The Colorado legislature kicks off the Special Session Show this morning, which is political-speak for, “We spent too much again and now we need to look busy.” There’s a $1 billion budget gap, and the air is already thick with the predictable moral panic: We can’t cut Medicaid! We can’t hurt the most vulnerable!
Cue the sobbing violin music and the sanctimonious speeches.
Here’s a radical idea: maybe the compassionate thing is to cut spending. Maybe big government programs aren’t acts of mercy, but monuments to our laziness. And maybe – just maybe – if we stopped outsourcing compassion to politicians and bureaucrats, we’d see something closer to Biblical justice.
Let’s get one thing straight: God’s command to help the poor wasn’t addressed to Caesar. It was given to us.
Scripture Tells People to Love People – Not Fund It Through Rome
Look at Matthew 25:35–36. Jesus lays it out: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat… I was sick and you looked after me.” Key word: you. Not, “I was hungry, and you filled out a Medicaid application on my behalf.” Not, “I was in prison, and you lobbied for a state-level reentry grant.” You. Individual. Personal. Local.
James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” Again – you. Not the government. Not the Roman Senate. Not a subcommittee on “Human Flourishing Initiatives.”
You want to know why the Church has lost credibility? Because the Body of Christ keeps subcontracting its job to the State and wondering why the culture is on fire. Spoiler alert: you can’t outsource salt and light. The church needs to reclaim its place as the proper head of society.
Big Government Isn’t Compassionate – It’s Complacency
People say, “We must help the vulnerable!” Okay. But who’s we? Because most folks yelling that really mean, “I want someone else to pay for a program I can feel good about on Facebook.” That’s not mercy. That’s emotional blackmail with a tax code.
Let’s be real: the government has no money of its own. Every dollar it gives to one person, it first takes from someone else – at gunpoint, if necessary. And if you think I’m exaggerating, try not paying your taxes and see how that ends. Spoiler: it involves handcuffs.
That’s why 2 Corinthians 9:7 matters so much: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion…” Did you catch that? Not under compulsion. That’s the difference between Christian charity and government redistribution. One is love. The other is legalized looting dressed up as virtue.
Trimming Government is an Act of Mercy
Cutting government programs is not an act of violence; it’s an act of mercy. Because when government gets small, people get bigger. Churches rise. Families engage. Communities strengthen.
The early Church didn’t wait for a Roman grant to feed the hungry. They shared meals. They opened their homes. Acts 2:44–45 says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” That’s voluntary. That’s real. That’s not a 700-page omnibus spending bill written by a lobbyist in a windowless room.
The bigger the government grows, the smaller the Church acts. Why? Because people assume the State has it covered. The government has become the welfare god – omnipresent, inefficient, and worshiped without question. And it’s killing our capacity for real mercy.
Government Isn’t the Good Samaritan – it’s the Innkeeper on Payroll
Remember the Good Samaritan in Luke 10? He saw a bleeding man on the side of the road, picked him up, treated his wounds, and paid for his stay. What he didn’t do was write to Herod demanding a new social services agency.
He did it himself.
That’s Biblical compassion. It costs you something. Time. Money. Comfort. It’s personal. The Samaritan got his hands dirty. The modern voter just checks a box, posts a hashtag, and expects Medicaid to take care of it.
But here’s the truth: systems don’t love people. Governments can’t hug your kid or pray at your bedside. They are cold, blunt instruments—and they fail at nearly everything they try, especially when they try to play messiah.
If You Really Care About the Poor – Shrink the Government
You want to help the poor? Great. Start by getting the government the heck out of the way.
When a church wants to build a food pantry and has to jump through 16 layers of zoning and licensing hell, that’s not justice. That’s oppression. When local non-profits get buried under paperwork because they dared to accept donations without checking all the bureaucratic boxes, that’s not compassion. That’s control.
We’ve allowed the government to become the great smotherer of mercy. And now, when someone dares suggest cutting spending, they’re accused of being heartless.
Well, here’s a thought: maybe the most loving thing we can do is fire the government from the job it was never called to do. Maybe it’s time to tell Caesar to stick to roads and border security and let the Church be the Church.
If we don’t? Then we’re not helping the poor—we’re just helping ourselves sleep at night while the system grinds on.
So yes, Colorado, trim that budget. Slash it like Elijah on Mount Carmel.
And for the rest of us? Let’s stop waiting for the government to do our job and start living like we believe what we preach. Because the world doesn’t need more programs.
It needs more Samaritans.
