Grace Economics (1) (3)
“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.’” Leviticus 23.22
The importance of work
One of the most reliable measures of any economy is employment. When employment is high, the economy is healthy; when it is low, the economy struggles. Everyone understands this.
This is because work is fundamental to a healthy economy, as well as to a healthy person. Indeed, without work it’s difficult to see how there could be any economy at all. So it’s no wonder that we have laws protecting people’s right to work, providing a fair wage, ensuring just and timely compensation, ordering safety and security in the workplace, supporting standards of quality and workmanship, and so forth. Whatever we can do to encourage excellent and productive work is at least worth considering.
For years now, two major work-related questions have arisen in the American economy, and on each of these the Law of God can shed some light, if we will allow it to do so.The first of these relates to poverty and welfare.
Poverty and welfare
From the 1930s to the 1960s a massive federal welfare regimen was set in place to care for the needs of poor people in America. Much of this effort, especially early on, was needed and benefited the nation as a whole, which was struggling to rise from the economic rubble of the great depression.
By the 70s and 80s, however, plenty of voices could be heard calling for reform of a system that seemed to be creating more poverty than it was relieving, by supporting a population of citizens dependent on the government for their wellbeing.
One solution that emerged from the welfare crisis, but isn’t much discussed these days, is what has been referred to as workfare. This is the idea that people should be encouraged to work as long as they are able, and should not be dependent on handouts except as a final resort, and that communities should discover ways of helping people find work locally. Even the welfare system requires those who participate in it and are able to work to seek work regularly, and to show evidence they have done so. We seem to know that entitlements should be short-term only, while work should be the norm for all who are able. This view has been eroded somewhat in these first years of the 21st century, and entitlement programs have once again come under attack by politicians.
The view that people who can work should has Biblical foundations in the idea that human beings, made in the image of God, were made for work, as we have seen (Gen. 1.26-28). Work is not a curse; rather, it is part of the image of God in people that allows them to take responsibility for their wellbeing, and at the same time make a viable contribution to the economy.
In the gleaning laws of ancient Israel, we see an early example of the workfare idea. The poor were not given handouts to sustain them; rather, they were expected to go into the fields and work to acquire the leavings graciously provided by landowners who obeyed the teaching of Scripture not to go over the lands twice, or to harvest the corners of their fields, but to leave some portions for the poor and needy to reap.
This statute had a double benefit, in that it also curbed greediness, as each landowner was required by law to leave a portion of his unharvested crop for the poor to glean. This meant that a man, in order to show love for his needy neighbor, was required to forego a certain amount of income so that those who, for whatever reason, had become poor could provide for themselves through dignified work.
Workfare solutions could help replace the growing entitlements regimen in our country if, for example, more business owners would make it part of their business plans to forego some of their profits—or even their personal income—to create more jobs, provide internships, or even to support and encourage job training. Such efforts would be consistent with the Old Testament laws about gleaning.
Foreign workers
The other work-related question has to do with immigration and the hiring of non-citizens. As the laws governing this aspect of the American economy come up for review, Biblical law could shed the light of love on this situation. God commanded His people to love the sojourner (Lev. 19.33, 34) and to make it possible for strangers from other lands to find work in Israel without having to become citizens. Those strangers and sojourners were expected to abide by the Law of God while they were in the land, but the people were expected to recognize the value and importance of making room in their economy for guest workers from other nations.
Thus, guest worker laws are not a new idea in the American economy; but illegal workers are just that, illegal, and the Law of God teaches that “strangers” must abide by the laws of the land, just like any citizen. Illegal workers are often taken advantage of by employers, which hardly fulfills the Law’s requirement to love the stranger. But looking to the Law of God reminds us of the primacy of grace over greed, even with respect to illegal foreign workers, and encourages us to help them become citizens so that they can support themselves by productive and legal work.
God’s Law insists that every able-bodied person should have meaningful work and be a contributing part of the local economy and society. The apostle Paul showed his understanding of these principles when he exhorted the Ephesians to take up meaningful employment, so that they would have means to share with others, and when, in writing to the Thessalonians, he said that anyone who would not work should not eat (Eph. 4.28; 2 Thess. 3.10).
The Law of God points the way to an economics, not of greed and gain, but of honest work and love for neighbor, the evidence of God’s grace at work in the economics of a nation.
For reflection
1. What opportunities exist in your community for needy people to find work, if only of a temporary nature? Are any Christian organizations offering such opportunities?
2. Government regulations and taxation can sometimes dry up business reserves, making it difficult for local businesses to expand and offer more jobs. Is this an example of grace economics or greed economics? Explain.
3. Should Christians have a voice in the issue of immigration? Should we allow the Law of God to guide our thinking in this matter? Why or why not?
Next steps—Transformation: Run a check on your own attitude toward the poor, the unemployed, and any immigrant peoples in your community. Review your attitudes in prayer and listen as the Lord leads.
T. M. Moore
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If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Other columns of interest this week: Our Read Moore podcast begins this week an extended verse meditation on the exaltation and reign of Jesus. In our Crosfigell series on Brendan of Clonfert, the saint arrives at The Promised Land of the Saints. Why not start your day with our worship devotional, The Scriptorium? We’re barely two chapters into this daily guide for the book of Ephesians, so it’s not too late to jump on board. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
