I just heard a conservative news commentator ask his guest, “Is it moral for the government to take over 50% of a wealthy person’s money in taxes?” The liberally minded guest suggested that to talk morality and money meant high taxes on the rich to facilitate redistributive justice for the poor. To the conservative, I ask this, “Are you serious? Do you really think morality is established to make sure the rich keep all their money? What code of morality needs exist for such a purpose? The rich are quite good at keeping their own money.”  To the liberal I say, “You too are wrong. The answer is not high taxes and government sponsored ‘robin hood’ programs. You rightly question the conservative who suggests that morality is a needed guard for the riches of the wealth.   That thought is laughable. But the answer is not what you suggest.”
Even a cursory reading of the scriptures makes clear that God does intends wealth to be redistributed from the rich to the poor. ((Let’s be clear. It is not a transfer from the working to the lazy. All must work as they are able. But having done that, the wealth is to be redistributed from haves to have nots.)) It is indeed part and parcel of how God carries out his provision for all.
So is the liberal commentator right? No. Because the means of redistribution is not to be the government. No, the church itself, from the individual Christian all the way up to the larger units of Church, is to be the means of such redistribution. It must encourage its wealthy members to give generously as ones who have received generously. Now the reason most think leaving this work up to the church is simply naive is because the church does not work by force.  It can not legislate like the state. No, it simple reveals sin and Savior. It applies law and gospel, freeing people to give as ones no longer afraid of their own provision, having learned from the cross that all their needs will be taken care of by God.
I believe in Redistribution of Wealth…and so does God. But not by means of the government, but by the Church of God. In fact, I believe only in places where the church has forgotten who they are can socialistic ideas take hold in the government. Perhaps for too long, the USA has been such a place.  A place where Christians have been more concerned with protecting their own wealth than anything else. May God free us from such selfishness through the One who freely gave his life for all.
