How much do we really want to give away?

How much do we really want to give away? I look biblically at charity, and what limits should we understand on our charity as a country.

For reference, see Just how much free stuff are illegals getting? Howie Carr investigates…

God has blessed America with much. But although we should be generous towards others, just where should we draw the line? I think that the problem is that some politicians do not think that we should draw the line anywhere. We should give away everything we have. This is ridiculous. But that is happening before our very eyes.

First Limit: Stealing is Wrong

Exodus 20:15 Thou shalt not steal.

1 Corinthians 6:10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

God commands us not to steal. Stealing is taking something that is not that person’s property, usually by stealth or violence (force). While some people think little of stealing another person’s possession, God sees the act as sufficient to exclude that person from heaven because of it. It is an aggression that reveals that person’s disrespect of God and God’s commandments.

Why is stealing wrong?

Stealing is wrong because there is a universal pirnciple that says that when a person works, he gets the benefit of that work for himself and his family. This is the wages from your work.

Ecclesiastes 5:18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. 19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God. 20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

If you meditate on these verses, it is not a given that a person who works and gains something in this life will enjoy that thing, or what that thing can provide them. There are thieves to take away your profit, and there are governments which essentially do the same. (But governments are from God, and we have to obey them, and pay our taxes.) Besides that, God himself sometimes causes a calamity like a tornado which takes away and destroys the fruit of your labors.

But the point is, God has commanded that the worker should benefit from his labor.

Ecclesiastes 3:13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

Psalms 128:2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.

Ecclesiastes 5:18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.

Here we get into politics. Communism and socialism are political systems whereby they “tax” the worker (officially taking away without allowing a person who suffers the loss so he can go to a civil authority and demand restoration of what was his loss). These systems hypocritically say they defend the laborer. Capitalism is a form of government which plainly supports that the worker should enjoy the fruit of his labor. It encourages the worker to work, and to work harder and better. The benefit to the worker is that he gets more “fruit” or better “fruit.”

But the rule here should be that as much or as well as one worker works, that should be his enjoyment. A ditch digger works and can buy a hamburger, and an engineer or doctor works and can buy a new car. The difference between what each one can gain as profit is not “an injustice” because one receives more than the other. (In the Communist system, the rich are portrayed as “evil”, yet the political party are all rich. How come?) The difference is because a ditch digger did nothing to learn how to dig a ditch, and a doctor or engineer went through the process of years of schooling which yields more profit or gain when they work.

So the bottom line of both Socialism and Communism is that they are not satisfied with the portion that God has given them, and they are not willing to work hard to get more or get better. The system will do the stealing for them. Moreover, their political system fans the covetousness and envy under lying this discontentment. They resort to a kind of stealing to get what is not theirs. The system is built upon “taking from the rich to give to the poor.” In the end analysis, this is God’s task, and He will do this at the end of the times. The restoration is really what heaven is about. But these political systems take the place of God. They are always antagonist towards a true religion towards the one True God, and the principles that God imposes on us.

When a thief takes the fruit of another person’s work, he is stealing that other person’s life (represented as hours of work, profit, which is money or possessions). He violates that other person’s rights. He robs him of his life.

Ephesians 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

Proverbs 30:8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

God commands the thief to steal no more, but rather to work (something that is honest), and to live contently with what he can produce from his own labors, and thereafter, if so be that he can, and he has a desire to do so, exercise charity towards others that do not have. God commands us not to give to the rich, as that is foolish.

Proverbs 22:16 He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.

Government has the position, power, and authority to intervene when a rich person oppresses a poor person, but it seems as though our government is filled with exactly rich people (or people wanting to be rich) who get into office to oppress the poorer people under him.

• See God rebukes Politicians, Psalm 82

The government is a structure established by God with the blessings of God, and they have a responsibility before God. This responsibility is to use the authority and power God has given them to do God’s work, which is to serve the public under them, and seek the public’s blessing. The most obvious point here is to make sure that when a worker gets gain or profit, that they can enjoy that fruit of their labors. To spoil that profit is wrong. Nobody gets it. If they take from an honest worker to give to a dishonest person (or to themselves), this is just raw stealing.

Second Limit: Charity is wrong if the Person can and won’t Work to Support Himself

2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

1 Thessalonians 4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

When we look at charity, like in Ephesians 4:28, we are commanded to exercise charity. But notice what is charity and what is not charity. Charity is having more than one needs to fulfill the basic needs of life. If a person doesn’t have enough but to feed himself and his family, he should not give that basic supply that God has given to him in charity to somebody else. This becomes criminal when the person receiving the charity is rich or doesn’t really need it.

Fathers are judged by criminal justice courts, because they make money and do not provide for their own family. That is why the law forces employers to hold back the man’s wages and give it to his family if he refuses to use his wages in what is his obligation to do.

