is unemployment a sin?

thats my question. is it a sin to be unemployed? is it a sin to not take a dead end worthless mcdonalds job? (where you are contributing nothing to society, infact you are contributing negatively to people's health)

this post isnt about me btw. just asking in general as i have seen in another forum that i wont name someone claim being unemployed is a sin. i disagree with this, Jesus said:

st. Matthew 6:28 "And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?"

what st.Paul says about if a man will not work neither shall he eat, in context i believe its talking about people who were refusing to work and were living off the churches expense doing wickedness being busybodies.

in my opinion this isnt even remotely close to whats happening today, where technology has taken hundreds of millions of jobs around the world, you used to need a thousand men to do the work of one guy in a machine today.

Yes, it is. Unless there is some kind of disability and the person is simply unable to work. But even people in wheelchairs are gainfully employed. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. (Prov 10:5)

Do you have any financial responsibilities in your life? Your 2nd sentence above is full of prejudice. Are you too good to take a job at McDonalds? Hamburgers are a healthy food and there are other healthy things on the menu.

I've been retired for over 2 decades, but have managed to fill my financial roll for the family. By your post I would venture to guess that you might need an attitude adjustment with regards to employment. Even McDonalds offers upward mobility to promising employees.

To me, unemployment is a sin ONLY if someone is able to work and is not willing to do so.

How would an unemployed person provide for his family, pay for housing or food, and other expenses?

I think Matthew 6:28 just means don't dwell too much on clothes or unimportant/less important things.

I think even if you are not working, you should be job hunting. You have a right to try and get the best job you are qualified for, but if that doesn't work out you should take the best job you can get.

I think unemployment is a sin if you expect others to pay for you; it is a bit similar to stealing. However if you are able to retire early and self fund your expenses, that's different.

So who is feeding you and clothing you and giving you a place to sleep?
A family member, the tax payers that work for a living?
Not working when work is available and you are able to work is a sin.
If you are to good to work at McDonalds go live on the street.
McDonalds pays $14 per hour to start and I know a person that makes over $17 per hour working there.
Yea, It is a sin.

People who work at McDonald's benefit society. Sometimes people want McDonald's, people working at McDonald's makes it possible for that to happen. If there's no reason you shouldn't be working and you don't work but instead live off of other people then yes, I think that would be a sin.

I don't think being unemployed is a sin but it has many consequences if the person becomes lazy to pick up another job ASAP ==== if one is laid off their Good paying job ---they should be willing to take whatever work they can get -==be it working at MacDonalds ---digging ditches ----etc===till such time as they can again get work in the field they are trained for ----

God says this about Slothful people =====

Not sure. We would need more information to properly judge the matter.

The Bible is perfectly clear about people failing to work when they should. While on earth, the Lord worked harder than any man in preaching, teaching, and healing. He is the one who told Paul to say that if any man will not work, let him not eat. The Ten Commandments says "Six days shalt thou LABOR and do all thy work..." Adam was given the stewardship of the Garden of Eden to set an example.

As I already mentioned, even those in wheelchairs find gainful employment. But the welfare state has destroyed the work ethic and the necessity to work and earn a living. This is simply to purchase votes, not to help anyone.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few"

Lazy people in life have much in common with lazy people who are not willing to do the work God has called them to do.

It's not a sin, but it's not smart either.

Proverbs 13:22 “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children."

“If a man will not work, a man will not eat.”

God is specific in wanting us to work. However I don't blame you for not wanting to work at McDonald's. I don't think that's what we were created for either. But you may need to do the crappy work to get to the good stuff...or find a different one. There's plenty of others.

In my personal belief the wealth in the world is for God's people. That is what happened in the Bible, and typically what you see is the wicked create it, gain the wealth and then give it over to the righteous in the Bible. But the righteous can go through some trials in the process like Joseph having to be a prisoner. So I wouldn't look at McDonald's like a forever solution. More like a prison sentence. 😆 maybe you become a manager or save and invest in the McDonald's franchise. Or just move on to bigger better things.

I should also add McDonald's pays really well compared to some other places. Yea it sucks but you could work in the medical field for less money and be worried about getting aides. Just saying..... at least it's not typically dangerous. Except that occasional milkshake thrown.

