Jesus Instills Faith/Trust in the Father as Provider; Paul Instills Fear
One thing you can be sure about Paul's writings: you can cherry pick from them all sorts of ideas on the same overarching subject and come up with multiple, even contradicting, viewpoints.
For example, when it comes to the subject of money and provision, Paul wrote to Timothy, “For the love of money is the root of all evil:” (Is the love of money, or pride, the root of evil? Satan's first sin was pride, which led to greed, but I digress.) In the midst of Paul's admonition, he says we ought to be content with our circumstances and not be concerned with becoming rich, which can lead to a snared life and perdition.
This passage, in my view, contains many truths that coincide with what our attitude should be toward money and provision. Being content and grateful in any circumstance, not worrying for tomorrow, trusting the Father for today as Jesus taught in Matthew 6, is by all means the best place to be spiritually and psychologically when it comes to walking through this world and not falling in to the sins of greed and covetousness, or the traps of working jobs that aren't for us and/or going into debt to get the things we think we need because we lack contentment and suffer with a type of lust of the eyes that leads to bondage.
Having said that of the Timothy scripture, Paul also wrote to the Thessalonians, “...that if any not work, neither should he eat," and to Timothy in the same epistle, “...if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”
Interesting here that Paul says, "neither did we eat any man's bread for naught; but wrought with labor and travail night and day that we be not chargeable to any of you: not because we had not power, but to make ourselves and ensample unto you to follow us." Very interesting, because Paul was not following Jesus' example nor the behavior of the apostles when Jesus sent them out to minister, this is what they were told:
The Gospel of Luke elaborates further as to eating the foods laid before you, which Paul, in his own pride refused to do, and according to him slaved himself to provide for himself rather than being the workman worthy of his meat. People in sin always INVERT what the Father's Word (Jesus) says for us to do, and it's always out of pride!
Now here we come to the pay dirt of Paul saying you've denied the faith and are worse than an infidel if you don't provide for your family. Wait a second, isn't the Father the Provider? Are we not the conduits for His provision? Why is all this pressure being put on the men when Jesus removed all of that pressure and said if you will just seek the Father and His righteousness, the provision will come? The implication is if you are right with the Word by keeping the Commandments, the Holy Spirit will lead you in your daily work for the Father which will lead to provision, either through income or from some other way.
In my view, these Pauline passages present a type of fear, even though, in part they are based in truth. Yes, we are to work in this world, but I believe from Jesus' teachings that we are first and foremost seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness through keeping the commandments (something Paul preached against saying you were bewitched if you keep the Father's law), and all these things will be added to us. The result of seeking the Father first brings the type of soul clearing clarity that allows the Father to give you your real purpose, what your work in this life should actually be. When you find that purpose, He will provide, either through income from that purpose or by other means. How it comes is not up to you. You are to trust the Father as a child who knows His Father has the means and will provide. Your work is to do what the Father leads you to do, that is, to keep the commandments, and then obey Him by His Holy Spirit to do with each day what He leads you to do. This is exactly what Jesus meant when he said,
When you are right with the Father, you will know exactly what to do with your life on a daily basis, especially as you draw closer to Him.
Working for the Father is not a slavery either, rather, it's a freedom. There is no joy and peace greater than being in His employ. The promise of money is not what you seek, BUT THE PROMISE OF THE BLESSING OF GOD & HIS PROVISION.
Jesus explained this best in Matthew chapter 6:
He tried to encourage the same trust in the rich young ruler, who sadly, didn't receive it:
Taking Paul's words regarding if you don't work, you don't eat, or a man that doesn't provide for his family is worse than an infidel, in the context of the time in which he was living is important, though.
In today's modern world, these two scriptures may be interpreted as: if a man doesn't attain money to buy his own food and take care of his family, then he doesn't get to eat and he has literally denied the faith. But in Paul's day, there was more of a trade and barter system than exists today. So you might do something for food or clothing or even access to shelter that didn't involve the exchange of currency.
Just to clarify, I don't want this message to be perceived that I am saying in any way that we as humans are not to work. It is, in fact, the result of Adam's sin in the garden, that he would then pull food from the earth by the sweat of our brow, dealing with weeds, drought, etc., instead of literally just picking it off never dying plants in perfect environmental conditions prior to when sin, death and entropy entered the equation. Even before the fall, Adam and Eve were charged with the work of the Garden of Eden. Perhaps getting saved and walking in the commandments returns you to the pre-fall type of work from the drudgery and slavery of the curse of the fall.
When we, in modern times, interpret Paul's harsh demands which seem to pivot away from seeing the Father as Provider and return us to the curse, we can easily fall into the trap of this command to provide meaning we must do anything to do so, even if that means spending too much time and energy on it to the forgetting of the Father and His commandments, which will also lead right into all sorts of commandment breaking to be able to provide, like coveting, lying, cheating and stealing. Paul's words can hit in such a way that men and women forget the Father as Provider and choose to take His spot in their own lives, enslaving themselves to man and Satan's ways and system, while ever moving away from the Father and toward greed, covetousness and gluttony.
