions of those around them. Consider the famous proclamation of Joshua, “choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15). We are not responsible for the actions of others. We are responsible for our own actions.
At this point, you should notice something about the situations where the poor are provided for. At no point are the poor cared for by means of government intervention. In fact, when God judges a nation for the failure to care for the poor, He blames the people of that nation, not the governors. In Isaiah 1, God speaks to a “sinful nation, / a people laden with iniquity” (Isaiah 1:4), and as He rejects their offerings and ruins their lands, He commands them to “cease to do evil, / learn to do good; / seek justice, / correct oppression; / bring justice to the fatherless, / plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:16b-17, emphasis added). Ezekiel similarly accuses a nation specifically for their failure to provide for the poor when he says “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy” (Ezekiel 16:49).
I’m not aware of any situation where God condemns a government for failure to care for the material needs of its poor. This is in spite of the fact that God has no issue calling out the failure of government in its mistreatment of the oppressed. In Isaiah 10:1-2, God says “Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, / and the writers who keep writing oppression” – clearly a reference to lawmakers – “to turn aside the needy from justice / and to rob the poor of my people of their right, / that the widows may be their spoil, / and that they may make the fatherless their prey!” He condemns legislators for denying justice to the poor, for robbing the poor, and for mistreating and exploiting the poor. He does not condemn them for failing to provide materially for the poor. Even when God legislates a system of welfare, He does not specify exactly what percentage of the field is to be left alone, and he does not provide for enforcement of these things.
A helpful consideration is that these passages demonstrate that God’s people should “plead the widow’s cause.” Where our government or society oppresses a vulnerable class of people, we should absolutely stand against that. Especially considering that – in our governmental system – citizens are voters and thus government leaders to an extent. No believer is uninvolved in the government, and no believer has an excuse to think these issues don’t matter.
Individual Charity
Rather, God legislates a system of individual charity. This is one of the reasons that it’s so difficult to come up with a governmental solution for welfare: it’s not the government’s responsibility. This is where it can be good to consider the example of the early church. After Pentecost, the church was together, “and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:45). Consider Acts 4:32-37:
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
This is often confused with socialism, but it’s easy to note that this is not socialist-style redistribution. First of all, this is not mandated redistribution, but each person was selling his possessions of his own accord. This is entirely in line with God-ordained private property because the person is voluntarily giving his property away. Immediately after this, we see the account of Ananias and Sapphira, who sold their property and gave some of the proceeds to the Apostles for distribution – but they claimed it was all the proceeds. In Peter’s rebuke of this action, he says, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?” (Acts 5:3-4). No one had to sell their property, no one was chastised for not selling their property, but rather, people voluntarily provided for the needy out of their own resources.
Secondly, The Apostles are distributing to people as they have need. This idea is expanded on elsewhere in the Epistles, but this is not a matter of giving to each person the same amount without consideration. An able bodied man who does not work out of laziness is not experiencing true need. For example, Paul writes to the Thessalonians that “if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). This precludes something like able-bodied men living on welfare. However, genuine needs arise. Solomon notes that “there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing” (Ecclesiastes 5:15). While there are principles that exist in life – like disciplined people having wealth – there will be cases where people have needs by no fault of their own.
A splendid example of the Christian response to this is Paul’s collection for the Jerusalem saints. In Acts 11:27-30, Luke writes this:
Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, and every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabus and Saul.
As Paul traveled to collect this offering, he wrote ahead in a couple of his epistles. The Jerusalem church wasn’t particularly wicked soas to warrant special divine punishment through a famine, but still, they faced need. As such, the churches put forth a collection for their needs, to be distributed by faithful elders. Paul writes to the Corinthians that “each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). He also brags to the Corinthians about the Philippian church – a poor church, in comparison to the affluent Corinthians – who had given “according to their means, as [Paul] can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord” (2 Corinthians 8:3). Paul even notes that this poor church had funded Paul’s missionary work to the wealthy Corinthians (2 Corinthians 11:8-9). Generosity is not for those more affluent than we are. Generosity is a requirement of any Christian – regardless of his means.
