Essential: Men Providing
Though not often cited, an essential of the Christian faith for being part of the Church is that a man provide for his family.
But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. - 1 Timothy 5:8
Paul doesn’t mince words. We can say what we want, but if you’re counted as worse than an unbeliever, you’re not inheriting the Kingdom. What’s Paul saying? He’s saying that if you take no part in caring for your family’s basic physical needs, you’re worse than someone not even belonging to Christ.
The word for “provide” just means to think ahead. Ask yourself: Am I working now so that my immediate family will have food for tomorrow? Working so they’ll have a roof over their heads?
But not just immediate family. Paul is also referring to extended family and, more than that, we can extend this principle to the Church. He makes a distinction between a man’s “own” and his “household.” He especially must provide for his own household, but even without such a qualifier Paul says it is a denial of the faith to refuse provision to one’s own which, in context, would include extended family and the Church. A principle clearly implied by Paul and Peter in several places. For example:
17 Honor all people, love the brethren, fear God, honor the king. - 1 Peter 2:17
10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. - Galatians 6:10
Paul even goes a step further regarding idleness and its dangers in his letters to the Thessalonians. He says that anyone who rejects this teaching should be shunned. Their behavior is corrupt and infectious.
11 You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. - 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
6 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. 9 We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” 11 We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. 13 And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good. 14 Take special note of anyone who does not obey our instruction in this letter. Do not associate with them, in order that they may feel ashamed. 15 Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer. - 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15
Idleness is cause for removal from the Church. Paul commands Christians to keep away from idle believers so that they may feel ashamed and man up.
The principle of provision being an essential of the faith should not come as a shock to us. This is what Christ came to do. In His earthly ministry culminating in His death and resurrection, He became the very provision of His Father, a picture we see in Genesis 22. Christ speaks to our Father’s provision frequently, particularly throughout the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. If we are being perfected in the image of Christ who is the perfect image of the Father, could we neglect to be about caring for the physical needs of our family? Scripture says no.
It shouldn’t have to be said, but exceptional circumstances do not apply. The rule with any essential is that if you can, you must.
Proverbs 3:27 says, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in your hand to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it.”
Though not expressed as a command here, the sentiment is the same. If you would withhold from a brother in need, you hate your brother and walk in darkness.
14 What use is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead by itself. - James 2:14-17
10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifested: everyone who does not do righteousness is not of God, as well as the one who does not love his brother. - 1 John 3:18
To refuse to show love toward those who are my own, especially those of my own household, is to reject the faith.
