It seems to me that we in the church have lost our perspective on this one in a major way. The currently popular attitude is to use so-called "tough love" on the poor. The reality is that what is being done has nothing whatsoever to do with love-- "tough" or not. People have begun to use a popular phrase to excuse what amounts to just ordinary selfishness.
The current attitude in the church and in the secular culture is pure evil. Poor people don't need to be disciplined. They've got things hard enough as it is. You think I'm wrong? Let's just see what the Word of God has to say on the subject-- in reality, not as interpreted by those who won't listen to the truth.
The historical data
The best place to start is at the beginning. We may not be under the old covenant, but we can easily see God's heart in it. The earliest clear laws concerning treatment of the poor that we have access to
were written by Moses. The best place to see them is in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 15:7-11 (NKJV)
7. If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates of your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother,
8. but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.
9. Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, "The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand" and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry out to the Lord against you, and it become sin among you.
10. You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand.
11. For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, "You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land."
For informational purposes, the year of release referred to is the year that the Hebrews were commanded to forgive debts. We do not forgive anything in this country, if we can help it. The principle applies even more to those of us who will not restore economic equality periodically, as the Hebrews were commanded to do.
One important thing to note here is that the passage specifies: "in your land." Now there is nothing wrong with giving to the needy in other lands. I support all such efforts. But it is all for nothing, as
far as our own welfare is concerned, if we withhold assistance from those in our own community, state, and nation. Don't forget what the new covenant has to say.
I Timothy 5:8 (NKJV)
8. But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
In other words, it begins at home and goes out from there, not the other way around.
Now the Israelites did not heed this law. They continued as the rest of the world: buying and selling and amassing wealth with no regard for those who were being used to get it. In other words, they did exactly what we do in this country, right now. It got them into trouble repeatedly. Let's see what God had to say about this on a few occasions:
Isaiah 3:13-15 (NKJV)
13. The Lord stands up to plead, and stands to judge the people.
14. The Lord will enter into judgement with the elders of His people and His princes: "For you have eaten up the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?" Says the Lord of hosts.
Amos 2:6 (NKJV)
6. For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals.
(Note: The entire book of Amos is a powerful testimony of what the Lord thinks of oppression of the poor-- read it and see)
Psalm 10:8-11 (NKJV)
8. He (the wicked-- addition mine) sits in the lurking places of the villages; in the secret places he murders the innocent; his eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless.
9. He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den; he lies in wait to catch the poor; he catches the poor when he draws him into his net.
10. So he crouches, he lies low, that the helpless may fall by his strength.
11. He has said in his heart, "God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see."
The Old Testament, of course, is so full of such statements that even an idiot can't deny the obvious: God is the champion of the helpless, and that includes the poor. Those who do not care for the poor are not in God's will or in His kingdom.
The New Covenant
But what does the New Testament have to say? Do you think it differs any?
Matthew 19:21 (NKJV)
21. Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."
Luke 14:12-14 (NKJV)
12. Then He (Jesus-- addition mine) also said to him who invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid.
13. "But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.
14. "And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
Romans 15:26 (NKJV)
15. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.
Galatians 2:10 (NKJV)
10. They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.
James 2:3-4 (NKJV)
3. and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, "You sit here in a good place," and say to the poor man, "You stand there," or , "Sit here at my footstool."
4. have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
But, of course, the above doesn't constitute command, does it? Check these out:
I John 3:17-18 (NKJV)
17. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18. My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
(Are we saying, "Ouch!" yet?) But this should get anyone's attention:
Matthew 25:31-46 (NKJV)
31. When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
32. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
33. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left.
34. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, "Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35. "for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;
36. "I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me."
37. Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, "Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?
38. "When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?
39. "Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?"
40. And the King will answer and say to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."
41. Then He will also say to those on the left hand, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:
42. "for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink;
43. "I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me."
44. Then they also will answer Him, saying, "Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?"
45. Then He will answer them, saying, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me."
46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
These words are in red, people: they are the words of no less a person than Jesus Christ himself!
Obviously, nothing has changed, unless we want to allow for a commandment even stronger than the first. God makes it very clear exactly what He expects, and He does not leave us in the dark about the consequences of disobedience in this matter.
Now, to the excuses
So lets bring ourselves up to date and apply all of this to the here and
now. The situation, as it stands, is this: This nation is in the midst of a series of attacks against the poor. This is being led by the very people who should be opposing it (the Church). Something is not right. The "reasoning" (if you want to call this nonsense reason) goes as follows: First, poor people are poor because they won't work. Second, those who do not work should not eat (a misapplication of II Thessalonians 3:10). Therefore, if we allow the poor to receive welfare or other public assistance, then we are encouraging laziness.
I will begin by picking this apart with simple, everyday common sense. First of all, the assumption that the poor do not work is entirely false. The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of those on public assistance programs do have jobs. Among those that do not, a large percentage are not able to work because of disability. Then there are the ones who simply cannot find a job. This is a serious problem in this country, make no mistake. The few (and they are very few-- take note) who are left are professional con artists. Now the thing I want to point out is that, first of all, the con artists that we say we are targeting are not the ones who are suffering as a result of our attempts at "reform." The con artists are always the first to get assistance. It's their job-- they do it for a living. Everyone else just needs help. They don't know the tricks. The honestly needy are the ones we hurt-- AND NOBODY ELSE! That may be hard to swallow, but it is the truth. Once you yank out the foundation, the entire argument crumbles to dust, doesn't it?
