Congratulations to the New York couple who were blessed with identical triplets on Tuesday.

I link to their story because of a conversation I had in Minot. A fellow came through our encampment and spoke to a couple of our Viking Camp kids who were (or appeared to be) twins. He said, “Twins are nothing. I’m a triplet!”

Then (because the kids ignored him. That’s what kids do) he told me that being a triplet is extremely special. Twins are common, he explained. Quadruplets, quintuplets and sextuplets are all over the place today, because of fertility drugs.

But “Triplets,” he said, “are rare. I may be the first triplet you’ve ever met.”

I couldn’t contradict him.



In my Bible reading today, I was struck by the following scripture passages:

Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God…. If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:3-8, NIV)

And further on, in verse 16:

If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.

You’ll often meet (especially in an election year) Christians who lecture you (in the same condescending terms they can’t stand when we lecture them about abortion and homosexuality) that to be a real Christian you have to promote some kind of socialism and the redistribution of wealth.

They’ll point to those passages in Acts where the communal system of the original Jerusalem church is described.

They never seem to notice this passage. This passage clearly indicates that, in the early church (a few years after the events at the beginning of Acts), it was not the practice of Christians to pool all their property, so that everybody could share equally. People were expected to look after their own families if they had the means. “Welfare” (a church function, not a government one) was reserved for the infirm who had no families to help them.

These people also never mention 2 Thessalonians 3:10: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”



The biblical view, I think, is pretty simple. We should be willing to help the truly needy. But allowing people who are able to help themselves to get comfortable with handouts is an insult to their dignity. Work is not shameful. To expect a man to work is not demeaning to him—it’s treating him as a full, adult human.