Jesus Christ wouldn't back forced welfare

It can be tempting to use Jesus to promote political agendas. Those whose ideas are otherwise unattractive can easily say, “Jesus would agree with me” and guilt-trip insecure Christians into agreement.

Countless times supporters of welfare lecture Christians who don’t agree that Jesus would support such a system because it follows His command to take care of “the least of these.”

Welfare may be a fine policy. There are certainly arguments for the government lending support to the lower economic classes, just as there are arguments against it, and they will stand or fall on their own merits. It is a stretch, however, to say that welfare lines up with Scriptural charity as Jesus advocated.        

It stands to reason that Jesus did not tell His followers to give to the poor just to improve the economic status of Jewish peasants; His purpose for coming to earth was to save sinners, and to simply fill the belly of a lost man does nothing but send him to hell full.

Were Jesus merely a social worker, He would not have gone to the cross. The charity He advocated is best viewed in that light, as a way to show God’s love and salvation to the impoverished by providing for their needs.

The failure of God’s people to completely meet the needs of the poor has certainly helped bring about our system of public assistance. However, the overshadowing of the church as a provider for the needy by the government does not accomplish the same end.

The transforming power of the Gospel made real through physical help gives way to a mechanistic system of doling out benefits to whoever meets a set of qualifications. This cannot remedy the dysfunctional families, drug use, crime and hurting souls that help breed poverty. It certainly brings no one to Christ.

Instead of God receiving glory from the poor for His providence to them, politicians take the credit and brag about their “compassion” for spending other people’s money.

Where the needy once stretched out their hands to Christ through His church to rescue them from poverty and despondence, now they look to Uncle Sam, and he is a poor savior indeed.

All this is accomplished by a system that is quite involuntary. The government’s generosity is financed through exorbitant taxes, and those who refuse to fork over their paychecks are sent to prison to contemplate their lack of charity.

While necessary for things like Social Security, you will not find the idea of forced giving supported in Scripture.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Let each man give what he has determined in his heart; not grudgingly, or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.” Let the last five words sink in.

Jesus said, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor,” not “Confiscate everyone else’s money, siphon it to the poor through a government bureaucracy, and arrest anyone who doesn’t cooperate.”

Jesus never advocated forcing others to be His followers against their will. Just as it would be a travesty to arrest everyone who doesn’t believe in Him, Jesus would hardly nod in approval were His name used to press-gang millions into government “charity.”

If Jesus were on the earth today, He could be many things, but an IRS agent is not one of them.

On the other hand, if the “Who would Jesus tax?” crowd wishes to start legislating Scripture, they are welcome to it. Finally, some see the wisdom of uniting church and state. Now that Congress has made charity mandatory, it can move on to criminalizing everything the Bible lists as a sin, followed by a ban on all other religions. The ACLU would be delighted.

Welfare is the government’s project, created to meet its purposes, not God’s. In our arguments about its wisdom, may we always keep that in mind.