"Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?" II Thessalonians 3:10-12; Isaiah 58: 3-8
A Sermon by Alex W. Evans, Pastor
Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA
Sunday, February 6, 2022
“Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?”
II Thessalonians 3:10-12; Isaiah 58:3-8
Do you remember when comedian Jay Leno was host of The Tonight Show? One of his familiar exploits to generate laughter included going out on the street - he called this “Jaywalking.” Jay Leno would approach random people in NYC and ask, on camera, random questions. One time he went out and asked people to name the Ten Commandments. You know what was a common answer? More than a few people said this: “God helps those who help themselves.” (A. Hamilton, Half-Truths, p. 53)
Where does that come from? That is not even a command but a statement.
If you recall - the Ten Commandments were given to Moses to share with God’s beloved people, soon after they had escaped from slavery in Egypt. God gave to Moses the Ten Commandment to shape them into faithful community who love God, worship God, and serve God with their lives.
There is nothing anywhere close to this idea - God helps those who help themselves - in the Ten Commandments.
And to make matters more complicated, the Barna Group, a Christian polling firm, found that better than 8 in 10 Americans think that this same statement - “God helps those who help themselves” - is indeed in the Bible. More than half of the people were strongly convinced that this is one of the major messages of the Bible.
This idea - God helps those who help themselves - seems to come from Greek mythology - as in “the gods help those who help themselves.” It has been echoed by various philosophers and others, including American writers like Algernon Sidney and Horatio Alger, whose books pushed people to do their best, pull themselves up, make the most of their lives. There is lots of literature urging self-help and self-sufficiency. But this sentence is not in the Bible.
I think, on one hand, we can agree that God wants us to give our best, to do our best, to become the best we can be with the lives we have been given. But in other ways, this statement - God helps those who help themselves - is absolutely untrue, and worse, . . . problematic.
So how does this line - God helps those who help themselves - become so popular, get such sincere consideration for Christian faith and living?
There are indeed a number of teachings in Scripture that call forth the best from us - even helping ourselves. We have these familiar messages:
- Jesus says - “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom” (Matt 5:20) and then Jesus goes on to stress the rigorous demands of living and loving as disciples.
- Paul says: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God - love one another, . . do not lag in zeal, . . .serve the Lord, . . overcome evil with good.” (Rom. 12)
- And we have this from Paul - our first lesson - from II Thessalonians:
10For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. 11For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. 12Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
So, . . . you might guess how these ideas emerge about God helps those who help themselves. We cannot sit idle. We cannot be slackers. We have to apply ourselves, “help ourselves.” God expects lots from us - to love and serve in the world as God’s people.
Benedictine monks use a Latin phrase - ora et labora - which means “pray and work.” That is a helpful phrase: we cannot just pray and then hope that God will take care of everything. We pray . . . and we work.
We pray for the less fortunate, but we also work to feed them - because that is what God wants from us.
We pray for the needy, but we work to provide showers for them in our building.
We pray for justice in the courts, but we have to keep working, advocating for better laws - against gun violence, in support of prisoners, for fair voting policies, for equal treatment of under the law, for the environment.
We pray for peace in the Middle East, and in Ukraine, but we also have to work for peace - speaking out, demonstrating that war rarely helps the world.
We pray for an end to the pandemic, but then work to stay safe with masks and more, work for a vaccine, and gets shots.
We pray for an end to systemic racism, but we have to keep working, keep learning how much we have all been shaped by a racist culture. We cannot just say we are not racist, and hope this will all go away; we have to keep learning, understanding, and working for justice and fairness in the city, in the Commonwealth, and across this land.
Yet, here is the danger: when we keep spouting a message - God helps those who help themselves - we are tempted into rationale for not working. When we fall into thinking that God helps those who help themselves - we are inclined to wander far off track from what God wants from us.
Isn’t that so familiar - we want to condense life into memorable sound-bites, and then, before you know it, that sound-bite becomes the message.
“God helps those who help themselves” is a dangerous message.
