More for Less

In today’s society, everyone wants more for less; we want more house for less money, more car for less buck, free healthcare, and free education.  This is not a new concept, nor is it isolated to our own modern society.  If you follow the current political debates, you’ll notice that some platforms include “free” products and services, and they are gaining a lot of ground from the younger generations who too often lack a valuable work ethic.

It is no surprise, then, that this attitude/perspective bleeds over into religion.  The predominant “religious” view is that IF God exists, then He will not or does not require us to “work” for our salvation.  If He required us to “work” for our salvation, then that somehow means that we have “earned” our salvation, and since we cannot “earn” our salvation, then God must not require us to “work”.  It is, as you can plainly see, a very self-serving argument; through such arguments, we can have our salvation and yet be free of any action contrary to what we want to do.

Are these arguments new? Are we the first generation to come up with such? Can God ever get salvation correct? Will we ever be satisfied with God’s plan?

History distinguishes clearly between those who truly loved God (those who obeyed) and those who were selfish and thought only of themselves (those who disobeyed).  The Israelites, from the time that they departed from Egypt, wanted God to work on their own terms and constantly complained against both God and His servants.  Consider it this way for a moment: God frequently provided for the Israelites and required very little effort on their part.  For instance, only two months out of Egypt, the Israelites began to complain against God and said, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:3).  It is clear that this generation of Israelites had very poor short-term memories; they were enslaved in Egypt and Pharaoh had increased their workload to unbearable levels to keep them docile (Exodus 5).  How much easier did the Israelites want their lives to be? God had promised them great things, including a glorious land that they would simply walk into and take over by the hand of God.  After their complaint in Exodus 16, God provided “bread from heaven” (16:4) for them and required very little from them in return. 

What did God require of the Israelites? Did God require too much of them? The account in Exodus informs us that the Israelites were to gather a certain quota every day for five days, then an extra quota on the sixth day, gather nothing on the seventh day (Sabbath Day), and, except for the night of the sixth day, they were to leave none of the bread overnight (Exodus 16:15-31).  However, the Israelites violated these very simple commands; they left Manna over until the morning (16:19-20) and some attempted to gather on the Sabbath Day (16:27-30).  Couldn’t God get it right? Perhaps, if God truly existed, He should have made the bread appear inside their tents for their convenience? How could God be so inconsiderate as to implement rules governing the Israelites concerning the bread for which they did not have to cultivate soil, plant, water, weed, harvest, process, and bake? And yet, what attitude did the Israelites have? One of disobedience, selfishness, and ungratefulness, for they said “our soul loathes this worthless bread” (Numbers 21:5). 

When we complain about what God requires us to do today or claim that there are no stipulations placed upon salvation, we are telling God that “our soul loathes this worthless bread”.  Why are we so arrogant and self-righteous as to insist that the almighty God bend to our wishes? Why do we pretend that God ought to be grateful of us for whatever service we decide to “bless” Him with?

In our society, entertainment reigns supreme, which naturally leads to the attitude mentioned earlier that many people want more for less (or for nothing, in most cases).  Our society desires freebies; we want to have fun all the time and not be bothered with work.  This concept is clearly defined for us in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15; Paul’s command for those who were refusing to work and were busybodies was that they should not eat.  However, we want to take that a step further; while it is clear that Paul’s immediate context concerned physical needs, is there a spiritual application we can make? If we refuse to do the commands of God (work), should we be able to have salvation (eat)?

Salvation does not come on our own terms.  Our fulfilling the commands of God does not negate the grace of God, although some attempt to make these concepts mutually exclusive.  Did the Israelites somehow “earn” their Manna (miraculously given) because they picked it up off of the ground? Could they have had their Manna if they had not picked it up off of the ground? In reality, it is a ridiculous argument to claim that we earn salvation because we adhere to the commands of God; both parts of the equation are necessary or salvation will not be obtained (reference also 2 Kings 5).  As Jesus stated in John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”