There is a story that I have heard in support of socialism. It is a man that speaks to his son, and the son asks what it means to be a socialist. The father says “if you had two sandwiches, and someone else was hungry and had nothing, what would you do?” The son replies, “I would give him one of my sandwiches.” And the Father says, “then you are a socialist.” The story goes something like that. That’s not socialism though. That’s Christianity. Socialism is seeing someone else’s need, and forcibly taking money from someone else to meet that need and also to take a bit for yourself. The socialist steals another person’s money in the name of charity. A Christian gives his own money to charity. One of the reasons Socialism remains so pervasive despite its extraordinarily wretched track record is that this sinful system which denies God’s purposes for property and charity is shrouded in enticing platitudes. A person gets to feel caring as they construct a system that will destroy their culture and the lives of the people therein.
Rights vs Responsibility
So we see a couple things. First of all, God ordains personal property. Each person owns his own stuff, and each person has a right to do with his own stuff as he sees fit. However, each person’s stuff is actually a stewardship from God, and God will judge each individual for how he uses his material wealth.
Secondly, the needs of the desolate are meant to be met by individuals. This frankly means that the needs of the desolate are meant to be provided for by the Church – not the institution per se, but Christians. Individuals are meant to distribute to those who have genuine need that does not result from poor character (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
So if you see a person with need, and you see someone that has the means to meet that need, it is not your job to force the other person to meet it. First of all, you might think that someone else has the means to meet a need who does not. Proverbs 13:7 says, “One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; / another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.” Secondly, even if they have the means to meet a need and do not, that is their right. God will judge them. We will not be judged for how another person used his money, we will be judged for how we used our money.
As an American, it feels easy to fall into the idea that Capitalism is the “pure” economic system …. Is the economic system the problem, or is it the people?
Between Socialism and Capitalism, Capitalism is more Biblical. The difficulty is that Capitalism is not the full picture. Socialism robs people of their property in the name of charity, while Capitalism respects private property. It is not the job of the economic system to care for the desolate, it is the job of the people in that system. If the desolate of a society are not being taken care of, that is the fault of individuals that are not caring for those in their society. The solution is not to swap the economic system – certainly not to swap private ownership for socialist redistribution – it is to train individuals to rightly steward their resources. That starts with stewarding our own resources properly. We tend to point fingers at other people that “don’t do enough” – despite usually having no idea what they are or are not doing – instead of recognizing that we have the responsibility to care for people.
It is definitely important not to blindly accept our cultural values and norms simply because they are cultural values and norms. The way that America handles poverty is unacceptable. For two examples, we 1.) just give handouts to homeless people when those handouts are rampantly abused – even though plenty of private charities exist that do a far better job of helping the homeless, and we 2.) have a population of people that try to solve social problems by robbing “the rich” to give to social issues – issues that usually include getting some money themselves. There’s far more than that, but having a cultural norm is not a good enough reason to accept that norm. Evaluate it by the Bible.
I have heard people state how God wants us to earn our money, food, and other basic necessities, but in this competitive tassel between people for these resources, where do we draw the line between what is necessity and what is greed?
One thing that is helpful to note is that just because I have something doesn’t mean that I took it from someone else. I am a producer. I provide a function for which I am being paid. I am using my skills, labor, and time to provide a service that someone will pay me for, and I use that pay to get food and whatever else. A multi-millionaire is functionally doing the same thing. I’m not disregarding that sometimes there’s fraud or something that a person uses to get rich, but money comes from providing value. Moreover, if we drew the line at what was necessary, every person would be allowed to have food for the day and clothes on his back. In reality, God gives some people abundance, and it is the job of that person to steward their abundance as God would have them. It is our job to steward the abundance (in the vast majority of cases in the United State) God has given us. God is fully able to take a selfish rich person’s money from him.