Now I will attack this from a scriptural viewpoint. The use of II Thessalonians 3:10 in this situation is just plain ludicrous, but I'll address the argument anyway. For those few who do not work, either
because of disability or joblessness, the use of this scripture hurts, and not a little. We are making a judgement that we are not qualified to make-- period. This scripture is in reference to a specific situation and specific individuals. Note the wording of the verse:
II Thessalonians 3:10 (NKJV)
10. For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.
First of all, the word is will not-- not isn't, not can't-- won't . That is an important distinction. There is a huge difference between the people who can't work for whatever reason and those who simply will not do anything. Secondly (and this is important), this refers to a situation within the local church. This is not a matter of social welfare or helping those in need. There were those in the church that did nothing but eat the food that others had stored up. There was no judgement to make. These specific individuals were well known to the recipients of Paul's letter. This was never a blanket statement. Additionally, it is not backed up by the rest of scripture. It stands alone. This is a sure sign that it is not a universal principle, but the solution to one specific problem within this one particular church.
But the one thing I must point out in this context is that the definition of work used by those who quote this scripture is not acceptable. Work is work-- whether paid or not. Unpaid work is some of the hardest and most important work that is ever done. There's no use arguing about it. It's the simple truth. A person who will not work is one who will not do anything at all, including unpaid labor.
Those who find something to do are not refusing to work.
The third point is the most important of all. We are commanded in scripture to never make such blanket judgements. We do not know the situation another person is in. We do not know how they got there or why they can't get out on their own. Let's face it-- we're just plain ignorant. When we refuse to help someone because they might be a con artist, we are in disobedience to the Word of God. We can't know, and we have no right to make such accusations.
Let's explore this idea of "tough love" in this context. I am not going to quote all of I Corinthians chapter 13 here. If you do not know what it says, get your Bible and read it. Love does not make judgmental assumptions (verse 5, "thinks no evil"). When we know that a particular individual is doing wrong, that is one thing (but we must make sure we really know, or we're in trouble), but applying discipline to an entire group of people is not love. If your rebellious teenage son winds up in jail for the third time this month on drug possession charges, it's getting to be time to let him sit there for awhile. That is what tough love is-- applying a specific remedy to a specific situation, and always one in which the person doing the disciplinary action is granted authority. We have no authority in the lives of the poor people, first of all. We are not in any position to be disciplining them. We are out of line if we do this. Secondly, we do not know that our assumptions are true. The reality is that they are usually false and we have no right to think such things of others. The so-called "tough love" that is being applied to the poor is nothing more, less, or other than simple, old fashioned hatred.
So the situation is restated thus: The people in this country have deteriorated so much, spiritually, that they call hate "love." They would rather let the poor and needy die in the streets than run the risk of letting a few people get something they aren't entitled to. Doesn't this just about sum it up?
The most interesting reason of all to obey God
The one thing in this country that seems to worry everyone is the economy. It should worry us-- our economy is wobbly, at best. It isn't as stable as it used to be, and the problem is getting worse. This is the very reason that we need to reverse the trend I've been complaining about. You may not understand this, so let me explain.
In the Word of God, He repeatedly promises certain economic blessings, not just on individuals, but on entire nations. If you look at the conditions for receiving this promise, one thing will hit you in the face every time: compassion for the poor. There is a good reason for this. We could "spiritualize" the whole thing and just ignore the common sense here, but why should we? I have always opposed the "trickle down" theory on logical grounds. Wealth never trickles down, it always rushes up. Think about it. When the wealthy get wealthier, the only thing that happens is that the poor get poorer. Money is drawn in the direction of wealth-- it has always been that way. The way to stabilize an economy and ensure that it continues to serve the needs of the people is to improve the living conditions of the poor. When the lowest standard of living in your society gets better, the economy prospers. When the poor suffer, the economy suffers with them. If we improve the standard of living for the poorest members of our society, everyone's standard of living
improves because the money flows through every level of society on it's way to the top. Even if we have no compassion, if we do not regard God, and if we have no desire to please anyone but ourselves, it is still prudent to help the needy. In so doing, we ensure our own economic survival.
Let's stop targeting people for blame. The poor aren't the cause of our troubles, and neither are the rich. The poor are too busy trying to stay alive to cause trouble for anyone, and the rich are just rich. We don't know how they got that way any more than we know why the poor are stuck where they are. All we know is that if we leave the rich alone, they'll be fine-- they don't need any help. We are causing our own problems by being selfish and refusing to do what we need to do to get ourselves back on track. When we stop trying to divert tax money from the poor and needy, then we will see genuine economic recovery, and not one second before. Remember: According to the Word of God, your economy will always mirror your treatment of your poorest members. It may not show for a few years, but it will always happen. That should scare anyone who pays attention to the trends in our society.