An Open Letter To The Christian Church: Please Stop Sharing Right Wing Propaganda Instead Of Scripture

So yesterday as I was driving home from my son's house, I passed one of our community churches, whose name and denomination doesn't really matter. The billboard had a message, in big bold letters:

"God blesses those who labor."

The first thing to know, this isn't a Bible verse, which is why there is no chapter and verse given after the phrase.

It's not so much the written message that I take offense to. It's the unspoken message. I read this for the silent slap in the face to my disabled veteran spouse, that it is. If you say "God blesses those who labor," you reinforce the message that our society (evil and materialistic as it is) is constantly bombarding disabled men with, "If you don't work you're worthless."

I say this because I have been here with and stood beside more than one man who lost his ability to work. Not just my spouse who has struggled with his disability for years, as it slowly took away his health and ability to earn a living. I have watched his pride wither with a broken heart, not because he lost his ability to work, but because the society we live in told him that he lost his value as a person, when he lost his ability to work.

This is not the message of God, this is the message of men and it doesn't belong on a church. Almost all men will grow old, someday. Almost all of them will lose their ability to labor as they did in the days of their youth. This message is just reinforcing the damage already done to so many men who have had the "American work ethic" beat into them since birth.

I watched my grandfather and then my father grow old. I watched their health wither and their ability to do work along with it. I've seen my young son beaten with wounding words, because health problems have kept him from holding a job for the past few years. And we live in a society full of selfish, materialistic young women, who are all too eager to berate a partner who is unable to provide for the family, or who choose a partner based solely on the amount of money he brings in.

What a sad state of affairs, when the church itself delivers these messages, which are not of God.

What a sad state of affairs when the church wounds the wounded, and plays along with the world's game, shares the messages of the world, rather than those of God.

What does God say about labor? Let's look at Psalm 127:1 and 2

Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.…

The church has no business carrying the propaganda of men. The Bible does not reinforce a message that men earn what they are given by God. The Bible teaches a message of faith, not of works or of work. The words of Christ in Mathew 6, verses 28 and 29:

"Consider the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these."

The church needs to stop delivering the messages of the world. It needs to start standing on the word of God. The entire message of blessings through work (or works) undermines the true message of faith and love that God intended the church to deliver. The message of Jesus Christ is AT CONFLICT with the messages of the world. When there is no conflict between the the world's ways and the ways of the church, I am confident in saying that the church has lost its way.

I'm not singling out any denomination or church, because almost of them are now incorporated. Almost all of them have adopted the ways of the world as their own, and almost all are choosing to deliver the world's message, over the message of the Christ. It doesn't matter if the church is teaching a doctrine of work as worth, a doctrine of "prosperity" and materialism, or the false doctrine of Christian Dominionism, it's all false doctrine.

What did Abraham 'do' to deserve his status as the father of nations? He believed God. He did not do anything else.

We know that Jesus earthly father, Joseph, was a carpenter by trade. Absolutely nothing in the Bible reinforces the idea that Jesus was a carpenter, but the feeble minds of men can't seem to cope with the idea that Jesus didn't have an earthly trade, he didn't labor under an employer. Jesus did not need an earthly trade, He was God. But I've seen the church push the narrative that Jesus would have learned his father's trade, because that's what was done in Jesus' times. That's a pretty dismal and small view of the person you claim was God, a view that says "He must have worked to earn His living."

I realize that human beings have relatively small minds in the scheme of things. I realize they tend to put everything into a box that makes sense to them, according to the world they live in and know and are accustomed to, but seriously, the work thing is not Biblical, and it's not a message that is all inclusive, it's a message that is directed to a very specific set of people, able bodied, young, healthy. It's also a message that excludes many other people and adds insult to injury, whether intentional or not.

If you look at the Biblical history of work, you will find that hard work and labor were not a part of God's plan for people. In fact, labor and toil, along with DEATH, came about AS PUNISHMENT FOR SIN.

Genesis 3:17-19

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

It's not just a coincidence that work and hard labor came into the world at the same time as sin and death. It's symbolic of a later time, when Christ would come to set men free of the consequences of sin, which include both hard labor and death. To say that "God blesses those who labor," is almost the same as saying God blesses those who are under a curse. (Galatians 3:10 "For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.") 

Throughout the Old Testament, hard labor was used as a symbol of bondage to the devil. Yet God repeatedly promised to set his people free from all of their hard labor and he promised to give them rest. Then at last, He sent His only son into the world, to pay the price for men's sins.

Jesus said in Mathew 11:28:

"Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."

The message of Christ is one in which we are to cease from our labor, and live by faith in God. We are to stop trying to earn our way.

"It is by faith you are saved, not of works, lest any man boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Let's be honest, humans LOVE to boast in their work. They 'take pride' in what they consider to be their own accomplishments. (By the way pride is a sin.) People like to believe that they deserve things and that everything they have has been gained through their own efforts and their own hard work. The society we live in reinforces that idea."Hard work pays off."

Just about everyone in the world is secretly (or openly) a Nebuchadnezzar, walking along the roof of his own castle, saying to himself:

"Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Daniel 4)

Of course Nebuchadnezzar was punished severely for his pride.
For these reasons, work is a trap, much like the law is a trap, because it cannot save, only condemn.
The righteous will live by faith. (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38)

To understand this theologically, requires a deeper reading of scripture, because it is symbolic of the difference between a doctrine of works and one of grace, through faith. This is a recurring theme throughout the Bible, and one that has a very deep spiritual significance. The question of whether men earn through work or works (and therefore deserve) what they are given by God, is answered time and time in scripture, and the answer is no, men do not earn God's love, and no, they do not earn God's blessings through work.

Image Credit: Summit Woods Baptist Church