“God helps those who..."

 

                  "God helps those who help themselves": a saying often quoted by well-meaning Christians, and often attributed to the Bible, but actually found nowhere in the Holy Scriptures.  In fact, "God helps those who help themselves" stands in opposition to the core message of the Bible. So, where did this saying come from?

Part I: Theory

                  The origins of this saying are in Classical Greece, around the year 600 B.C.  The earliest evidence for the saying is in one of Aesop's Fables.  In the Fable of Hercules and the Waggoner, a wagon gets stuck in deep mud such that the horses cannot pull it out.  The wagon driver cries out to the god Hercules for help. The god appears and chides the wagon driver for just kneeling there and praying.  He tells the wagon driver to put his shoulder to the wheel and push, "for the gods help those who help themselves." (Aesop. Fables. The Harvard Classics. 1909-14)

                  It is a lesson that is well suited to ancient Greek paganism, in which the gods were not much inclined to help people unless they could get something out of it for themselves.  This saying found its way into other classical Greek literature as well. 

From "Baby's Own Aesop" 1887, illustration by Walter Crane

                  The Covenant People (the post-exilic Judahites/Israelites/early Jews) would not have encountered this saying until sometime after 332 B.C., the year Alexander the Great conquered Jerusalem and its environs, beginning the spread of Greek language and culture into the region.  By that time, the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) were fairly well established, and the faith of Israel was taking on the general form we see some three centuries later, in the time of Jesus.  That faith clearly rejected the idea expressed in Aesop's Fable, as we shall see below—but first I must clarify something.

                  While Christianity was no different from ancient Israelite religion in rejecting the idea that God helps those who help themselves, Christianity was, nevertheless, inadvertently responsible for allowing this idea to come down through the centuries.  The reason for this was that the learned of the Christian Roman Empire and of the Byzantine and Roman churches saw fit to preserve much of classical literature. Aesop's Fables were a favourite source for simple, common-sense wisdom.  Centuries later, in the 1400's, the invention of the printing press encouraged more literacy, which led to a demand for edifying and entertaining books, such as Aesop's Fables.  Even Martin Luther appears to have been preparing an edition of his own, though he never completed it.

                  In the 1600's, the saying ("the gods help those who help themselves") took the shape we now know ("God helps those who help themselves"), becoming a favourite slogan of Deists.  Deism was a trend in religious thinking that developed together with the rise of Rationalism and the Enlightenment.  It understood God in the same way as the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle: God was the "unmoved mover" who had made all things and set the universe in motion, but then stepped back and let the creation proceed according to the laws that governed it.  Divine provision for the Deists was simply the creation and the laws of the universe that God had made.  The rest was seen to be up to us because, in Deist thought, God does not intervene in the functioning of the universe.  The Founding Fathers of the United States were largely Deists (indeed the entire project of the United States was an experiment in applying Enlightenment political thought to a real-world situation), so it is not surprising that Benjamin Franklin included "God helps those who help themselves" in his Poor Richard's Almanac, further cementing it into the English-speaking world's consciousness.

 

                  But as I mentioned above, "God helps those who help themselves" stands at odds with the witness of Holy Scripture as to how God acts.  Perhaps the Greek gods like Hercules or Zeus helped those who helped themselves, and perhaps Aristotle's "unmoved mover" required people to depend only on their own strength and wits, but this is not the way the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob chooses to act.  Indeed, one of the fundamental principles of our relationship to God is expressed by Jesus when he says, "I am the vine; you are the branches: if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit—apart from me you can do nothing," (John 15:5) and what Paul expresses in Philippians 2:13, "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

 

                  If we examine whom the God of the Bible is said to help, we find the following characteristics:

 

1) God helps those who call on him for help.

 

Then the LORD said [to Moses], "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians..." (Exodus 3:7-8a)

 

The LORD answer you on the day of trouble! The name of the God of Jacob protect you!  May God send you help from the sanctuary, and give you support from Zion. May God remember all your offerings, and regard with favour all your burnt offerings...Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the LORD our God. They shall collapse and fall, but we shall rise and stand upright. (Psalm 20:1-3, 7-8)

 

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud, be gracious and answer me! "Come," my heart says, "seek God's face!"  Your face, LORD, do I seek. Do not hide your face from me...Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!  If my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will take me up. (Psalm 27:7-10)

 

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:11)

 

I will do whatever you ask me in my name so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask for anything, I will do it. (John 14:13-14)

 

2) God helps those who are faithful or who trust in God to deliver them.

