Gotta love Bono

" ... make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."
1st Thessalonians 4:11-12

" And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased."
Hebrews 13:16


These go hand in hand, as the different elements of God's will always do. It isn't God's plan that one NOT in want should reduce him or herself down to the level of poverty of the one in need. God has never said that. Never attribute things to God that He has not attributed to Himself. That is blasphemy. What He has said is that we are to share out of our excess. Capitalism is the only system that has been proven throughout history to create excess (also called wealth). This isn't bad. It is very, very good.

Jesus said, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”
Luke 3:10-11

This is not reducing one's self down to poverty. In the ancient world before the industrial age, it was normal to have one main set of clothing. Having two or more was wealth because the cost of materials and labor was relatively high. Jesus is not giving a picture of poor helping the poor. He's giving a picture of the normal helping the abnormal. Rip God's word out of its given context and you will always come away with a distorted picture of God.

Grinding misery has never been God's plan for His creation. Those in Christ are royal heirs and He treats us as such with as much as He safely can. Jesus is giving a picture of sharing out of excess. And as history has shown, the only way we have in this fallen world of producing excess, as far as financial systems go, is Capitalism.

Hats off to Bono for changing his personal views in light of the truth he has seen. Shame on any who would set themselves opposed to God while at the same time giving Him lip service pretending to be His spokesman.

Want to help the poor? Excellent! Get a job, work hard to become valuable to someone with more money than you. They will pay you some of that as a wage. Let go of some of your luxuries (excess) like flat panel TVs, stereos, always having a new car, always buying nice clothes, always eating nice food, always having the latest cell phone, always going to a movie, or a concert, etc. - you get the idea - and share out of your excess with those that truly are in need (emphasis on the word 'truly'). It isn't laid on you to help those who will not help themselves. Their personal discomfort or need is God's message to them to shape up and work for their own support. Our target is those who cannot help themselves or are in immediate need of our aid.

This is God's plan. That way those who honestly have not or cannot are raised up through charity, and those that truly have are lowered through self discipline so that they don't become haughty. There will always be 'levels' of society, and as long as these are honest and fair levels there is nothing at all wrong with that. How else could God show His approval for those that work hard, or work smart, verses those that are slothful? Scripture is full of such examples of praise and condemnation, and as God's word they are of course just.

People outside of God's will in these matters err in one of two ways: either they seek to be little god's and horde their wealth, sharing with no one. Or they seek to reduce everyone down to the same level of grinding poverty seeking somehow to either atone for their previous 'rich' ways (liberal white guilt) or to attain a mistaken notion of 'richness' in the midst of unnecessary suffering (rich liberals like the former, not so rich liberals like the latter). Both are examples of self serving pride and both miss God's mark drastically.

Live a quiet life. Work with your hands. What you earn is yours. Seek to earn more than you need so that you can share with others. God rewards those that are faithful to Him in different ways, one of these ways is financially.

Do you really want to help others? Then why not pray for God to bless the works of your hands (Job 1) so that you will have even more excess to share with others? That would be sliding in to God's plan rather than your own my friend.