Money For Nothing

 Why not let someone else pay for it all?

   That seems to be the new thinking.  You see the hints of it everywhere.  Friends reposting just in case Mark Zuckerberg is giving away millions on Facebook.  Email forwards that might get you a piece of Bill Gates’ fortune.  People lined up at the convenience store to buy a worthless piece of paper that might turn into a windfall. Folks feeding nickels into a machine hoping it will turn them into millionaires.  Links to group funding sites to have someone else pay for my desires.

 

  What they all have in common is the desire to gain wealth without work.  Let someone else who has more give it to me. I deserve simply because I desire.  It seems the American work ethic has changed quite a bit in the last several years.

  That should not surprise us since the American worth ethic used to be a Christian work ethic.  I think many have forgotten that the scripture has a lot to say about taking care of ourselves.

For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies.  Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread.

2^nd Thessalonians 3:10-12 

  and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you,  so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 

Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful.

Titus 3:14 

He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.

Ephesians 4:28 

"In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

Acts 20:35 

  

Christians should not be the one begging for a handout, we should be the one taking care of those in true need.  Covetousness is a sin that hides itself in need.  In reality, it is not a need but greed.  When we demand beyond the necessities we are setting ourselves up for great ruin (1^st Timothy 6:8-9).  Rather than speculating for others wealth, we should use the blessing God has given us to care for ourselves and others.

  Earning rather than worming.  Making rather than taking.  Providing rather than consuming.  Giving rather than greedy.  This is the example Christians need to be showing the world.