Who Picks Up The Check?
“He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.” (Proverbs 16:26)
This verse means that the threat of hunger keeps us working, even when we may not want to work. Our appetite for food and shelter works for us by urging us on to work.
But, what happens when people who are able to work can get food, shelter, and clothing without working? They become lazy, spending their time on gossip, quarrels, games, and trouble. The Apostle Paul warned the new Church in Thessalonica not to feed people who were able, yet would not work (II Thessalonians 3:10-12).”
In this week's PathLight, Dr. T. D. Worthington reminds us that welfare, whether from family, church, or civil government, that does not urgently encourage work, or that is structured so as to make it irrational to earn more money, sabotages the connection God made between work and eating. It keeps a person’s appetite from working for him.