Cost Benefit

54.2%.

According to Civitas, this is the proportion of British people who receive more from the state (“in benefits and benefits in kind”) than they pay in tax. Before we get narked by benefit claimants, it is worth remembering that this figure includes all children, students, pensioners and the disabled. A state that looks after its poorest, weakest and most vulnerable benefits us all. Yet it means that a minority of tax-yielding sections of the population must carry a bigger burden. The government has no money of its own; it must take from Peter to redistribute to Paul. I certainly pay more in taxes than I receive, but the days are coming when I shall join the 54.2, perhaps helping to swell the percentage further.

The Bible often says that to follow the Son and His gospel is costly and dear. The Lord Himself urged seekers to count the cost, and many of His people in both Testaments pay a heavy price for their faithfulness. As a child of God, you are expected to live aright; to endure afflictions with patience; to receive persecution; to support causes unable to repay; to offer your time freely; to be loathed by Satan’s crew; to love awful people, to name but a few. Do His benefits outweigh the costs? Do we get more in than we get out? Says the Lord Himself:

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.

-Matthew 19:29

And here is His apostle, whose very life was taken for the Saviour’s sake:

… and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

-Ephesians 2:6-7, New King James Version