You can see the result of Paul's writings in this regard have led to some egregious errors on part the Church when it comes to money acquisition in order for to be the "best provider possible."
During the days that Jesus and Paul were on the earth, money itself was an important mechanism of trade, but not so central and important as it is today. People were often rewarded for their labors in other ways, or when it came to provision related to food and clothing and shelter, they did the work themselves for themselves. Sometimes the "work" one did was through the simple cultivation of food through farming, shepherding animals, fishing or even hunting. Barter and trade were more important than now. I see where we need to figure out how to return to some of that.
So Paul saying if you don't work, you don't eat, does not necessarily mean he's saying if you don't acquire money you don't eat. Also, the idea that providing for one's family always meant the acquisition of more money in order to do so was not necessarily the means by which one provided to his own family then as much as it is now. And herein lies the rub.
On these latter two scriptures, in modern times, if you don't work you don't eat, and if a man who doesn't provide for his family is worse than an infidel" has allowed for a system of bondage to be placed upon Christian males that have deceived them to pursue money (instead of trusting the Father to provide) based upon multiple fallacies:
1) Men are led to believe that they are actually the “provider” for themselves and for their families (in the stead of the Father) and 2) as one considers where this thought process would take you, this would by default mean those men (or women) who get the most provision are (obviously) the best providers, and as consequence must also be the best of our Christian males. This sets up the sin of pride as well, because people who gain in wealth begin to magnify themselves as God because of their wealth.
The main fault I would apply to Paul is the implication that the man is the provider, instead of the Father, who is the real Provider who leads us to seek Him and His righteousness, which results in us knowing what to do with our days and what our purposes are, which results in provision.
For many of the faithless of this world, the very least the provision required takes at least "six figures" ($100,000/per year), some women saying that won't allow a man to court them unless he makes this much. (It was also interesting the saying was that women wanted a man who "makes six figures, has a six pack, and is six feet tall," of course the numbers together making the number of the beast.) This desire on women's part for men who have this level of income is fully based on not trusting in the Father for provision, but in trusting what Satan's currencies can provide.
Still, most worldly people want to become millionaires and billionaires who store up massive reserves for which they can spend at any moment they deem fit. This type of "abundance" requires no patience, nor any duty to call on the Father for that daily provision. In fact, this kind of wealth could make one forget the Father:
This is one of the reasons why Jesus told the apostles how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.
The focus on the wealth and the things of this world (which is corrupt and controlled by Satan) rather than on pursuing the things of God, which are eternal and not of this world, leads people to be stuck in Satan's trap.
You can see these born out in Jesus' parable of the man who built the storehouses for his reserves only to find at his death that none of those things would be his anymore.
But how does a man trying to serve the Father maintain this attitude in marriage, that is to say, to put the Kingdom of Heaven first and rely on the Father to add the rest when pressures from society, his own family and even and especially this apostate Church who teaches Paul attempt to preclude him from doing so, even making him out to be infidel if he doesn't do it to some level where there are full storehouses of savings, and cd's and investment vehicles, as well as a big house, multiple cars, private schools, college tuitions, music and sport lessons, etc. and etc.
In a world where it's made to seem as if the best men are the ones who provide these forms of material wealth, the real man of God trusting the Father for daily provision, is made out to be a lazy one and a ne-erdowell, a deadbeat, even if he is in the midst of giving his whole life to the pursuit of the Father and in helping of others to find Him. The man who does this is the constant recipient of low grade assault on this pursuit from all the slaves who are trapped in man's, correction, Satan's system. Slaves still in bondage often seem to want those who are set-free returned to shackles rather than to be freed themselves.
Another interesting aspect is that in a family unit, especially in the days of old, every member of the family did their part in being conduits for the Father's provision. Especially in agrarian communities. It wasn't just the man going out in the fields alone to pull crops or tend sheep. The whole family had responsibilities, many of which, in our modern society we all have been precluded from, and this is on purpose, because Satan and his minions do not want us self-sufficient. That would mean a loss of control.
But consider this passage from Proverbs 31 which describes and honorable wife:
This is the essence of a true help mate. The man is not bearing the brunt of the work of the provision upon himself. This lady bought a vineyard and produces grapes, makes her own clothing and sells it. She's not just sitting at home basking in the provision the man wholly attained for the family. She "eateth not the break of idleness."
This was the original point of woman, that the Father would make a help meet for the man.
The idea of the expression help meet, would be that woman would provide a type of support that would make both of their lives easier and more enjoyable. Two are better than one, and a threefold cord with the Father is not quickly broken.
