I want to take a look at the passage we have been studying from the perspective of economics.

Notice that, in this story, the good Samaritan had extra money and it was at his own disposal. He was able to put the man who was in need of health care in a place of care and to pay out of his own money to make sure that he was able to get well. If the good Samaritan had been taxed heavily, he would have had trouble helping others. Perhaps he wouldn’t have had “his own animal” to put the “half-dead” man on. No matter how much the man might have wanted to help, if his money was taken and re-distributed, he wouldn’t be able to help.

Notice that the inn was run on the private funds of people like the good Samaritan. The inn keeper is expected to get money for the work that he does. He isn’t expected to run the inn for free.

One of the structural problems with socialism is that it depends on the philosophy of humanism. If it were possible that a human government could be good and all knowing, socialism might work because all the needy people who work hard would be helped and all of the healthy, greedy people who don’t work and expect something for nothing, would be left out. The problem is when the government is bad, or lacks adequate knowledge over individual circumstances. Basically, by relying on a central government instead of the natural interactions between people that God governs, the government takes God’s place. God simply didn’t give men the ability to take care of all of these details. He expects us to trust in Him:

Jeremiah 17:5-10 :

Thus says Yahweh: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Yahweh. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose trust Yahweh is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it? I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

We read here that humanists will devastate their land by bringing the punishments of God upon it. Yes, curses do come from God, even today. This Bible we read is the only living document that we have that never needs to be changed and it does speak directly to our circumstances. Here we read that humanism brings about a bad economy, but notice what it says about those who trust in God.

People who trust in God will personally thrive in ways that God can make them thrive. I see one very clear thing we, as believers in God should do. Stop worrying! Notice that this passage clearly says that those of us who trust in God “shall not fear when heat comes” and that we “shall not be careful in the year of drought!” If we obey God we will be wise and do what is right but we will find that we don’t have to be “careful.” This is a trick of Satan to keep us bound up doing what he wants. We are to listen to the voice of God and only fear Him. If God says you are going to be OK, then you will be.

It should be obvious now why the United States of America gained such success. They boldly stated: “In God We Trust” and God was able to bless them.