I have been
meditating on this lately, should we human beings actually retire? The reason I
have been meditating on this, is because of various election promises I have
heard being made for retirees during this current election campaign. But I want
to ask this question, is retirement even good or biblical?
First, what
is retirement? It is not a very controversial concept, so we could easily define
retirement as stepping down permanently, or with the intention to be permanent,
from the workforce, to live on savings or a pension of some kind.
When you
think about what the goal of retirement is for most people, to stop having to
work and to just live on your own savings, it is hard not to see how the Bible flat
out condemns this. For example, the parable of the rich fool. We read this in
Luke 12,
“13
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the
inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or
arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard
against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of
his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich
man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I
have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear
down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my
goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for
many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This
night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose
will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not
rich toward God” (Luke 12:13-21).
When you
factor in that the goal of retirement is essentially to have enough to live on,
without working, then it is impossible to read Luke 12 without seeing how it
rebukes the modern practice of retirement. The goal of retirement is for people
to have enough to live on, so that they can do as this man did, “19 And I will
say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat,
drink, be merry.”’ How is this not a summary of the intention behind
retirement?
What is worse
is that many people retire knowing that they do not have enough to live on and
then expect the government, really their fellow citizens, to provide for them for
10, 20, 30 years of their life. When you take into account a retirement age of
around 65-67 and that the average lifespan of an Australian is 81.1 years old,
this means the average Australian expects to live on their enlarged barns stored
up by themselves, or on the taxes of others for 14.1 to 16.1 years of their
life. This is simply the rough average. A man who retires at 65 and lives to 85
expects to eat, drink and be merry for 20 years of his life. A man who does
that on a pension expects to do that at the expense of others, believing the
tax they paid should come back to them.
The aged
pension in Australia is $1,116.30 for singles, and $841.40 for couples, each,
per fortnight.[1]
That equals $2,232.60 per month for singles, and $1682.80 for couples, each,
per month. For 16 years, the rough average length of time someone may live on a
pension, that is $428,659.2 per single, and 323,097.6 for couples, each. That
is a lot of entitlement.
If the Bible
condemns someone for wanting to store up enough for himself to not work for the
rest of his life? What would it say about the pension? I know people will
despise me for saying this, but we need to consider what the Christian view of retirement
is.
The reason
God is condemning the rich fool is because he is illustrating that our human
desire for wealth and ease is deadly. Someone can have so much wealth that they
do not need to work, and yet have their soul go down to hell. This builds on
the idea that God wants us to bless people with our wealth, not turn it all
back around on ourselves. He also wants us to leave as big an inheritance for
our children and their children as we can (Prov. 13:22). A man who get’s so
rich he does not need to work, has been put in a situation where he could get
even richer and help many people if he continued working, but he has instead
sought to indulge himself. This is not good for someone’s soul. This is very
bad.
Also, we need
to consider a theology of work here. Mankind was created to work. Genesis 2:15
tells us, “15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to
work it and keep it.” God’s intention for mankind, even in the perfect garden,
was that man would work. It is to a man’s glory to work. And it is not an
accident that when many men retire they lose purpose, and often fade away,
sometimes very quickly.
When it comes
to older women Paul says,
“3
Honor widows who are truly widows. 4 But if a widow has children or
grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household
and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of
God. 5 She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and
continues in supplications and prayers night and day, 6 but she who is
self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. 7 Command these things as well, so
that they may be without reproach. 8 But if anyone does not provide for his
relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith
and is worse than an unbeliever.
9
Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been
the wife of one husband, 10 and having a reputation for good works: if she has
brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints,
has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. 11 But
refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from
Christ, they desire to marry 12 and so incur condemnation for having abandoned
their former faith. 13 Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from
house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying
what they should not. 14 So I would have younger widows marry, bear children,
manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. 15 For
some have already strayed after Satan. 16 If any believing woman has relatives
who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that
it may care for those who are truly widows” (1 Tim. 4:3-16).
So, Paul
expects the Church to be willing to look after older widows, if they have lived
a godly life and dedicate themselves to godly pursuits and have no other
options. But note this, he is referring here to widows, not older married women
whose husbands are still around, and certainly not younger women who can
remarry. In that case it is the men who should provide for their family, “8 But
if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his
household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” If the
widow has family it is her family, not the church, which Paul expects to look
after them, “16 If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her
care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those
who are truly widows.”
Everything
Paul says here is an expansion on what he says in verse 3, ““3 Honor widows who
are truly widows.” The word for honour also means financial support. So, he is
saying that it is good for the church to honour widows who have demonstrated
their faith, and who have no other family to look after them. But not until they
are at least 60 years of age. The average life expectancy of someone in ancient
Rome was about 27 years old.[2] This number would factor
in wars, famines, diseases, infant mortality and more. But still the number of
older women that would need to be supported would have been far less than in
our modern day. Paul was not suggesting, ever, that the church should institute
universal basic income for the aged (which is what the pension is). He simply
said, enrol them to be provided for. This could mean a stipend or that they were
allocated a family to live with.
These women,
though, were not retirees Paul still wants them to be working in their proper
roles. He says in Timothy 4,
“9
Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been
the wife of one husband, 10 and having a reputation for good works: if she has
brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints,
has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.”
And in Titus
he says this,
“3
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves
to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to
love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at
home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not
be reviled” (Tit. 2:3-5).
So, in
Timothy Paul says an older woman should be dedicated to good works to qualify
for support. And in Titus he gives us more information showing that one of the
roles of the older women is that they should dedicate themselves to training
the younger woman to love their husbands and keep the home. Paul is not arguing
that older, or even younger, women should work outside of the home. He is
advocating for older women to continue their good work, just as older men
should continue their good work.
There is an
indication in the law of God and in the gospels that when parents cannot work
that children should honour their parents by looking after them. Many Jews were
shirking this duty and Jesus challenged them on it,
“9
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God
in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and
your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But
you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have
gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer
permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the
word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things
you do” (Mark. 7:9-13).
A son or
daughter who will not honour their parents by caring for them is breaking the
law of God. There comes a point for everyone, no matter their profession, that
they cannot physically work anymore. It is then good and just for children to
look after their parents at this stage, or for the church to do its part. But our
retirement system is not about that.
Our
retirement system is designed to take able bodied and still capable people,
out of the workplace and let them live in as much leisure as they can afford.
It would be one thing if these retirees then turned around and dedicated their
still able bodied older years to helping their kids manage their homes, as the
Bible actually commands, especially for women. But that is not what happens.
This stage of the average retiree’s life is given over to leisure, holidaying,
pleasure, or in the words of the fool from Luke 12, “19 And I will say to my
soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be
merry.”’ At least one of Jesus’ intended messages in this parable is that this
is not good for the soul of a human being. Too much leisure or pleasure
corrupts us as human beings.
Therefore,
when we run this concept of retirement through a grid of Biblical theology we
see Paul saying that men should provide for their families, and women should
work in the home, even in their old age. We also see that a parent’s goal
should be to maximize their inheritance for their kids, and endless holidays do not
do this. And we see that it is right and just for children or the church to
look after older people who can no longer work. Therefore, retirement is not
biblical.
Looking after
the advanced in age who have proven themselves, is biblical. Children looking
after their aged parents is biblical. Storing up your excess to indulge later
in life, however, is not. It is no wonder our society is in such a decrepit
state, imagine what it does to the souls of people to encourage our elderly,
who are supposed to be the pillars of wisdom in society, to dedicate their
final years to leisure, rather than to what the Bible says they should be dedicated
to. This is not good for their souls. It is not good for our society. This is a
very morally broken system.
List of References
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