It allows us to walk or drive right past the person begging on the street corner - instead of following Jesus - who looked at the needy with eyes of compassion, and then worked for ways to help, care, support them.
If we repeat and believe - God helps those who help themselves - it allows us to lead lives as comfortable Christians: we think what we think, we do what we do, and yet God is always pushing us out of our comfort zones - to grow, to be engaged, to share what we have. “Do not be conformed - be transformed,” is how Paul puts it (Rom 12:1). “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law,” Jesus says, “but to fulfill it” (Math 5:17). We are to be continually changing, learning, becoming - to love and serve God in the world.
God comes, you may recall - “to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.” We are the instruments that God uses to change the world. We cannot be idle, but workers always for the redemption of the world.
To lean into the phrase - God helps those who help themselves - lets us off the hook, promotes inaction, even indifference to God and God’s world.
Our calling is not to shrug off or shirk our faithfulness by saying “God helps those who help themselves.” Our calling is actually to take special concern, to be ever engaged at making the world a better place, ridding the world of racism, helping the poor, caring for the needy, and promoting God’s joy and justice for all.
This message - applying our lives, working sincerely for the reign of God - runs all through Scripture. All the way back in the book of Leviticus - a book that most of us ignore - points to God’s intention that we truly help and serve others: “When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather every remaining bit. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant. I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 23:22)
This is an instructive command - we are to work and also be compassionate and caring toward the most needy, sharing the blessings of our lives. We are to work, then be generous with what we have - because finally, all we have is not really ours anyway - but intended for the betterment of the world.
In fact, the Bible, over and over, shows that generosity, compassion for others, especially the needy, are not optional. Generosity and caring commitment are an important form of worship and obedience to God. Let’s look at our other lesson today, from Isaiah 58:
3“Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. 4Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. 5Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
6Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
8Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Isaiah was disgusted because the people loved to worship God, but their actions in life were not about serving God. The people thought they could gain God’s favor by fasting, by other acts of worship, and God was not - is not - pleased when there is no compassion, no attention to the hungry and the needy.
The glory of the Lord shines all over us mostly as we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. This is not about earning our salvation, or God’s favor, but it is about living sincerely into generosity and compassion as God’s grace and favor cover us. Grace flows over us from God - and grace intends to flow from us - always and outward toward others, especially to the needy, the poor, the lonely, the sad, the widow and orphan.
Other prophets echo this same theme - Hosea, Amos, Micah, others. God cares very little about our feasts and festivals, our worship and music, if our lives do not line up with deep commitments to help others, to promote justice for all, to care for the earth. We cannot claim God - and then ignore God’s commands to care for the needy, to bring about God’s reign.
Shane Claiborne has emerged as a Christian prophet in our time. He leads a ministry in Philadelphia called The Simple Way, and heads up the “Red Letter Christians” - a movement of folks who are committed to living as if Jesus meant the things he said. This is what Shane says, among other things: “The more I get to know Jesus - the more trouble he seems to get me into.”
And that would be “good trouble” as John Lewis puts it - trouble that brings justice and compassion to more people. We cannot be idle - this is what God calls forth from us. It is not that God helps those who help themselves. It is more true that God expects us to work - really work - for God’s purposes in the world.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it like this: “Your YES to God requires your NO to all injustices, all evil, all lies, all oppression and violation of the weak and poor.”
Imagine that - we cannot be idle. God has a high calling for all of us, especially comfortable Christians - not to be passive or settled into comfortable Christianity, but to live lives engaged with and for God in the world.
The Lord’s table is set for us today. The Lord’s table feeds us for fortitude and work for God in the world! This bread - this cup - are the strengthen us, sustain us, inspire us, guide us to live and serve with our hearts, soul, mind, and strength. Let us partake today - and be strengthened for sincere commitments for God! May it be so. Amen.
Prayer of Commitment: You cover us, O God, with your loving care and gracious ways. You keep calling us, O God, to trust you and serve you. We commit our lives to faithful discipleship following Jesus Christ. AMEN
Alex Evans, Pastor, Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA preached this sermon during Sunday morning worship on February 6, 2022. This is a rough manuscript.