A single mother gains a few extra hours at work—her paycheck rises, but food stamps, Section 8 housing, and Medicaid shrink by more than the gain. Working fathers see family benefits slashed, incentivizing fatherless homes. Schools with falling test scores receive more federal dollars; improving scores risks losing funds. The perverse incentive is clear: remain dependent, stay “poor,” and the checks continue. Success threatens the system.
This is the evil motive behind some forms of equal ends vs. equality in opportunity but definitely not compassion. It is a subsidy for irresponsibility masquerading as kindness. It creates a permanent underclass, erodes the family, stifles initiative, and teaches generations that effort is futile—“What’s the use?” When government replaces God as provider, judge, and redeemer, it loses altitude rapidly. Human systems lack the wisdom, justice, and life-giving power of the Creator. They multiply bondage instead of fruitfulness.
The Illusion of the Welfare State vs. the Liberty of Christ: Satan’s counterfeit offers security without responsibility, “care” without character, and equality of outcome that punishes excellence. Like the White Witch’s Turkish Delight, it tastes sweet at first but enslaves the will and freezes the soul in dependency. God’s way rewards diligence, personal responsibility, and the dignity of work. His economy celebrates success because it reflects the image of a creative, fruitful Creator.
When the State becomes the great provider, it inevitably indents failure: it breaks the natural link between effort and reward, weakens the family (the God-ordained first safety net), and turns citizens into clients. Hearts grow cold not only to one another but to the virtue of self-reliance under God. Lawlessness abounds as personal accountability dissolves as we compete instead of cooperating.
We live in times Scripture describes as the final days, when the wide road gets even wider as lawlessness increases and hearts grow cold: “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:12-13 NKJV)
“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good…” (2 Timothy 3:1-3 NKJV)
“If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” (Romans 12:18 NKJV)
Jesus Sets Us Free Indeed – From Bondage to True Liberty: Christ does not subsidize failure or trap people in cycles of dependency. He breaks every yoke and calls us to set the captive’s free ,genuine freedom—is freedom to work, to build, to fail and rise again, to love responsibly, and to glorify God through fruitful lives. This liberty is not license for laziness but liberation from sin’s power, including the soul-crushing bondage of state dependency.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1 NKJV)
“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36 NKJV)
“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17 NKJV)
Jesus sets us free indeed—not partially, not theoretically, but in reality. The Son’s freedom restores dignity, incentivizes virtue, strengthens families, and empowers individuals to rise. It replaces the welfare trap with the gospel of responsibility under grace: “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10 NKJV, echoed in apostolic teaching). It calls fathers to lead households, mothers to nurture, and communities to help the truly needy without creating permanent clients.
The government that tries to replace God always loses altitude because it fights against the grain of creation to survive and improve. It cannot impart the inner transformation of the Holy Spirit that produces self-control, diligence, and love. Only Christ can. His liberty produces abundance, strong families, and societies where success is honored rather than clawed back.
Aslan’s breath brings statues to life and melts frozen winter. Christ’s truth melts the chains of subsidized failure and calls us upward: “Further up and further in.” Reject the illusions that pay people to remain broken. Embrace the freedom where the Son makes you free indeed—free to labor with joy, free to succeed without penalty, free to love your neighbor without bureaucratic middlemen, and free to endure to the end as love grows warmer in the light of the true King. In these perilous times, choose the liberty that sets the captive truly free.
So, let’s not pass off government subsidies as compassion. Godly compassion is through sacrificial love personal charity and training people up in Gods way so they don’t depart from it. One of my hero’s Thomas Sowell has been fighting this battle for over 60 years.
Blessings on your sustainable adventure. brother bill/dad