We have no real perspective on what is necessary or abundant. If a person lives in the United States, even if he is at the bottom of the economic hierarchy, he is better off than the vast majority of the world’s population. In most cases, if a person lives in the modern day, he is better off than the vast majority of people who have ever lived throughout history. We look at people who have more than us, and we are jealous. It’s not that our needs aren’t met, it’s that we aren’t content. Basically every time I’ve seen it, socialism isn’t actually driven by need, it’s driven by greed. People are covetous of those who have more than they do. It’s human nature. And instead of producing more or earning more, socialists take from those who have, and they get to feel virtuous while doing it.
We are instead to fight against greed first and foremost in our own lives, and speak against greed in our teaching of the Bible. It is not our job to compel generosity, but instead, to be generous ourselves.
For example, if two from a poor earning community have the ability to apply for the higher earning job, what does a Christian do if they are the one chosen for that position? Should they ceade the job to the other, or do they merely thank God or giving them the opportunity and try to evangelize where they are?
This potentially depends on the circumstance. One one hand, you’re making a decision on how that business owner spends his wealth. You’re not responsible for making the decision on who to hire or fire. The business owner could have looked and decided to hire the poor one if he had wanted to. Maybe he hired you because you are significantly better suited to the position, and he has a family to feed based on the success of his business. Additionally, just because he gave you the position doesn’t mean the poor person is second in line. Maybe you have two offers, and you somehow know that this poorer person will get the higher-paying of the two jobs if you don’t take it, so you decide to take the lower-paying one. That’s your prerogative. I can’t really mandate a course of action in all circumstances, but God gives us the ability to reason through our own circumstances guided by the principles He places in the Bible, and while engaging in prayer for discernment.
That’s actually a big deal by the way. God does not mandate thoughtless obedience to a ton of meticulously enumerated rules for a bunch of hyper-specific situations. We have brains, and we have the Holy Spirit. Each of us is meant to steward our particular situations, and God expects us to reason through the circumstances He puts us in. There are certainly lots of situations where I could look at something you’re doing and know you’re in sin, but there’s a lot of “gray” in life too.
Lastly, if you get any job, you should thank God for it and try to evangelize. Even a job you don’t like. You should evangelize while you have it, thank God for it, and pray for something better. Wanting a better situation doesn’t necessarily mean you’re discontented. (I know you know that, but I’ll say it anyway.)
I have heard that things of the world are vain, but does that mean we live the life of an ascetic, where we try our best to live independently, depending solely on God where we produce our own food?
Sounds like you need to read yourself some Ecclesiastes my friend. I freaking love that book, and this is a big part of it. First of all, it is sinful to live your life for pleasure. That said, God is a good God, and part of how He demonstrates that is giving us gifts in this life. Consider Ecclesiastes 5:18-19:
Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil – this is the gift of God.
We don’t worship God by imposing needless suffering on ourselves. God promises to bring us suffering Himself. Plus, you say “depending on God where we produce our own food.” I know what you mean, but whether you realize it or not, you’re always totally dependent on God for everything you have. Our surplus is supposed to fuel our thanksgiving, but also, we are supposed to recognize that a massive portion of why God has given us our resources is to care for people around us.
We are supposed to give money to evangelism like the Philippians did, we are supposed to give money to meet needs like the Jerusalem church did in Acts 2, we are supposed open our homes to strangers, and we are also supposed to enjoy some and give thanks. It is crucial that our love is never primarily for wealth though. One of the reasons that stealing and greed take up two slots in the Ten Commandments is that greed is an extremely common form of idolatry. Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
If we are truly to put others before ourselves, would the only true way to do this be to eliminate us from the equation altogether?
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by this, but you’re never entirely removed from the situation. If God wanted us entirely removed from the situation, He would just remove us from the equation by bringing us to Heaven. Paul writes to the Philippians that “to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell” (Philippians 1:21-22). We would rather be in Heaven, but God leaves us here because He has fruitful labor for us to do. It is genuinely better for God to leave us here because “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). We are genuinely supposed to put others first, and we are supposed to do that in the power of the Spirit. God gives us the Holy Spirit to empower our love, and God does not remove us from the equation, but He makes us an active participant in His mission.