 

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning...Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.  In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.  To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. (Psalm 22:1, 3-5)

 

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me al the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (Psalm 23)

 

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right hand is disregarded by my God?" Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless...those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, and they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:27-29, 30)

 

If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.  But ask in faith never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-mined and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from God. (James 1:5-8)

 

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:10)

 

 

3) God helps the weak, the poor, and the oppressed in their distress.

 

Then the LORD said [to Moses], "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians..." (Exodus 3:7-8a)

 

There is no Holy One like the LORD, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly; let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children are forlorn. The LORD kills and brings to life; God brings down to Sheol and raises up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; God brings low but also exalts. God raises up the poor from the dust; God lifts up the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honour. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and on them God has set the world. (I Samuel 2:2-8)

 

God's mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. (Luke 1:50-53)

 

 

4) God helps those who help others.

 

In Deuteronomy Moses is instructing the people of Israel on the various points of the Covenant, reminding them, that if they keep the Covenant, God will be with them, bless the land they inhabit, and prosper their efforts:

 

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers providing them food and clothing. You shall love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:17-19)

 

If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community...do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbour. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought thinking, "The seventh year—the year when all debts are cancelled—is near," and therefore view your neighbour with hostility and give nothing. Your neighbour might cry to the LORD against you and you would incur guilt. Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you: Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land! (Deuteronomy 15:7-11)

 

...and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward. (Matthew 10:42)

 

                  God is transcendent and almighty; God is imminent and compassionate; God is love.  When it comes to the God revealed to us in the Scriptures, it is important to remember, "'My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways' declares the LORD" (Isaiah 55:8).  We might feel better about ourselves, or feel superior in our own achievements by being able to say, "I did it, so why can't those people?" That is how our human thinking goes.  But Christian thinking would express the thought like this: "God has put me in a place and time, given me gifts and abilities, and prospered the work of my hands such that I have benefited greatly.  All glory be to God alone!"—not unlike the way the great composer Johann Sebastian Bach indicated boldly at the end of all his works: Deo soli gloria! (To God alone be the glory!).  Or, to quote the more pointed words of Jesus:

 

So, you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, "We are worthless slaves, we have done only what we ought to have done." (Luke 17:10)

 

                  But God not only reaches out to the four groups I listed above. God also helps any whom God chooses to help. This is a fifth group:

 

5) God helps those whom God helps.

 

I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. (Exodus 33:19b)

 

But I say to you, love you enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain to the righteous and unrighteous. (Matthew 5:44-45)

 

                  So, while Hercules or any of the other Greek gods or goddesses might insist that the gods help those who help themselves, the One God, creator of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the LORD (YHWH), the Heavenly Father of Jesus Christ,

 

1) Helps those who call on God for help.

 

2) Helps those who are faithful or who trust in God to deliver them.

 

3) Helps the weak, the poor, and the oppressed in their distress.

 

4) Helps those who help others.

 

And finally...

 

5) Helps those whom God chooses to help.

 

 

 

Part II: Praxis

 

                  When Christians use the saying, "God helps those who help themselves," they commonly use it to excuse themselves or their church from reaching out to people in need, especially people whom they perceive to be lazy, manipulative, or beyond help.  In conjunction with this saying, they will also cite the words from II Thessalonians 3:10, "Anyone unwilling to work should not eat," especially when they are calling into question assistance through soup kitchens or food banks.  Many people have pulled these words from II Thessalonians out of their context (including, ironically, the atheist Lenin during the Bolshevik Revolution!) and used them in a way that Paul did not intend.  As with the saying from Aesop, so here too: it is important to understand the original milieu of this injunction.

                  To understand Paul and the church of his day, we must go back to Jesus.  Jesus was clear that God helps those who call on God out of faith, as we saw in some of the passages that I cited in Part I of this essay.  Other places where Jesus speaks to this are when he admonishes his listeners not to worry but to trust God to provide (Matthew 6:25-34; Luke 12:22-31) and when he encourages his disciples to persevere in prayer (Luke 11:1-13).

