The world we live in today is a shadow of its biblical foundations, marred by the consequences of Adam’s fall and a complete disregard for its Creator. This rejection of God has left us with a flawed and obscured understanding of our purpose and place in the world, and as a result, humanity is constantly divided and unable to find common ground. Without the transformative power of God’s grace, it seems impossible for us to agree on anything, including the way the world should function. The impact of sin and the absence of God’s presence have taken a devastating toll on our lives, leaving us longing for something more.

But among God’s elect, from creation to today, we have been given a standard by which to guide our lives and our faith, and that standard is the Word of God. However, there have always been false teachers among us whose sole purpose it is to twist the Word of God and do so under the guise of biblical teaching.

For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. —Jude 4

One of the most prominent and pervasive perversions of the grace of God today is the social justice gospel and it’s found in nearly every modern church from the apostate mainstream Protestant denominations to even, to some degree, more conservative Evangelical churches. This deceitful ideology, rooted in the harmful Marxist-informed “woke” theology, asserts that the world is entitled to equity and those who have more must give to those who have less. This toxic belief fuels the fires of division and conflict, pitting people against each other based on class, race, and gender. This is a distorted and harmful message that undermines the true message of God’s grace and love for all people.

Unfortunately, the modern woke church perpetuates this toxic and erroneous belief by using distorted interpretations of not just the New Testament or the teachings of Jesus, but also the Old Testament, to support a perverse and malevolent social justice crusade. This movement is being forcibly imposed upon the Church, despite its explicit incompatibility with the teachings of the Bible.

The Old Testament laws and teachings, far from supporting the woke agenda, actually refute it. For example, Leviticus 19:15 instructs us to “do no injustice in court” and “not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” This law, which was established to ensure fairness and justice in the legal system of the Old Testament, demonstrates God’s stance on showing partiality based on financial circumstances.

Old Testament Israel did not coddle or reward the sluggard or those with a poor work ethic. Its wisdom is clear: success comes from hard work and diligence. Many passages in the Proverbs clearly drive this point home and demonstrate to us that laziness has consequences—poverty and hunger. On the other hand, the diligent will be richly supplied and reap the rewards of their labor.

Proverbs 13:4 says “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied,” meaning that if you don’t put in the effort, you won’t see the benefits. It’s really that simple, because, as it states in Proverbs 19:15, “Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.”

Like many in our society today, the lazy want to reap the rewards of other people’s labor rather than work for themselves. However, “the sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.” (Proverbs 20:4)

Lest one attempt to retort that this was only meant for Old Testament Israel, God’s aversion to partiality is repeatedly echoed throughout the New Testament (James 1, 1 Timothy 5:21, Galatians 3:28, and especially Romans 2:11). This Old Testament law was not merely a judicial law, but a reflection of his character.

God’s character, as reflected in both the Old and New Testaments, is one of fairness, justice, and non-partiality. The social justice gospel, a perversion of God’s grace and love, undermines this true message and creates division among people based on class, race, and gender.

The woke movement in the modern church, rooted in secularist social justice ideologies, is incompatible with the teachings of the Bible and is contrary to the laws and teachings in the Old Testament. Instead, the Word of God instructs us to work hard and be diligent, not to seek reward without putting in effort.

From a temporal perspective, true success, according to the Scriptures, comes from hard work and diligence, while slothfulness leads to poverty and hunger. And while we, as Christians, are certainly called to assist our brothers and sisters in need, particularly within the context of the Church, under no circumstances are we called to impose a governmental welfare system designed to impose social equity for all people. And rewarding laziness and poor work ethic with the fruits of other people’s labor is by far a departure from anything remotely biblical.