But the main point in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 is that a person who doesn’t want to work also shouldn’t receive the charity of others. If they can work, then they should work, and they shouldn’t need charity.

Here we need to be careful. When foreigners come into the United States to get work, the question immediately should be, “Is there no work in the country where they came from? If there is no work, why is that so?” So, for example, Mexicans come into the US to work. Why? Because there are no jobs in Mexico? Of course there are jobs in Mexico. The point that any immigrant will admit to is that although there is work in his home country, the jobs in the United States pay more. (The counterpoint is that the cost of living in the United States is comparatively much higher than in Mexico.) But then you need to ask this immigrant (legal or illegal), “Are there not people who work in Mexico who make a good salary?” Carlos Slim was at one time the richest man in the world, and he grew up in Mexico and still lives and works in Mexico. How did he do that if there are no good paying jobs in Mexico? The answer lies in, simply, he worked hard. Very hard. But the immigrant will say, “I don’t want to work so hard. It is easier to go to the USA and get a medium paying job there.”

Again we return to the above. A ditch digger makes little money, and he should be satisfied with what that provides for him, and a doctor makes much more, but his vocation entails a lot more work before he can enjoy the fruits of being a doctor. When a ditch digger wants the level of living of a doctor without the preparation and work, that is the problem. Should society provide that to him? The Communist and the Socialist will hold the carrot before him of it is possible under their system. But in actuality, in these systems, only those who the party wants to be rich are rich, and the poor become poorer. Under God’s commandments we should all work, and we should all be content with the fruit of our labors.

As a side note, I have known doctors in Mexico who are out of work. This is very confusing. Why? Although the medical preparation system has graduated them with a medical degree, they cannot make it. It is unbelievable that these people cannot work when so many doctors here work out of their own homes. I can only guess that even getting the official degree as a general practitioner doctor, they are incapable of doing the job. I would guess that the system allows them to graduate but they fail as doctors, so people learn this and stop going to them, no matter how cheap their services are. They get what they so earnestly desired (coveted), but it disappeared in their hands.

Exodus 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

So in the ten commandments, not envying the possessions or lifestyle of others is a basic tenet. I cannot say that all illegal immigrants have envy as their motivation but having known a number of people who illegally entered the US to work, a large majority of them come for this reason.

At this point, let’s be realistic. Taking something from somebody by force, without the free will of the person doing the giving, is just stealing. Whether it is officially through taxes with the government or whether it is a person with a gun, there is not much difference between the two. The only difference is you have little or nothing to say if it is the government.

But charity MUST BE BECAUSE OF THE DESIRE OF THE PERSON DOING THE GIVING. Usually, people whose income is not covering their basic needs are very sparing when it comes to charity. Our government is rich, but we are poor. Our government has no money nor source of income except taxing its citizens. How do you figure that?

Third Limit: Poor People are First the Responsibility of their Own

1 Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

The Bible has a lot to say about the poor. In a real sense, the poor are a burden for society, but the poor are also a responsibility of society. In the Old Testament, farmers were instructed to leave the corners of their fields without gathering that grain (see the story of Ruth), and they were to leave it for the poor people to come and gather that grain and whatever was left in the field. But the point here is that those who have should decide to give and help the poor, and they should not be forced to do so, except if you want to think of it this way, they are morally obligated by God to do so and not by any other person or entity (like government).

Even within families, we are instructed by God to take care of our own. Most people understand this without ever reading this in the Bible. But it is biblical. It is interesting to see the Haitians in Mexico (I am a missionary here). The ATM’s are crowded since they showed up to draw out money. Yet we do not see many Haitians working. Somebody is sending them money. If they left Haiti because there is no money, how do they draw money from their own bank accounts back in Haiti? Undoubtedly, they have family and friends (probably working in the USA) that are sending them money. While they understand this principle and practice it, if you take the principle to what is happening in the USA, the US is giving away great amounts of money to foreigners without a legal status in the US, and the same America is dying financially because they do not have money for their own needs. What irony! Americans should take care of themselves before charity, but our government obligates this charity from the public coffers.

Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

If all American citizens are obligated by God to obey the civil authorities, and all politicians want that, then why aren’t those who enter our country under that same obligation? Moreover, why do we kowtow and give away so much to people who are breaking our laws? We can understand that the Democrat Party wants to replace American citizen voters with foreigners, but are what the Democrats doing legal? Shouldn’t our laws (i.e. Congress and the President of the United States) fight to prevent that from happening? The tragedy is that those who should be preventing it from happening are the very ones doing it. Psalm 82, God will judge our government and our politicians.

How much do we really want to give away?

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• How much do we really want to give away?