This does not preclude the man from his own labors in the Father, but neither the man nor the wife should take the place of the Father Himself as Provider.
(Side note: children throughout time were known to get involved with chores and duties that led to helping the family garner provision from a much earlier age. This current system has severely arrested the development of growing adolescents to the point where people in their 30s are still children in this sense, entitled and expected for everything to be handed to them by others).
But where the inverse relationship of men (and women) being considered provider instead of God is, an immense pressure is heaped on the man or woman who has assumed that role, to the point where being enslaved in Satan's system seems the wise and even godly option to properly answer Paul's edict that a man who does not provide for his family is worse than an infidel. So he finds himself enslaved to the corporations which provide the illusion of financial safety while he toils away all his life force into their demonic goals and aspirations, never finding the kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, nor finding the Father, nor finding what his real purpose is.
When Israel was in the desert after leaving Egypt, the provision was entirely from the Father: manna from heaven. Each person could gather it. There was also quail from the east wind. The people had to learn from whence all provision comes prior to inheriting the land of milk and honey. Where was the pressure then? God took it all on himself. This is why Jesus emphatically stated:
I believe that soon enough that. we as Believers are returning to such a situation where we must rely completely on the Father for provision, as the beast system itself continues to marginalize us and make it more and more difficult to work, make, and spend money in their system.
If one follows Paul's teachings with regard to being worse than an infidel if you don't provide for your family during this time, thinking he has to stay in the system when the Father is saying emphatically to come out and trust Him alone, then that person will be trapped in Satan's double bind, trusting in Satan's system, rather than in the Father Himself.
This is why the end times will culminate with us not being able to buy or sell without the mark, because buying and selling with worldly currency is participating in Satan’s kingdom.
We will be completely removed from doing so and will have to trust the Father as Provider entirely, not in worldly currency even if we see that the Father provided for us through that currency during the time in which we had little other option.
The fact that even basic utilities require currency keeps us all locked in to their system.
The fact that banks can control and manipulate us WITH OUR OWN MONEY in their banks shows who really controls the system. Have you been asked by a banker when taking out your own money in larger amounts what your occupation is and what you intend to do with it? I have. Pure evil.
The fact that governments bill for taxes on property ownership through that currency also means you can’t own a home without still being a slave to their currency. You can’t trade with them anything else. You can bring them the chickens or sheep you may have raised, or a cow. You must convert your own property or labor to money to pay them and this is also a way to attack people and keep the jackboot on their neck. People often end up selling what they have at pennies on the dollar to pay these bills and taxes and are left with nothing.
This kind of financial pressure from every side serves to help funnel men into taking a counterfeit place as provider, and thus compromising his values and faith to get the legal tender to pay for all of this, instead of understanding what Jesus taught about “seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added to you.” This leads to all sorts of sin.
Men often do jobs to make more money that seem to always require a compromise with the devil, to give up your honor, your integrity, to essentially lie and cheat to gain more dollars and to put any one down who stands in your way.
To be rich you have to be cold hearted to others, to try and get over on others to get at their money, to trick others into parting with it.
People who pull strings with money, such as bankers and corporate types, manipulate and make slaves of others with that money, getting people to do things they otherwise would not have done:
I remember working a short two week job for 7-eleven corporate where I had to create drawings for cigarette displays. it seemed innocuous at first until I remembered my grandmothers horrible death by emphysema. What of the wealthy who work for Coca Cola or Pepsi? They are literally pawning out high fructose corn syrup poisonous liquids that have helped contribute to millions getting diabetes. Is this not getting wealth through evil? And soft drinks aren't even as obvious as what the pharmaceutical industry has done. You can check every industry where wealth is associated, you will always find Satan behind the curtain.
And women in our day, not satisfied with the Provision of the Father or with men who don’t constantly seek after "the bag" now seek the bag themselves and are completely enslaved to their cubicle desks and to other men (and women) who are their bosses, reporting to jobs they hate but stokes their ego and makes them feel important, coming home to no husband, but often to a string temporary one night stands, abortions, and cats.
God’s way with regard to His provision will always lead to LESS DEPENDENCY on the SATANIC CURRENCY SYSTEM and less dependency on the evil system that spawned from it.
Needless to say, we are not supposed to be lazy and lolly gagging through life. Once we seek the kingdom of the Father and His righteousness, we do a get a purpose, but this purpose is not wrapped up in the pursuit of money, but in the pursuit of the Father and His righteousness, and thus the necessary provisions for your life will come because “all these things will be provided for you” by the Father.
Things may and indeed will be tighter for many of us. But remembering Jesus' prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread" let us rejoice in the Father we have what we need for today. Worrying for tomorrow doesn't change a thing. Jesus is our provision and Provider, by Him we can live in this world for as long as He wills.
