Profitable Even In This Present World

This past Tuesday our nation’s debt rose to 16 trillion dollars. I spell that out because I’m not really sure how many zeroes it takes to write it out numerically (I think it is 12). That comes out to over $53,000 owed by every man, woman, and child. Is debt immoral? It all depends on the purpose of the debt. If you are subsidizing sloth, then yes it is immoral:

    “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep—so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.” (Proverbs 6:6-11)

Liberal politicians and pundits try to make the Biblical case for helping out the less fortunate. I have no problem with helping out those who are temporarily injured or permanently disabled due to no fault of their own, however the Bible is clear on how we are to deal with the sluggard:

    “For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12)

If you think it compassionate to feed a man who will not work, then that logic should apply to giving alcohol to an alcoholic. Both are harmful to a man’s physical, mental, and spiritual health. Work was designed by God to nourish us physically, mentally, and spiritually.

    “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15)

But because we as a nation have so long enabled the sluggard or those who have a sense of entitlement to the gain of others, we are now 16 trillion dollars in debt. So how do we overcome this? We level with the American people. We tell them number one that you are entitled to nothing, and we redefine the word entitlement. Social Security and Medicare, of which employees have paid into their accounts their whole careers, are not entitlements. They are a promise made by the US Government. But to think you have a right to another person’s money just because they are rich and you’re trying to buy votes is evil unleashed. Harsh? Try this on for size:

    “My son, if you become surety for your friend, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, you are snared by the words of your mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth. So do this, my son, and deliver yourself; for you have come into the hand of your friend: go and humble yourself; plead with your friend. Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.” (Proverbs 6:1-5)

Stinking thinking is only cleared up by clear conversation, through the reading and preaching of the Word of God. This promise is true and was known by our 17th Century friend Matthew Henry:

    “If we live as directed by the word of God, we shall find it profitable even in this present world. We are stewards of our worldly substance, and have to answer to the Lord for our disposal of it; to waste it in rash schemes, or such plans as may entangle us in difficulties and temptations is wrong. A man ought never to be surety for more than he is able and willing to pay, and can afford to pay, without wronging his family; he ought to look upon every sum he is engaged for; as his own debt.”

Some Christians think if we can just remove Barack Obama from office it will be “Morning in America Again!” While removing Obama for office will indeed stop the bleeding, it will not heal the self-inflicted wound from which we as a nation are suffering.

It is going to take godly counsel and wisdom to return to the Biblical standard of how we are to live. Without it, the sound of the waterfall will only get louder.

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2012 David Jeffers

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