                  But Jesus was also clear that one of the ways that God answers prayers and provides help to others is through the generosity of the people who hear God's commands to love and be generous.  The Law and the Prophets are replete with passages commanding the people of God to give and share with those in need and chiding or condemning Israel when they have not obeyed these commands.  Here are two representative passages:

 

If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be heard hearted or tight fisted toward your needy neighbour.  You should rather open your hand willingly, lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.  Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought...and therefore view your neighbour with hostility and give nothing: your neighbour might cry to the LORD against you and you would incur guilt.  Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.  Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land. (Deuteronomy 15:7-11)

 

Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment: because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals—they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and push the afflicted out of the way..." (Amos 2:6-7)

 

                  Jesus took up this sensibility toward those in need, and his spirit and influence in this regard can be clearly seen in the activities of the early church.  In the several mass feedings in the Gospels (Matthew 14:13-21; 15:32-39; Mark 6:30-44; 8:1-10; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15), Jesus gives his disciples the example of how they are to manage their supplies in the face of others who face a lack of basic needs: to share what little they have and trust God to do the rest.  Jesus also gave stern warnings of God's condemnation of those who refuse to help the needy, such as in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) and the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46).  And so, when the young church began to organize itself after Christ's departure from this earth, we observe the following:

 

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need...They laid it at the apostles' feet and it was distributed to each as any had need. (Acts 2:44-45; 4:35)

 

                  The mother church in Jerusalem served as the model and inspiration for other Christian congregations, and Paul's congregation in Thessalonica must also be understood in this context.  As Pieter W. van der Horst points out in his insightful article, "Organized Charity in the Ancient World: Pagan, Jewish, Christian" (in the collection, "Jewish and Christian Communal Identities in the Ancient World," edited by Yair Furstenberg © 2016 Koninklijke Brill NV), it was the early Christian church that invented organized assistance to those in need.  In pre-Christian Greek and Roman culture, giving was done in order to get something in return, much in the way that their gods were believed to behave.  Kings, emperors, and city governments doled out free bread to gain the political support of the masses—masses that sometimes rioted and unseated unpopular leaders.  Similarly, individuals gave to those from whom they expected something in return: the patron-client system characteristic of classical society.  In Judaism, by contrast, individuals were religiously obligated to give and (as the passage from Deuteronomy cited above states) to expect nothing in return: a principle reaffirmed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:27-36).  Nevertheless, in the Jewish milieu this remained an individual activity, and there is no evidence of organized charity in Judaism until several centuries into the Christian era.

                  It was the early Christian membership and leadership who went one step further by pooling their resources and sharing with any in need, whether part of the Christian community or from outside of it.  The dual phenomena of pooling resources and universality of generosity were the key innovations of the Christian church in regards to assisting those in need and living out the concept expressed by Paul that the Church (seen as both local community and universal, spiritual phenomenon) is the body of Christ.  As the church grew and spread, this shared charitable work grew and expanded to include:

 

1) Employment for widows in carrying out this charitable work (deaconesses) in an age when widows often became "surplus" to the society and therefore were frequently left destitute (after the 4th Century the role of deaconesses diminished as the monastic vocation became an alternative place for widows to find community and purpose, though we also have records of a cherotropheion or "widow-care-place" near Constantinople);

 

2) Orphanotropheia—residences and schools for orphans—initially run by the local Christian community on an informal basis under the auspices of the local bishop, but, from the 4th Century on, given a more formal institutional character (the pre-Christian ancient world had no mechanisms beyond the family to care for orphans, and unwanted children were often left to die or sold into slavery—the church made it its mission to take in and raise these abandoned children).  A specialized kind of orphanage called a brephotropheion was geared specifically toward infants;

 

3) Various specialized kinds of residences like ptochotropheia (for the poor), gerokomeia (for the elderly), xenones ton lelobemenon (for cripples) etc.

 

4) Beginning in the 4th Century, all-purpose hostels called xenodocheia or nosokomeia developed into the prototype of the modern publicly funded hospital where faith and the medicine of the day were combined to foster healing, in an age when the vast majority of the population could not afford to pay for doctors (such as they were).  Specialized types of these included lochokomeia (for birthing mothers) and the domi leprosi (houses for lepers).