At this point, I am still a capitalist, and I believe that the system is not the issue, but the people
You are correct that the people are the issue. You have no need to be a capitalist though. I don’t personally identify that way. It’s not that I’m anti-capitalism, but it’s more that I’m committed to God’s ordinances. I believe in private property, and I believe in God’s purpose being different for the government, the individual, and the church. I’m not primarily identified by an economic system. I’m defined by allegiance to Christ and His family. My primary mission in life isn’t economics. My mission is the Gospel.
Yes, in my Biblically inexperienced viewpoint I see no sin in vying for economic success, but do we put our focus on that over our focus on evangelizing?
Here’s an interesting one. Being primarily motivated by economic success is sinful. Additionally, our drive for personal success is certainly not more important than evangelizing. When people ask for my life-verse, I usually give them Colossians 3:23. Colossians 3:22-24 states,
Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
God actually commands us to be hard working in the workplace, and this is largely for evangelism. First of all, God just wants us to be hard working. Period. This is part of loving God. One of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control.
Secondly, our work ethic is actually a major part of our Gospel witness. 1 Timothy 6:1 says, “Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled” (emphasis added). I am actively evangelizing my coworkers and my boss, and one of the major aspects of that witness is my being a good employee.
Moreover, we are supposed to provide for people. This is something that isn’t often considered, but did you realize that a boss is providing for his employees? I have been friends with several people that own businesses, and it is not uncommon for a small business owner to not take a paycheck, but still make sure to pay his employees. I had a friend in Santa Clarita that did contracting work, and he was most stressed about having jobs lined up so the men that worked for him could bring home a paycheck to their families.
Additionally, we are supposed to provide for ourselves, our families and our churches. Ephesians 4:28 says, “let the thief no longer steal, but rather, let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” You could even swap “thief” for “socialist” in Ephesians 4:28. The proper path for providing for the needs of others is not to steal from someone else, it is to produce yourself and give what you produce away. Additionally, 1 Timothy 5:8 says, “if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
We are supposed to be primarily motivated by a desire to honor God, a desire to evangelize the lost, and a desire to provide for our family, church, and community. All of these result in discipline. And discipline results in success. That’s how God has designed the world. Proverbs 22:29 says, “Do you see a man skillful in his work? / He will stand before kings; / he will not stand before obscure men.” Sometimes, we can be motivated improperly, but the goal of our discipline is God’s pleasure, our evangelistic witness, and the provision for those around us – in that order. We then trust God to provide for us materially. He may do this through the job He provides us, and in some cases, through the charity of believers.
It is so crucial to check our motivations. Honoring God in your life often brings success, and so you need to make sure you’re motivated by love for God and not that success. Times of trial and difficulty are often how God lets us work on this. He gives us difficulty while we are honoring Him in order to reveal when our motivations are off, to give us opportunities to work on our motivations, and sometimes, to show us that our motivations were actually right in the first place.
As I see many people talk about the sweatshops and the manual labor that happens in poor, manufacturing companies, I think about the fact that all in the world is vain.
It’s sad. Life is broken. One of the things that’s important to remember is this: God doesn’t call you to solve all the world’s problems. God puts you where you are right now, and He wants you to work on the things in your sphere of influence. There are children starving in Africa, there is rampant plastic pollution in our oceans, and there are tens of millions of children murdered by their own parents in the United States of America. I don’t have the power to outright solve all of these. I don’t even know how to solve some of the problems our world faces.
Here’s what I can do: I can share the Gospel with my coworkers. Societies change through the salvation of the individuals in them. If you want to start a movement, do it one person at a time. Additionally, the greatest need any person faces is the need for Jesus. If you have a choice between a full stomach now or being in Heaven later, Heaven is better.
