When I started working on the Seek Social Justice series, I realized I needed to know more about what the Bible says concerning social justice and the poor. My friend Dr. George Grant has taught on this topic for years and written numerous books on the subject, so I knew he was a good place to begin. Starting with Genesis, Dr. Grant shows that the Bible teaches a “word and deed evangelism” that ultimately leads to opportunity and work as the long-term solution to poverty. Furthermore, the Bible emphasizes an important distinction concerning the poor: those who are “denied the opportunity to work” and those who “refuse the opportunity to work.”
As Solomon tells us: Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. (Prov 10:4). Dr. Grant continues: “Since the only means of moving up and out of poverty, and in fact the only means of fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives, is through diligent labor, the distinction between those who will work and those who won’t, has very important implications for poverty relief.” The classic vocabulary from Proverbs refers to the poor who are “oppressed” vs. the poor who are “sluggards.” The first needs legitimate help, the latter legitimate admonition.
Dr. Grant explains, “Subsidizing sluggards is the same as subsidizing evil. It is subsidizing dependence. It is ultimately subsidizing slavery – moral slavery first, and then physical slavery. On the other hand, refusing to care for the oppressed is the same as endorsing evil. It is endorsing injustice. It is ultimately endorsing slavery – again, moral and physical.”
I think this link between subsidizing sluggardly dependence and subsidizing some form of slavery really gets to the heart of what we see in our own society; it also shows that ignoring the truly oppressed leaves them in a similar form of slavery. Our inner city and rural poor who are in this situation are really a spectrum of the two types of poor talked about in the Bible. In light of that, how can we truly seek social justice in terms of the Biblical principles?
Dr. Grant says: “The Christian obligation to the oppressed is to remove the bonds that hinder them, not simply to administer emergency relief. The Good Samaritan task is to set them on the road to recovery. Charity involves education, job training, family counseling, youth rehabilitation, and money management as well as soup kitchens, rescue missions, and public shelters. Charity involves legal and legislative advocacy that opens up the bottom half of the free market so that the poor are not locked out of the economy.”
And to the sluggardly poor? It “involves admonition and reproof. The compassionate and loving response to the sluggard is to warn him. He is to be warned of the consequences of immorality, of sloth, of deception, of negligence…. Charity to the sluggardly does not add to his complacent irresponsibility by making life increasing easier to abuse through promiscuous entitlement programs. Instead, charity to the sluggardly equips and enables him to move beyond dependency and beyond entitlement.”
Our current economic environment only makes the situation more complex, since many willing workers who have had jobs can’t find them now. It also suggests that the broader economic policies of a nation have direct results on the way individuals have and hold work. As Christians, it makes sense that business entrepreneurship that provides jobs for others as well as setting aside specific opportunities for the poor who desire to work, is really the only long-term solution to our problem. Providing people who desire to work the opportunity to work is true Biblical social justice.
Dr. Grant expands on these principles to a much greater degree in his books, and I recommend Bringing in the Sheaves as an excellent place to start. If you haven’t seen it yet, the Seek Social Justice Lesson 4: Working Toward Justice shows how the Men of Valor prison ministry is applying Biblical principles and linking arms with the private sector to transform men from “takers to givers” in our society.
