Work is Part of God's Plan

This debate has been going on for over a decade now: Should able-bodied people receiving public assistance be required to work? That is, should we have Welfare or Workfare? As you see in this photo, many protest against "workfare" as low-paying, menial, meaningless work that simply exploits these new members of the workforce.

It takes little insight to realize that the word "EXPLOITATION" is a fairly typical Marxist denunciation of workfare. The real purpose of workfare is to require able-bodied unemployed people who are unable to find and keep a regular job to perform at least minimum-wage work, so they are motivated to find better-paying work for themselves with a little upgrade of their skills, rather than sitting around and collecting welfare.  The phrase "REAL JOBS NOW" implies that they want better-paying jobs rather than minimum-wage work, but for this they need better skills.

If the minimum wage for unskilled workers is raised to $15/hour, it will cause many low-skill jobs to be eliminated by automation, and thus the minimum wage for those laid-off workers becomes $0/hour. What they need is a three-pronged approach of preparing job search documents, vocational education, and job search assistance: see points #2, #3, and #4 at www.Agape-Restoration-Society.org Homes and Jobs for how we are helping them improve their skills and find a job!

So as Christians, we must not let ourselves to be co-opted by leftist political rhetoric: we need to change the narrative to a Biblical worldview of work. After the Flood, God promised Noah: "While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Gen. 8:22). Notice the yearly cycle of seed time and harvest, man's work as part and parcel of sowing and harvest, day and night, the seasons of summer and winter.

In the Psalms we read - "You make darkness, and it is night, In which all the animals of the forest prowl. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God. The sun rises, and they steal away, and lay down in their dens. Man goes forth to his work, to his labor until the evening. O Lord, how many are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. The earth is full of your riches" (Ps. 104:20-24). Animals instinctively know how to gather food and hunt. Man is part of this cycle of life, rising when the sun comes up and going forth to his labor until evening.

Also, in Ps. 128:1-2 it states - "Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. For you will eat the labor of your hands. You will be happy, and it will be well with you." Receiving the reward of the labor of our hands gives us a sense of self-worth and makes us happy about life. In contrast, living off charity or welfare diminishes one's self-worth and sense of well-being. All this is part of the Lord's works and wise plan. The prophet Isaiah retells this cycle of seed time and harvest -

"Does he who plows to sow plow continually? does he continually open and harrow his ground? When he has leveled the surface of it, doesn't he cast abroad the dill, and scatter the cumin, and put in the wheat in rows, and the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in the border of it? For his God does instruct him aright, and does teach him. For the dill are not threshed with a sharp threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about on the cumin; but the dill are beaten out with a staff, and the cumin with a rod. Bread grain is ground; for he will not be always threshing it: and though the wheel of his cart and his horses scatter it, he does not grind it. This also comes forth from the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom" (Is. 28:24-29).

There are different kinds of labor, depending on the season and the need. Again, this is wisdom, part of God's plan for mankind. We get a sense of goodness and satisfaction from being rewarded for doing good work - "Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion. Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor -- this is the gift of God" (Eccles. 5:18-19). What does the Lord tell us in the New Testament about this?

In the New Testament we find a repeated emphasis on work: "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward everyone according to his works" (Mt. 16:27). And in Christ's parable of the talents we read - "He also who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter. I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have what is yours.' But his lord answered him, 'You wicked and lazy servant! You knew that I reap where I didn't sow, and gather where I didn't scatter. You ought therefore to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back my own with interest" (Mt. 25:24-27). Here our Lord equates the unwillingness to work - laziness - with wickedness. (And, by the way, He does not condemn here the earning of interest.)

St. Paul is often misunderstood to teach that faith is opposed to doing good works, but he wrote that God "will pay back to everyone according to their works: to those who by patience in doing good seek for glory and honor and incorruptibility, eternal life" (Rom. 2:6-7). When St. Paul downplays works, he is speaking of the works of the Law, in which the Jews had "refined" the Law of Moses into such tiny details as the number of steps one could take on the Sabbath, or tithing of each and every twig of spices such as mint and cummin. Thinking that one could gain eternal life by observing such tiny details of religious ritual rule-making is simply absurd!

The classic passage that Protestants quote against works is - "for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). By now it should be clear that St. Paul is referring to the ritual works of the Mosaic Law. But Protestants conveniently leave out the very next verse - "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). In the same letter, St. Paul goes on to write - "Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need" (Eph. 4:28). Refusing to work when one is able, and instead relying on "charity" or "philanthropy" is the same as stealing. We should work so we can give to those in true need, those unable to work.

In his letters to the church in Thessalonica, St. Paul wrote - "But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more; and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we charged you; that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing" (1 Thes. 4:10b-12). Also, "For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: 'If anyone will not work, neither let him eat.' For we hear of some who walk among you in rebellion, who don't work at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are that way, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread" (2 Thes. 3:10-12). Those who refuse to work, St. Paul says, are rebelling against God's established order of things. If they needlessly rely on "charity" they are in effect stealing someone else's bread. St. Paul taught his disciple Timothy thus -

"But if anyone doesn't provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever. Let no one be enrolled as a widow under sixty years old, having been the wife of one man, being approved by good works, if she has brought up children, if she has been hospitable to strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, and if she has diligently followed every good work. But refuse younger widows, for when they have grown wanton against Christ, they desire to marry; having condemnation, because they have rejected their first pledge. Besides, they also learn to be idle, going about from house to house. Not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not. I desire therefore that the younger widows marry, bear children, rule the household, and give no occasion to the adversary for reviling" (1 Tim. 5:8-14).

In the first verse quoted, the Apostle writes about the man's ("his" and "he") role as provider for his family. But in the event that the man dies and leaves a widow, Paul advises that she should remarry, not be an idle gossip or "busybody" - another word for "lazy" or "do-nothing".

At the start of this essay, we considered in Christ's parable of the talents how the man who hid his talent in the ground was condemned for being lazy and wicked. This set the tone for Christ's next parable, the one about the sheep and the goats -

"Then the King will tell those on his right hand, 'Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and you gave Me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You; or thirsty, and give You a drink? When did we see You as a stranger, and take You in; or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' The King will answer them, 'Most assuredly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you did it to Me'" (Mt. 25:34-40).

From all the above, it should be clear to us that Christ is speaking of those who are either permanently disabled, or temporarily in a crisis situation in which they need immediate help. He's not implying that we ought to indiscriminately and continually give money and material support to a poor person in long-term, chronic unemployment. There are plenty of people in real need through no fault of their own, and these we should help. But for those able-bodied people who aren't working, our best help is to train them how to set goals, write cover letters, resumes and a list of references, help them improve their skills, then show them how to search for work. They need to find work! This is the clear teaching of Scripture.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 07 May. 2016.)