I’m already seeing the Father wean His people more and more off the beast system and beginning to grow their own food and trying to do as much as possible outside the system, as the Amish have for decades to varying degrees. The Father is showing us that our provision can and eventually must come from outside of the beast system's economic parameters. At the point where the antichrist takes power, many of us will be in a type of hiding in the wilderness where all of our provision will need to come from the Father.
It seems to me the Father is allowing this beast system to take place to test us, prove us, whether we will walk in His commandments or not, and whether we will trust Him as Provider or not. Just as did with Israel when He took them through the desert after leaving Egypt:
Every single system in this world has been set up to get our eyes off the Father, to not rely on Him as our Provider, and to smear campaign the Father as violent demiurge who cares nothing about His creation. This couldn’t be farther from the Truth. He knows each hair on each one of our heads, He loves us so much He sent His Son to die in our place and make the ultimate payment for our sins. He knows how much Satan hates us and how Satan uses money, trinkets and sparkly things to lure us away from the love of the Father, only so Satan, can in the end, in his ultimate hatred, dan drag us with him to our everlasting deaths in the lake of fire that burns with brimstone.
May each one of us learn to trust as Jesus said to trust. To seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, to trust Him for His provision even when Satan and his minions punish us for doing so in this world. We are really going to have to rely on the Father fully in the months and years to come. Some of that will come from mercy from others. Let us also remain merciful, giving and kind, continuing to trust on the Father, no matter our circumstances.
Still, the bigger part of the problem in modern times is the fact that money is controlled by men (and ultimately by Satan). The legal tender is most literally Satan’s currency.
But, Doug, you take the premise too far. Surely money is like a gun, only as bad as the one who holds it. I see this argument to a degree, but the root of money is plain when you examine the scripture passage where Jesus was asked by the Pharisees if taxes should be paid to the Romans. His response was, “whose image and superscription” is on the currency? The answer, "Caesar’s". Then He says, “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s”
Herein Jesus is acknowledging that the money supply belongs to a man at the head of an empire, an empire whose people worship a pantheon of demonic entities and who even attribute “godhood” to its caesars, many of the caesars fully embracing the mantle. (Just as occurred with the Egyptian pharaohs, the Babylonian kings, including Nebuchadnezzar, Persian kings, etc. Even today our money has the images of dead presidents and statesman, many of whom were Masons, such as George Washington.)
By default this means Jesus is saying that the money Caesar represents belongs to Satan. Something I also see in the seams and between the lines of what Jesus said was, why try to get this when the owner (Satan) is just going to tax you back for it? Why work for more of this currency that's not even yours to hold or keep? Why not work to serve the Father, get out of this slavery to money, and let the Father provide? Could it be that the "getting the bag" as they say is only getting bondage, the money itself always under threat of being lost or stolen, trying to glean peace from a piece of paper based on a perception of value that doesn't exist?
You could see this idea that Satan owns the money also manifested in the passage describing the end of Jesus' desert experience. After the forty day fast, Satan came to tempt Jesus and offered Him all the kingdoms of the world if He would just bow in deference to Satan. Jesus did not argue with Satan and say that the kingdoms were not Satan's to give. In fact, the kingdoms were given to Satan by humanity (because from the beginning the entire world had been bequeathed to humanity) when Eve and then Adam agreed with Satan to break God’s only commandment - do not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In so doing, Adam and Eve turned over what was once theirs (the world the Father had created and given to them) to Satan. Satan’s first move against mankind was theft of the world by deception, which in turn served to enslave themselves to Satan.
So it stands to reason the money of the world would also be Satan’s, and his to administer. That’s why the people who make deals with him often see riches come their way. But it’s a trap, the money is never as much as they think and there’s always a price to pay. As Jesus asked, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose His soul?"
This is why Jesus expressly said, “you can not serve God and mammon.” Because if your life is given in service to money, then you are in service to the demonic. If your life is given to seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things can be added unto you. The lion share of humanity has the order completely reversed.
So getting back to the passages attributed to Paul. When he says that a man who doesn't provide is no better than an infidel, we have to determine, what exactly is the provision the man is expected to provide? I mean considering that there were times Jesus sent out the apostles and told them to take absolutely nothing with them and trust the Father for the rest, how does that jibe with Paul's exhortation?
Jesus said we should pray to the Father, “give us this day our daily bread,” as if to say our provision is promised to us on a daily basis, much like the manna from heaven only showed up each morning. This is the essence of trust in the Father, to seek Him first and wait on Him for that provision on a daily basis, trusting in Him as a little child to come through: with direct provision, or with leadership as to how to get the provision through an effort applied through our own hands. Whatever work the Father leads us to do, can of course be in terms of long term commitments to a type of work that outlays provision, but we have to be ready at the leadership of the Father to trust Him for provision in other ways if He so chooses. Sometimes He closes doors in our lives only to open new ones that are best for us in the season we are in.
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