Secondly, I can have a level of impact on the issues of my world too. I might not be able to get a law passed that outlaws abortion, but here’s what I can do: I can help influence a generation of young people in my youth ministry to not get prematurely pregnant and get abortions. I can help equip a generation of young people that can go out there and volunteer in pregnancy centers, provide homes for the unwanted children of the world, and maybe even pass legislation that I can’t.
I might not be able to clean up the world’s oceans, but I can be more aware of my own waste, and make personal decisions to use reusable utensils and cut down on individually wrapped products. Maybe it won’t have a massive effect, but I can have some effect.
I might not be able to save all the starving kids in Africa, or all the children working in Chinese sweatshops. I can support missionaries in African and Asian countries though. I can volunteer for things like Operation Christmas Child, and I can try to shop for products that are made in non-exploitative countries.
We aren’t God. We are individuals. We aren’t called to change the world, we are called to be faithful in the circumstance that God has placed us in. We don’t have world-wide influence (usually), but we all have some influence. God wants us to be faithful to do the things we can, in the circumstances we can. There’s no need to place every single one of the world’s problems on your shoulders, but there’s no excuse to not work towards the good God has for you to do.
Plus, God is a wise God. Did you realize that God has strategically placed you right where you need to be for your faithfulness to have maximum impact? I don’t want you to hear me saying that we just need to accept that we won’t have an impact and just focus on our surroundings. I’m saying that you need to have faith in God as a strategist. Know that God has placed you such that your faithfulness will have maximum impact, even if you don’t see it.
Concerning those terrible things that happen in the world, pray about it. God sees those children. God sees the problems in other countries. God hears our prayers. Also, God does not promise perfection in this life. We live in a world plagued by sin, and the sin of people like Chinese governors isn’t going to magically have no impact on anyone. We are supposed to see the need for God to come back and make the world right. Injustice will exist and thrive for as long as God is not on the throne of this earth, but Jesus is coming back. We are here to share the Gospel until then.
God is going to burn this entire broken world and bring in something new. We’re begging people to be right with Him until that happens. As horrible as the injustice of this world is, God only allows it to continue because He’s mercifully giving people time to repent before judgment comes.
Many on the Pro-Choice side of abortion claim that they do not want babies born into a poor, hard life. First, there are many problems with many other of their claims.
While it’s true that pro-choice people say that they don’t want babies born poor, that’s really not the issue (which I think you noted). First of all, it’s better to be poor than dead. I don’t think we should solve homelessness by going through San Francisco and shooting every single bum there. I don’t think we should solve cancer by euthanizing every single person that has it instead of putting them through Chemo. I don’t think we should solve special needs by killing every single person with an IQ of less than 85. The real reason that people are pro-choice is to escape the consequences of sexual promiscuity. It’s a matter of convenience.
The vast majority of abortion cases are not people keeping their kid out of poverty, or preserving the life of the mother. It’s teenage girls that don’t want their parents to know they were having sex. It’s parents that don’t want their friends to know their daughter was having sex. It’s people that don’t want to deal with the responsibility of a kid or the process of pregnancy, but still want to have sex.
Even if it were a matter of not wanting people to go through poverty (again, still better than killing them), you can make an adoption plan. I’m not talking about “putting them up for adoption.” I mean an adoption plan. Where you find a couple that you trust to take the kid, and give the kid to them. There are plenty of great parents that want kids and can’t have them. There are people in churches that would take a kid to keep him or her from being aborted. I was giving a college presentation on this issue, and during the debate afterward, one of the people in my class brought up adoption issues. I said that if one of the people in that class got pregnant, and wanted to get an abortion, that I would gladly take the kid to keep it from being killed. Would that jack up my life? Yes. Did I 100% mean it? Yes. There are ways to overcome the issues they talk about, and realistically, they’re just arguments that pro-choice people put up. They aren’t really the reasons they’re pro-choice.
Secondly, how should we define “poor?”