 

                  In essence, the early church invented the type of organized charitable work and social safety net that today is carried out by religious, secular, and government organizations across the globe.  Early Christian communities like Paul's were pioneers in this development out of their desire to follow the words and spirit of Jesus, and it is in this connexion that we must understand Paul's words.

                  In II Thessalonians 3:6-15 (where we find the words "Anyone unwilling to work should not eat") Paul is specifically addressing members of the Christian community who are taking advantage of the largesse of their fellow Christians without contributing to the work of the community.  In various places in the New Testament there is evidence of individuals who allow the baser aspects of human nature to lead them to exploit the generosity of their fellow Christians.  And here is the key: they are individuals within the Christian community who are not pulling their weight.  For example, in Ephesians there is a verse that gives us a small window on the inner tensions of a community made up at least in part of broken people who have come to Christ for inner healing.

 

Thieves must give up stealing: rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands so as to have something to share with the needy. (Ephesians 4:28)

 

                  This verse is informative in two ways: 1) it reminds us of how hard it can be to break old habits, especially ones that may have arisen out of survival needs; and 2) that from the Christian perspective, the entire purpose of earning money is to have something to share with the needy.  There is a double standard here: those who are baptized and part of the body of Christ are held to a higher standard than those who are not.  The reason is, as it says a few verses earlier:

 

You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

 

                  And so, we come back to "anyone unwilling to work should not eat."  The full passage paints a picture similar to that of the thief who had become part of the congregation at Ephesus but who had a hard time shifting to an honest livelihood.  The key phrase in the verse is, ei tis ou thelei ergazesthai, "if anyone is not willing to work."  Precluded from Paul's injunction are those who are unable to work because people unable to provide for themselves will always be cared for in the circle of the community.

 

Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us.  For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us: we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not be a burden to you.  This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate.  For even when we were with you we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.  For we hear that some of you are living in idleness—mere busybodies, not doing any work.  Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.  Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.  Take note of those who do not obey what we say in this letter: have nothing to do with them, so that they may be ashamed.  Do not regard them as enemies, but warn them as believers. (I Thessalonians 3:6-15, emphasis mine)

 

                  The issue here is not outside recipients of the congregation's generosity, but rather those within the congregation who are not doing their part: those capable individuals who do not "labour and work honestly with their own hands so as to have something to share with the needy."  The members of the Christian community are supposed to set an example to the wider society of "true righteousness and holiness."  On the one hand they are to show the same generous mercy as their "Father in heaven; for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain to the righteous and unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45).  And, on the other hand, they are to "teach and admonish one another in all wisdom" (Colossians 3:16) to "lead a life worthy of the calling" they have received (Ephesians 4:1).

                  Further, it has to be emphasized that the work of helping those in need was not a peripheral part of the Christian life: rather it was a core ministry, a key part of living out the calling to be the body of Christ in earth.  The first great reorganization of the life of the first congregation in Jerusalem was the appointment of seven deacons to oversee the distribution of food and clothing (Acts 6:1-7).  Neither the proclamation of the Word nor the distribution of food and clothing to the needy were to suffer for lack of personnel.  These two expressions of the church's charism—proclamation and helping those in need—held equal importance.

                  At the same time, that help ought to have the long-term goal of helping those who are able to move from dependence to productivity so that they can reach out to others.  In this way, like a stone tossed into a pond, or like leaven in a lump of dough, or like a light shining in the darkness, the Church becomes a means by which God transforms, heals, and restores the world.

 

Conclusion

 

                  God helps those who call on God, and we, the Church of Jesus Christ, are called out from among the people of the world to be agents of that help.  But it is not a help designed to foster dependency, rather it is a help designed to heal a broken world.  The exploitation of others (including their generosity) is a sign of an unwell spirit or psyche.  Drawing people into the fellowship of the church includes the naming and unmasking of such inner demons, so that the person can be renewed to move from one who uses others to one who helps others.  From the Christian perspective, the brokenness of others can never be used as an excuse to push people away.  Rather, it is an invitation to help them in ways that bring healing.