With these commandments God firmly confirmed that the the right of personal property is a fundamental right that is to be protected by the government.
The government only has a few proper functions. A good government should protect the rights of it people with military, police, etc. The government also needs to provide shared infrastructure (roads, highways, bridges, etc) for the common good of it's citizens.
This is why we are to pay taxes... to support these just functions.
Jesus told us to help the poor, but Jesus never advocated forcibly taking money from one person and giving it to another. It was Robin Hood, not the Son of God, who advocated that immoral philosophy. When government takes even one dollar from one person simply to give it to another... it is stealing.
When we make a personal choice to give money to the poor, it is love in action, charity.
But when you steal someone else's money to “do good”, it is not charity, it is theft.
What motivates citizens to advocate for the government to take money from Peter to give it to Paul? What motivates them to believe that the wealthy should pay a higher percentage tax they they themselves should pay? Envy!
They covet what belongs to those better off financially and want some for themselves.
When people begin to depend on the money taken from others, they begin to believe that somehow this money is owed to them. It is common for welfare receivers to refer to their check as their “paycheck” as though they had actually earned it.
In any free nation, the rich will always be in the minority. In a democratic society where the less wealthy are in the majority, the temptation of the less wealthy majority will be to steal from the more wealthy minority... and they will if they can get away with it.
The coveting of what belongs to others easily moves to the theft of what belongs to others. The only additional ingredient needed is opportunity.
Politicians feed this covetousness by promising to give them stuff if only these people will vote for them. The politicians promise to give them money and prizes that don't belong to the politicians. They buy the votes with stolen money.
As a result the whole political system is driven by appealing to the sin nature of man, rather than the desire to govern justly.
It is bad enough that non-Christians support the Robin Hood philosophy of government, but today many Christians are also both advocating and voting for the same thing.
The “Faith Based Initiative” was offered to churches and other Christian ministries to tempt them to partake in the evil of stealing from others. Sadly, many of them thought it was a great idea.
Many Christians these days are displaying WWJD hats, shirts, jewelry and bumper stickers. They ask, “What would Jesus do?”, but they ask in ignorance because they've not taken the time to learn what Jesus actually did say and do.
Thou shall not covet and thou shall not steal were Jesus' commandments.
He thought these words were important enough to write them in stone!
1 comment:
"Many Christians these days are displaying WWJD hats, shirts, jewelry and bumper stickers. They ask, “What would Jesus do?”, but they ask in ignorance because they've not taken the time to learn what Jesus actually did say and do."
If they did learn what Jesus said and did it, I'm not sure we'd recognize the country.
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