Here's why "being unemployed" is NOT a sin:

You can't repent your way out of it.

I learned late in life that the right attitude to work makes a huge difference to the experience. Towards the end of my working life, I started to assume that I was working for Jesus. Life would have been better if I'd seen this truth early in my Christian life. Jesus is no hard taskmaster, never demands us to do what we cannot do, never treats us unfairly or unjustly. A good attitude goes a long way to making progress in our working lives.

My son was doing a disgusting job cleaning out barrels to be reused. It was hard, hot, casual and many would say, demeaning. We prayed for him to find a better job. He applied for a position with Apple, along with hundreds of others. He got the job. 8 Years later, he was headhunted by Square. His present job is in an IT support role. It's 9-5, pays well and he recently went to the USA to meet the American head office team. He told me that one of the things that secured him the Apple job was his willingness to do menial work that most of his generation shun. Of course, my wife and I know it was God who got him the job. But my son had his part to play. God honoured his good attitude.

Ouch.

It took me twenty years to learn the lesson below.

I learned late in life that the right attitude to work makes a huge difference to the experience.

I wish someone had told me that when I started work as a teenager.

Work becomes so easy once you accept that it is the attitude to work, that has to change.

I went to work in ...

... McDONALDS,

... I still have nightmares where I wake up wearing that uniform and an Ajax dispenser in my hand.

Now, I am a highly skilled tradesman, a butcher, I was trainee specialist and department head, doing alright. Then I got saved.

I found I could not give my all to any company with my mind on the Lord, and I didn't want to be strict with anybody or to chase thieves anymore so I chucked it all up and went to work for McDonalds.

Revival broke out, folks got saved, other Christians came out of the woodwork, we had a time. This was a massively busy London high st and I was the only white English person on staff.

I've been a pot wash, a factory line worker, a cleaner of all kinds of places, a porter. Many jobs. Sometimes no job, no money, no nothing and it was hard in those times ... there I learned miracles of provision, there I learned to recognise the Lord speaking.

Not necessarily, If I'm working to make you a better worker, I could retire early if you become impossible to work with 😊

Nehemiah6, you have a very "American" view of things. Unfortunately, this country will go the way of all others: bending the knee to the adversary. Furthermore, this country's traditions do not set the standard for the saints' behaviors. We are to have the mind of Christ.

You make a point about Jesus working, so the question is "Who paid His wages?" Held to the standard of "only doing what He saw His Father doing" it's clear He didn't have a side job along with preaching, teaching, healing, etc. Yet, He ate, slept inside, traveled, as He did His Father's work.

That being said, I work. I'm sure you work or worked. So the question is "Why do we work?" Is it, like for Paul, so that we are not a personal burden on anyone to whom we minister? Or is it because our Lord distributes His sons "This is my Son" into all areas where the people are? For me, it's both: my mission field is my place of employment. Most people I work with attend Sunday boxes but they know very little about the Kingdom of God.

I work for a large corporation that is loosely tied to "Christianity". That is: they use the word but the meaning is far from understood. In my short tenure here (less than 5 years) I have been given regional over-site, and then state-wide over site for corporate training and then invited to speak to the State House of Representatives. Last week I trained employees at the State level. I am doing so again next week.

Do you know what I'm teaching people about? The need for deep meaningful relationships. Specifically, the necessity of connecting the older generation to the younger. Now, this is a Kingdom principle:

"Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

"This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence 5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); 6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil."

I talk about how this enduring principle existed from the beginning with God the Father and Adam, the son of God, and how it continued throughout the history of man and with Jesus and His disciples. Children of God elevate their audience when teaching from the perspective of the Father.

But, to note, I am the furthest thing from a type-A, power-driven leader. Truth be told: I don't "work hard" or at least not "hard" according to American standards. By American standards I'm sure I would be called lazy. But here I am, by the grace of God, passing many of my peers who have worked in the same field for decades.

I don't work to meet my needs. My Father in Heaven obligates Himself to meet all my needs. I simply do the work He shows me to do wherever He places me. I'm currently here. Tomorrow I may be over there. Okay. It's not my life to live anyway, it's His.