Income is earned, not distributed. The rich keep getting richer because they keep doing whatever it was that made them rich.
Ditto for the poor.
Having said that, Charity is 'Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself' in action. But being charitable requires one to be cognizant of good stewardship-- Charity is not a safety net for slothfulness.
Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
2 Thessalonians 3:8-12
But again... Charity is 'Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself' in action. Be good to your neighbor, but be good stewards with the resources God has given you.
..::Tacking::..
Being rich is not evil, as some believe. Rich men CAN enter heaven.
So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
--Job 42:12
The LOVE of wealth bars rich haughty men from entry into heaven, NOT the possession of wealth itself. Cash itself is not evil.
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But I'm sure we agree on that point.
What do you think of Mary's pronouncement that "God has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty"? Or Jesus' flat out, "woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation"?
Or James, when he says, "Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries," and he accuses the rich of storing "up treasure for the last days" and states straight out, "You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter"?
Passages like that where "the rich" are charged as a group, not saying, "woe to you who depend on your wealth," or "woe to you who love money," but just "woe to you who are rich"? Do you think those sound like blanket accusations or do you have some different take on them?
Just wondering.
These verses speak of 'the Rich' who are not properly thankful for what God has given them.
--"But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation" from Luke 6:20-27 (and somewhat beyond) describes an attitude (especially since this is Luke's telling of the Sermon on the Mount: the Beatitudes). It is the attitude of being wealthy... having means... and not using it to relieve the oppressed, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. This is not a 'Blanket' condemnation of all those who are rich.
--"Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." From James 5:3.
[Clarification Needed: When these letters were written they were not given chapter and verse. Chapter and verse divisions were added later for easier reference. that being said, the end of chapter four speaks to the beginning of chapter 5] Looking back for additional context to James 4:13-17
"Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
Here is a contrast in attitudes. On the one hand we have 'We will go...' and on the other 'If the Lord will...' The warning is against boasting, and taking pleasure in one's boasting. This, the scripture says, is evil. THEREFORE, speaking to the rich because only the rich can go into other cities for the express purpose of making profit (the poor do not do these things), "him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
David was a wealthy man, yet despite his sins, that wealth certainly played a hand in, he was the Apple of God's eye; a man after God's own heart. The attitude here is not "I am defined and affirmed BECAUSE I am wealthy," but rather, "I am defined and affirmed by God who, because of my obedience, has abundantly rewarded his servant."
I see Jesus' statements as warnings to those who were listening to his sermon about the dangers of not using their wealth righteously. Example: The Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16. The Rich Man "faired sumptuously every day" and Lazarus, a beggar, "desir[ed] to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table". Lazarus asked for crumbs, but no mention that he received even that much from the Rich Man is made or inferred. But the point is this, harking back to the Sermon on the mount, our attitude toward wealth, if we are to be righteous in God's eye, is to be generous, beyond what is asked for, beyond what is required, and always cognizant of the Lord who has blessed us with the means by which he expects us to be more than merely generous.... but sacrificial. And Good Stewards as well. The Rich Man would have fared far better had he an attitude of sacrificial generosity toward Lazarus... and to all men. Instead, he 'fared sumptuously every day' ignoring everyone around him who suffered....
"But I say unto you which hear, love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful."
Luke 6:27-36
Jesus was speaking "Blanketly" to ALL his listeners, rich and poor alike. This is what is expected of every man and woman who would be counted among the righteous. Even the poor are expected to be sacrificially generous.
This was the Rich Young Rulers problem. Not that he was rich, but that he did not love the Lord enough to be sacrificial with what the Lord had blessed him. Instead, the Lord showed him what he lacked... sacrificial generosity.
Give it all away! And follow me! Yet the attitude that allows for the creation of wealth is retained! The rich, having given every penny away to charity, will in time be rich again.
The poor, unless they change their attitude toward money... to say nothing of personal responsibility... will remain poor.
It is a lie to believe that simply because one dies poor and destitute that he will be ushered to the front of the line in heaven. If there is no reckoning with the blood Jesus for the forgiveness of their sin, they will never SEE the line. The same is true of the rich. There are many WEALTHY men who are also righteous; because righteousness has been imputed TO them by the Lord Jesus Christ, NOT because they are rich. Their wealth then allows them to be very generous and do the work that the Lord has established for them to do.
For the wealthy who do not know the Lord? However generous?
Not a very pretty picture.