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

The Word of God presents a plan for life that is perfectly complete and ahead of the shifting sands of man’s social innovations and novelties.

The headline: “Benefits to be axed after a year on the dole to stop it becoming a ‘lifestyle choice’, Prime Minister announces” is but the declaring of a long-required response, though falling far short of what is needed, in the face of a social ill whereby schemers and scammers are provided with a comfortable ‘workless’ lifestyle by the Government at the expense of those who do work and pay taxes!

‘Skiving’ is nothing new. The excuses given range from the ‘cunningly ingenuous’ to the ‘lame brained’.

One trade union official, Paul Embery, is reported as offering the following stupid reason why some are right not seek work and instead live at the expense of others. “Many Britons are dissuaded from working due to its “mundane drudgery”. (See here)

There used to be a programme on the BBC radio, many years ago, called ‘Workers Playtime’.  It was transmitted by the BBC between 1941 and 1964. It was intended originally as a morale-booster for industrial workers during World War II.

Now it seems that ‘playtime without any work’ is what many demand!

Another such BBC radio programme was ‘Music While You Work’. It was a daytime radio programme of continuous music broadcast in the United Kingdom twice daily on workdays from 23 June 1940 until 29 September 1967.

Both of these broadcasting ventures were in order to aid workers often engaged in the most tedious of labours, especially during wartime and the subsequent demanding years of scarcity.

However, today sees the increasing notion that is held by some that they have a right to live and be entitled to a totally frivolous life at the expense of their neighbours!

From the words of our text it is obvious that it is not a new notion. The maxim that Paul quotes is founded upon an obvious truth   and is in accordance with the great law under which our Creator has placed us. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” Genesis 3:19.

That law in the circumstances was benevolent, and it should be our aim to carry it out in reference to ourselves and to others. The law here laid down by the apostle extends to all who are able to work for a living but who will not do it, and binds us not to contribute to their support if they will not labour for it.

What Paul was instituting was a rule whereby the local Church should not offer support to those who could but would not work and earn a living. Instead they were happy to live off the ‘charity’ of others. That which the apostle so succinctly states as a law originating with God is poorly imitated by politicians in an effort to save public money at a time of austerity. The prime minister and those who support him are not moved by a desire to institute biblical morality! No, most likely unwittingly they are recognising the simple logical common sense of that which has its origins in heaven!

SUCCEED

Sadly, I do not think it will prove successful. The attitude of heart and mind that produces such selfish laziness is born within each person. It is an instinct of our depraved nature. Paul was teaching those who were but until recently, Grecian heathens. There was not the welfare provisions of today from which they could sponge. However, that did not stop some sitting all day in the sunshine at a street corner and begging of passers by. Most likely there were those who ‘advertised’ their needs either by mimicking illness or injury or exaggerating any physical complaint they may have had.

I will never forget my experience in downtown Nairobi when beggars of every form swarmed around me and those I was with. I later learned that oftentimes some of the dreadful injuries and deformities were evidently self-inflicted in order to promote pity on the part of those passing by!

I would have thought that employment was an easier route to obtaining food and clothing! (more…)

A recent newspaper report stated that “The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) said the current law in England and Northern Ireland has created ‘grey areas,’ which mean there is sometimes a defence to physical punishment.”

The general view of ‘medical big-wigs’ is that it is perfectly moral and proper to kill unborn babies and it is very right to assist adolescents in their  pursuit of the evil and perverted desire to change their gender. However, they reject God’s teaching on the right discipline of children.

This is a day of calling “evil good, and good evil”, of putting “darkness for light, and light for darkness” and putting “bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter”! (Isaiah 5:20).

This embracing of the ‘new morality’, which is in truth the ‘old immorality’, is the undercurrent which has brought forth the dreadful harvest of murders, abuse, rapes and violations that daily are reported in the news.

Despite the claims of possessing a ‘superior wisdom’ on the part of those who are the ‘influencers’ of the nation, they utterly fail to see the correlation between the new standards and the increase in immorality.

There is an undeniable and irrefutable logic to the simple truth of Galatians 6:7-8.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

That has been believed and embraced, at least in its intrinsic wisdom, even by the heathen!

The Saviour emphasised this truth. “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit,” Matthew 7:16-18.

When there is an overwhelming ‘crop’ of evil being reaped by a nation simple logic would tell us that that nation is sowing the seeds that have brought forth this harvest of criminality, fraud and iniquity!

That logic was displayed in the parable of ‘the wheat and the tares’.

“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?  He said unto them, An enemy hath done this,” Matthew 13:24-28.

There is ‘an enemy’ at work in our nation and that enemy is the depraved thinking of religious and political leaders which has overthrown the simple acceptance of the Law of God of which it has been wisely said: “The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes,” Psalm 19:8. (more…)