We have argued that within the Kingdom of God, the Lord has stipulated three fundamental institutions: the Family, the Church, and the State. Each has its specific duties and responsibilities laid out by the Lord Jesus Christ. Each must answer to Him. Each must respect and honour the others as they respectively seek to carry out their Christ-commanded duties. Each must fear to intrude or interfere in the other institutions, or seek to break out of the God-set bounds. Within the Kingdom, the constitutional documents prohibit such destructive behaviour on the part of the Family, the Church, and the State.
As the Spirit of God builds up the City of Belief; as more and more communities come under its sway, these basic institutions and the protections and prohibitions surrounding each will come to be reflected in a particular society's laws, conventions, covenants, contracts, and creeds.
We have argued that the primary role of the family is to bear and transmit the faith of the Covenant down through the generations. It is the duty of parents to raise their children to walk after the Lord, even as they have done. The duty to teach, admonish, train, discipline, instruct, and raise children to maturity is absolutely fundamental to the Family's duties before God. Neither State nor Church can interfere, suborn, or intrude. State and Church have a duty to help and encourage and respect the Family as it goes about this task—but not second guess, or undermine, or replace.
If the State were to say, “We will educate your children. We will run a universal state education system to ensure that all your children can read and write, and learn about civics and other interesting things” it would be acting unconstitutionally, and would be violating its God-given place. In short, it would be acting in a treasonous manner.
We have also argued that a second fundamental role of the Family is to be the primary institution of welfare. The Family must care for its own; it must feed, clothe, and shelter. It turns out that there are four concentric rings of Family welfare responsibility.
In this regard its first sphere of welfare responsibility is to wife and children. But it also has to consider the wider family—particularly those family members who are destitute or afflicted—such as any widowed or orphaned or who have fallen upon hard times. This is the second ring of welfare responsibility.
The third sphere is fellow Christian brethren. We are commanded especially to do good to those who are of the household of faith. So, as we encounter fellow-believers who are in need, the Family has a duty to reach out and provide assistance.
The fourth sphere is any person we encounter who needs our help. This is the point of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Thus in Galatians 6:9,10 we are commanded to do good especially to those of the household of faith, but not exclusively. Paul commands that we also do good to all men. The person we encounter in need is the fourth sphere of Family welfare responsibility.
The Church also has a role and responsibility in welfare. We have seen that it is to play a back-up role, helping out when all other Family resources have been expended. The Church's role is to ensure that no-one falls through the cracks. The State, however, as we shall see later, is explicitly forbidden by God from engaging in the duties and responsibilities of welfare. Its only responsibility towards the poor and indigent is to make sure its judgments and its laws do not discriminate towards the poor—either positively or negatively. Justice must be blind and show no favoritism.
Now there are some wise and beneficial consequences—intended consequences—that flow from Jerusalem's insistence upon the Family as the primary welfare institution. Firstly, the Scriptures are completely realistic about the sinful tendency of human being towards laziness and bludging and theft. The Proverbs are full or scathing criticism and warnings about the sluggard. Family based welfare is always personal welfare: it knows the individuals, the persons, their lifestyles, their attitudes. It knows whether family members are deserving of help, or whether they are just lazy and bludging. Families know whether any family members are unwilling to work and help themselves. The Family is by far and above the best institution to insist upon accountability on the part of those who are needy.
Secondly, a Family based welfare institution strengthens the family as an institution. As the covenant community expects and requires families to take care of their own, the Family as an institution is respected, honoured, and built up. If one is needy, to be related to a particular family is vital; family ties become far more important. Family connections become valued.
Thirdly, Family based welfare is far more likely to occur within the bounds of natural love and affection—which is to say, it will be up-building and encouraging and not impersonal and degrading. Moreover, it will obligate welfare recipients far more effectively and powerfully to be thankful, and show thankfulness by getting off welfare as quickly as possible, so that, in turn, the former welfare recipients can extend care to others.
Finally, levels of welfare support are automatically self-regulating. There is no artificial bureaucratic “standard” of poverty. There is no artificial poverty line which determines that one should receive welfare or not. The standard is relative to the living standards of each individual family.
But this begs a significant question: How will families get the resources they need in order to extend loving welfare to wider family members? An obvious answer is that within Jerusalem the State is not the rapacious monster that it is within Athens. In that City the government has become a remorseless tyrant, demanding more and more of the wealth and income of the Family, extracting it by the force of unjust laws. In Jerusalem, whilst government itself is deep and pervasive, the role of the State is much reduced. Families are left with much more income and capital to deploy in family welfare.
But this is only a partial answer to the question. The fact is that every family must see itself (and be told, if it fails to see) as deeply obligated to work hard, and amass capital so that it might help the weak. Paul's final address to the Ephesian Church sets it out:
I have coveted no-one's silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”The reason each person is to work hard is that they have so many other people to take care of. And if anyone thinks that this is not true in their particular case, they are simply ignorant of Scripture. But more than that, the Scriptures make it very clear that we have a duty to lay up an inheritance, not only for our children, but also for our grandchildren.
Acts 20:33—35
In Proverbs 13:22 we read: “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.” The context makes it clear that it is capital that is being spoken of, not the inheritance of a godly tradition, or an example, or a testimony of faith—vital though such things are. The parallelism to the statement above says, “And the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.” Clearly the text is speaking of an actual monetary inheritance, or an inheritance of riches, wealth, and capital.
In modern Athens, the State has become the uber-parent. The State has acted in rebellion against God, and has sought to take over Family duties and responsibilities, such as education and welfare. The State has become both Teacher and Provider. In order to fund this it must rip families to pieces—and the key tool to do this is steep, progressive, insatiable taxation.
The Family in Athens has been disenthroned and now lies disembowelled. Stripped of its wealth, its members look to the State as their real family. They give little or no thought to their responsibilities to wider family members: if they fall on hard times, they are pointed to the nearest Department of Social Welfare office. They give little or no thought to laying up an inheritance for their children. Still less they could not even imagine their responsibilities to their grandchildren. In Athens the Family has turned upon itself to aide and abet its own destruction. The basic ethic of Family in Athens has become: “Get all you can! Can all you get! Poison the rest.” The children are on their own. And the children grow up to disown their parents.
In Athens, the Family has become little more than a transient boarding house.
In Jerusalem the Family once again is honoured and feared. It is expected and required to be the primary institution of welfare for all men. To that end, and so that the Family will have the resources to do its job, the heads of households are to work exceedingly hard, save diligently, and provide for dependants. But, more, each household must strive to lay up an inheritance for the next generations—both children and grandchildren.
In receiving that inheritance, generations in their turn are to regard such gifts as a sacred trust. Money passed down is money to be passed on. It can be used for a time to generate income to support those in need. But each generation must strive to add to the capital received, and pass still more on to the servants and stewards who will come after.
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