I don’t know. There’s plenty of definitions out there, and depending on the scope and problem, you’ll have different answers. The question is this: are you willing to self-sacrifice to offer help – even material help – to someone that needs it? It’s less about helping the “poor” than it is about helping your neighbor. Often, that’s going to mean helping the poor. But in the normal course of life, it’s less this idea of finding a “poor” person and throwing money at him than it is seeing a person with a need and fulfilling that need.
I have heard that the bible states that we should be grateful and content with what God has given us, no matter what situation we are in. I have thought of the question, “Why then, do we still need to give to the poor?”
It’s one thing to be content with the difficulty that God has placed in your life, it’s another to decide to leave someone else in that circumstance. A helpful passage on this is Paul talking to the Philippian church about their giving to provide for his needs. Paul was the poor person in this situation, and he writes to the church and says in Philippians 4:14-19,
I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Paul is content, and he faces even hunger – the lack of bare necessities – with contentment and faith in God’s ability to provide. And yet, the Philippians are acting out of love for God and for Paul by looking at Paul’s affliction and helping him. We are supposed to be content, but that doesn’t mean someone else’s contentment is an excuse not to help them. We need to love others, but that does not mean we force others to be loving to us.
Additionally, it is important to note Paul’s saying that God will provide for their needs. One of the things that we need to remember is that God is able to provide for us. That should allow us to give without fear, because God can give us whatever we need. In fact, as long as God has us on this earth, He will provide what we need. When we have completed the work that God has for us, then He will bring us home. Perhaps he will do that with cancer or old age, perhaps he will do that with the spear of the natives we were evangelizing, and perhaps God will do that through starvation. But as long as God has work for us to do here, God will provide us what we need to do that work. When He brings us home, however He should choose to do so, we will be just fine.
You are supposed to give to others out of love for God, out of love for that person, and because God grants rewards in Heaven to those who use their earthly resources well. All three of those are genuine and right motivations, but in that order. Jesus says, “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:20-21).
In my pondering, I have thought of the fact that giving to the poor is either to live as a witness to people who dwell in the world, or to give us the ability to evangelize the poor
Yes and yes. You evangelize the poor person you are ministering to, and it is a witness to the people watching. Moreover, this should inform how you give to the poor. If you give a poor person a meal and you do not share the Gospel with him, then you have failed to meet the much more important need. This isn’t to mean that you’re some used-car salesman that tries to slide in your elevator pitch through the pretense of charity. This means that if you actually care about that person, you won’t be able to only care for his physical needs. As you care for his physical needs, make sure you pray for his salvation, and try to share the Gospel with him. If nothing else, make sure you pray with him for his physical provision and his salvation. Like literally, give him food, and while you’re talking to him, ask him about his relationship with Jesus. Then, before you go, pray for him. Not just for his material needs (although certainly for those), but also for his spiritual needs (remembering that this is actually the more important thing).
Careful about being motivated by the approval of onlookers though. If someone finds out you were being generous, fine. You can’t always succeed in being secretive. That said, be careful to be generous in secret.
I still have many more questions, but I hope these did not overwhelm you.
I hope my answer didn’t overwhelm you.
But seriously man, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your eagerness to grapple with these questions. You said that these questions seemed secular, and I just want you to know, nothing is secular. God cares about all of it. I spend so much time trying to get people to live their “secular” lives in obedience to God, and I can’t tell you how stoked I am that you’re trying to submit every part of your life to Him. Like seriously, it gets me giddy.
Also, I would encourage you to read the Bible (obviously). There’s a lot that I’m not addressing for space purposes, and there’s only so much you can learn from me. Plus, there are going to be things that are potentially mis-stated because I didn’t communicate well, or because I might be misunderstanding something myself (gasp!). I’m not God. You’ve got to dive into the Bible yourself, and I can’t encourage you to do that enough. You’re not trying to be like John, you’re trying to be like Jesus, and these things will only become real to you when you study them in God’s Word and really get to know Him.
I know that you know that, but I’m still going to encourage you to keep reading and studying whenever I can.