“Are you better off?” is the wrong question. It appeals to our ego without the balancing biblical imagery of the Good Samaritan who sees a need, feels compassion, stops his journey, anoints with oil and wine, bandages wounds, transports a stranger, pays his bill and returns later (Luke 10:25-42). It also lacks the metaphor of the human body where no part — whether eye, hand, ear or foot — can practice “rugged individualism” (1 Cor. 12:14-27).
Unless we “love our neighbor as ourselves” (Mark 12:29-31), we will build our barns to overflowing, then tear them down to build bigger ones without helping those who have no barns. A worse fate than donating a barn awaits those who keep building them (Luke 12:16-21).
This question also seduces many who argue against it. Their “Yes, we are, too, better off!” response is the same selfishness in reverse. Neither reflects the biblical standard of carrying one another’s loads as well as our own (Gal 6:2-5). Nor do they ask the obvious question: “How can I help?”
Yet several areas of life offer opportunities for sacrificial living that justify the re-election of President Obama. Two of them are:
1. Health care. President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) has secured Gov. Mitt Romney’s partial support, a reversal from his previous promise to “repeal Obama care in its entirety on day one” of his presidency. “There are some things I like about it,” he said, perhaps grudgingly. Yet Jesus’ teaching goes much further: “Heal the sick … freely, freely” (Matt. 10:8), promising that his disciples would do that and more (John 4:12-14).
2. The economy. The biblical standard is: “Those who have more do not have too much more and those who have less do not have too much less: (2 Cor. 8:13-15; Ex. 16:18, NIV). Paul characterized this economy as “equality” (Greek, isos), though the proper meaning is “equity,” not mathematical sameness.
Jesus taught us to pray that life on earth parallel that in heaven (Matt. 6:9-13). Surely, that includes health and daily bread for everyone in both places.
Russell Waldrop is a retired Southern Baptist chaplain, living in Waynesboro, Va.