The Nugget:
Luke 10:7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.
My Comment:
If our nation had properly followed the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ it is likely we would not be in the mess we are in today.
When Jesus said, “for the labourer is worthy of his hire,” I believe Jesus includes the concept that the laborer is worthy of being paid a living wage.
Some very mistaken choices were made during the last century that violated this principle. I remember when it happened. I was involved in debating this subject while I was in college.
My psychology course professor, Dr. Chu, was involved in the process, perhaps unwittingly, that has resulted in moving our industrial base offshore to take advantage of cheaper labor costs in other countries, especially China. Dr. Chu was a very amiable man. He had a good sense of humor. At the time I had him as my professor he was studying the subject of “teacher prestige.” Bottom line: teachers in the USA were not accorded the prestige they actually deserved. Dr. Chu invited a small group of his students to accompany him to do research at the University of South Carolina. There, we had access to English translations of Chinese documents and news. My assignment was to take notes on the subject of Chinese Education during “The Great Leap Forward.” I kept a handwritten copy of the notes I had taken and, years later, wrote an article based on them for my reading selection file for a unit on reading motivation. Dr. Chu was selected by President Nixon to be his representative to China. The ultimate outcome was that China was admitted to the World Trade Organization. The rest is history, and we are all suffering greatly even today as the result of that outcome.
My late brother Mark showed me internal documents from major local industry that demonstrated that the economic claims made by industrial leaders that they were suffering greatly because of high American labor costs was a very false claim. In short, they simply wanted to squeeze every possible penny out of the employees to make the company “bottom line” more attractive to the investors.
The industries were in favor of so-called “free trade” agreements. The theory was that free trade would allow each country to contribute to world trade what it did best, resulting in worldwide improvement in product quality and lower prices for everyone.
There are many factors involved which demonstrate why this would not work, and experience now shows us that it did not work.
Those who do not remember history might well be condemned to repeat it. But you must be very careful about history. Often, history is written by the conquerors who do not always, if ever, tell the truth about the conquered.
My brother was a careful and thorough student of the writings of Karl Marx. He had a large multi-volume set of the writings of Marx and others, and studied them avidly. My brother was influenced to develop such an interest by one of his professors at Wayne State University in Detroit. His professor was a Methodist, in terms of his own faith background, my brother told me.
Karl Marx wrote some significant material about economics and the rise and impact of the Industrial Revolution in the United States of America in the nineteenth century. It turns out that Marx employed careful, even meticulous, scholarship, citing sources in English about the economic factors that took place during those years. In my own personal library I have many books by an author who made the effort to find those now rare books Marx had cited. That author’s name is Michael Hudson. Together with Marc Van De Mieroop, he is editor of a volume I have titled Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East: International Scholars Conference on Ancient Near Eastern Economies Volume 3 (2002, 356 pages). The conference was held at Columbia University, November 1998. The first article in the book, “Reconstructing the Origins of Interest-Bearing Debt and the Logic of Clean Slates,” is authored by Michael Hudson. The principle is found in Leviticus in the “Jubilee Year.”
I have placed notes in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge about the Jubilee Year: (1) definition, Lev 25:11 note. (2) institutional purpose, typical meaning, prophetic significance, Lev 25:52 note.
This subject even has a bearing upon a correct understanding of the Lord’s Prayer (“forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”).
I do not for even a moment believe in Marxism. I agree with Mark Levin’s position on Marxism as reflected on his radio program and in his many books.
Dig deeper into Luke 10:7 and its themes as taught in the Bible by reading the cross references provided in:
(1) The original Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:
Luke 10:7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.
Luke 10:7
in: Luk 9:4; Mat 10:11; Mrk 6:10; Act 16:15, Act 16:34, Act 16:40
for: Deut 12:12, Deut 12:18, 19; Mat 10:10; 1Co 9:4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 13, 15; Gal 6:6; Php 4:17, 18; 1Ti 5:17, 18; 2Ti 2:6; 3Jn 1:5, 6, 7, 8
Go: 1Ti 5:13
(2) The Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury:
Luke 10:7
in the same house remain. Luk 9:4, Mat 10:11, *Mrk 6:10, *Act 16:15; *Act 16:34; *Act 16:40.
eating and drinking. Luk 12:29, Num 18:31, Deut 18:8.
such things as they give. 2Ch 2:10, Ezk 48:13, 1Co 9:14; 1Co 10:27.
for the labourer. +*Gen 29:15, +Lev 7:7, Deut 12:12; Deut 12:18, 19; +*Deut 24:14, Psa 90:17; **Psa 104:23 note. *Psa 128:2, Pro 14:23; Pro 22:29, Ecc 2:24, *Mat 10:10, *1Co 9:4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, *Gal 6:6, *Php 4:17; *Php 4:18, 1Th 5:12, *>1Ti 5:17; *>1Ti 5:18, 2Ti 2:6, 3Jn 1:5, 6, 7, 8.
his hire. Gr. misthos (S# G3408, 1Ti 5:18). +*Lev 19:13, Num 18:31, +*Deut 24:15, +*Jer 22:13, +**Mal 3:5, Mat 20:8, *1Co 9:4; *1Co 9:7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.
Go not. *Mat 10:11, *1Ti 5:13.