I want you to notice something in the plan of God:

"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat" (Gen. 2:15-16).

God was saying to Adam: "Now you can have the fruit in this garden; but to get it you first have to work the garden by dressing it and keeping it. Then you can have the reward of the fruit it produces."

That's the way God's plan has always been: work and reward. God's system says, "First, you work; then you get the reward." God never intended for it to be reward without work. His plan is for His people to be rewarded through their work.

Our society should always be built upon work, with people being rewarded for it. Then there will be value and order. People will understand that, first, they must do certain things before they will be able to receive. It will be a society based upon solid principles.

This is the reason God is against gambling, whatever its form. Gambling is against God's plan for man.

When men can skip work and think based upon chance that they may win something that way, it breaks down the entire order of their society. When a society is based on anything other than work, its men and women take on the wrong attitudes, and children aren't being taught what their roles are. With this kind of thinking, people can get out of whack and walk away from the blessings of God. So forget about buying lottery tickets and stay away from the casinos. That was never God's plan.

God's plan is for His man to be healthy in every way, and a man can be truly healthy only when he has made his earnings by the sweat of his brow. That gives him a feeling of self-worth, which every man needs.

A Man Without a Job
God always has a job for man to do. A man without a job is an emaciated man. That's why a wife can see her husband change after he loses his job. Different guys react differently, but a man without a job is a man in trouble.

I'm for creating jobs for men, and women too. God wants them to have jobs, and they can. Every person should be doing something. If you don't have a job right now, then volunteer your time. Everyone needs to stay busy.

The worst thing is for a man to sit around doing nothing. Now sometimes things will happen and people will find themselves temporarily out of work. But I'm not talking about a temporary situation; I'm talking about a way of life.

No son should ever see his father just sitting around the house. The man of the household should get up, get dressed, go out and do something! A boy shouldn't come home from school every day and see his daddy sitting around with his feet propped up, drawing a check from the government that's being paid for by somebody else's work. That's wrong! It's not God's plan for man!

Welfare
I believe the worst thing that ever happened in our society was the welfare system.

As good-hearted as the intentions of welfare may have been, its results have been endemic. Welfare is absolutely contrary to Scripture. As we have already learned, God's original plan was twofold: work and reward.

Now the Bible talks about giving to the poor, about helping our brothers and sisters, about bearing one another's burdens (Prov. 19:17; Matt. 25:40; Gal. 6:2). But a segment of society or a system where people get rewarded without working is against God's plan.

This is why we have such a mess these days. People have decided, "I'm smarter than God so I'll just do things my own way." Then when they get the results, which surely will come to them eventually, they find out they aren't really as smart as God. The Bible says:

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12).

This is what we have seen develop: a society that is laden with death.

Throughout this country there are men refusing to take the responsibility to be the father of the home. Many of them are being given money by our government for doing nothing. As a result, people are being destroyed. That was never God's will for man, and it's wrong!

Much of this is happening in the Church. People have forgotten what God said about a matter. They have based their lives on what they believe and have ordered their lives according to how they think. That's the problem. They have lived too much by what they think and not enough by what God says in His Word.

Working To Give
According to God's Word, it's good for men to work. A man without a job is a man with a problem. He can't be out of work for too long; he has to be doing something.

In the Old Testament, men had to work and labor with their own hands so that they would have something to eat. But the born-again Christian of the New Testament does not work to live; he works to give.

Notice Ephesians 4:28, which says:

"... let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."

Under the New Testament, the born-again believer is to labor with his hands that he may have to give to those in need. He works a job in order that he may have sustenance to take care of himself and his family. But he should not be looking at his job as his real source of supply.

He must recognize the Lord as the Source of his supply and come to know for himself the truth of Philippians 4:19, which says:"My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Source: What On Earth Are We Here For? by Keith Butler
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers