https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZoKX5-q2x4
Advocates of socialism often use disparity in wealth to justify wanting to increase taxes on the rich, so as to have more government programs for the poor.
When Israel was established in 1948, socialism was the preferred economic model, and a national water company and national electric company were established. The Kibbutz movement was community socialism, a natural inclination for those who had lived with communism in Russia.
But socialism has lost its luster in Israel. A recent poll of the people of Israel revealed that socialism is no longer loved so much there.
https://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-poll-majority-says-free-enterprise-and-less-red-tape-key-to-prosperity
And using income disparity to condemn our economic system seems to be prompted by covetousness. Which probably explains why the proponents of socialism and communism in the 19th Century were mostly atheists and agnostics, and supporters of naturally evolving systems based on human philosophy. The desire to take from the wealthy and redistribute wealth seems to go against the 10th Commandment.
Ex 20:17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Advocates of socialism often use disparity in wealth to justify wanting to increase taxes on the rich, so as to have more government programs for the poor.
When Israel was established in 1948, socialism was the preferred economic model, and a national water company and national electric company were established. The Kibbutz movement was community socialism, a natural inclination for those who had lived with communism in Russia.
But socialism has lost its luster in Israel. A recent poll of the people of Israel revealed that socialism is no longer loved so much there.
https://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-poll-majority-says-free-enterprise-and-less-red-tape-key-to-prosperity
And using income disparity to condemn our economic system seems to be prompted by covetousness. Which probably explains why the proponents of socialism and communism in the 19th Century were mostly atheists and agnostics, and supporters of naturally evolving systems based on human philosophy. The desire to take from the wealthy and redistribute wealth seems to go against the 10th Commandment.
Ex 20:17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Abraham was wealthy, but he used his wealth as a blessing to others. David was wealthy, and used his wealth to prepare for the building of the temple at Jerusalem. History is replete with records of rich people who were a blessing because they were able to give for good works.
Apostle Paul taught us to focus on giving instead of receiving. He worked with his own hands in the common labor of tent makings to support himself so as to not be dependent on others. He had the right, as a religious teacher, to be supported by those he taught, but he preferred to provide for himself. Paul's attitude is what believers should emulate today.
Acts 20:32 “And now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. 33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that I worked with my own hands to support myself and those who are with me. 35 In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Yes, Jesus turned the world upside down. Physical wealth is not the object of life, but a blessed life by faith in Jesus gives us comfort and hope.
1 Thessalonians 4 Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
The Call to Sanctification
4:1 Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God—as you are doing—do this even more. 2 For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, 4 that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. 6 This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. 7 For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness. 8 Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
Loving and Working
9 About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. 10 In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, 11 to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.
So focusing on how much wealth someone else has compared to me and my friends seems to be a wrong inclination. If I believe the words of Jesus, "it is more blessed to give than to receive", then I am surely not concerned about how much money some rich people have. As I have opportunity, I will teach them the blessing of giving.
God and Possessions
Mat 6:19 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
The Cure for Anxiety
25 “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? 31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Redistribution of wealth will do nothing to bring joy and peace into people's lives. Only faith in Jesus Christ will produce a fulfilled life. Everything else is frustration; futile, falsified, fruitless, fitful, failure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbAsH4a3T_g&list=PLPhb5GPf3Rfc944An2iDh_kTHkrKhoCED&index=9&t=0s
Acts 20:32 “And now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. 33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that I worked with my own hands to support myself and those who are with me. 35 In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
The Call to Sanctification
4:1 Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God—as you are doing—do this even more. 2 For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, 4 that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. 6 This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. 7 For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness. 8 Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
Loving and Working
9 About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. 10 In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, 11 to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.
So focusing on how much wealth someone else has compared to me and my friends seems to be a wrong inclination. If I believe the words of Jesus, "it is more blessed to give than to receive", then I am surely not concerned about how much money some rich people have. As I have opportunity, I will teach them the blessing of giving.
God and Possessions
Mat 6:19 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
The Cure for Anxiety
25 “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? 31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Redistribution of wealth will do nothing to bring joy and peace into people's lives. Only faith in Jesus Christ will produce a fulfilled life. Everything else is frustration; futile, falsified, fruitless, fitful, failure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbAsH4a3T_g&list=PLPhb5GPf3Rfc944An2iDh_kTHkrKhoCED&index=9&t=0s
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