God Helps Those Who Help Themselves?
Did You Know the Saying “God Helps Those Who Help Themselves” Isn’t
in the Bible?
Jeremy
Bouma
While
discussing God’s relationship to people and their circumstances, a friend
quoted a phrase many people assume is in the Bible:
“God helps those who help themselves.”
He isn’t alone: one in 8 Americans believe the
Bible not only teaches this, but that it says this, too.
And yet if you went searching for it in the book
of Proverbs or in the sayings of Jesus, you’d be out of luck—it’s nowhere in
the Bible. In fact, the Bible says and teaches the exact opposite!
So if it’s not in the Bible, where’d it come from?
And what does the Bible say instead?
Benjamin
Franklin Offers God’s Help to Those Who Help Themselves
Although
he didn’t invent it, Benjamin Franklin is generally held to have popularized
this motto in his Poor Richard’s Almanac.
Here’s how it appears in the 1757 edition:
“… let us hearken to good advice, and something may be done
for us. God helps them that help themselves,” as Poor Richard says, in his
almanac of 1733.
While this may sound superficially like the kind
of proverb you might hear from a committed Christian, Franklin was a deist.
He didn’t believe in a personal God who is
actively involved in the affairs of people, but rather in a God who set the
world in motion but stands at a distance while we fend for ourselves.
So not only is this motto not in the
Bible, it wasn’t popularized by someone who was committed to the historic
Christian faith and the Bible’s teachings on God’s character.
Aesop
Promises Help from the Gods When We Help Ourselves
The real
origin of the motto probably lies in ancient Greece, when the storyteller Aesop
wove the proverb into one of his tales:
A WAGGONER was once driving a heavy load along a
very muddy way.
At last he came to a part of the road where the
wheels sank half-way into the mire, and the more the horses pulled, the deeper
sank the wheels.
So the Waggoner threw down his whip, and knelt down and
prayed to Hercules the Strong. “O Hercules, help me in this my hour of distress,” quote he.
But Hercules appeared to him, and said:
“Tut, man, don’t sprawl there. Get up and put your shoulder
to the wheel.
“The gods help them that help themselves.”
Though this catchy slogan sounds like something
from the Bible’s book of Proverbs, its origin is likely in Aesop’s fables (or
in ancient proverbs that inspired them).
The
Quran Promises Allah’s Help After We Change Ourselves
While
this motto isn’t in the Bible, a variation of it can be found in
another religious text: the Quran.
The
Quran’s Ar-Ra’d 13:11 reads:
“Indeed Allah will not change the conditions of a population
until they change what is in themselves.”
In this passage, the Quran expects a person to
help himself by changing his own attitude and behavior before God will come to
his aid.
The principle is the same as that in Aesop’s
proverb: those who expect divine help must first get the ball rolling
themselves.
What Does
the Bible Say Instead?
Whatever
its origin, this popular motto doesn’t reflect what the Bible teaches.
In fact, it’s the exact opposite of biblical
teaching!
For example, the Old Testament book of Proverbs
teaches that relying on ourselves, rather than on the wisdom of God, is
foolhardy:
“Those who trust in themselves are fools,
but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.” (Proverbs 28:26)
but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.” (Proverbs 28:26)
If we can’t trust ourselves, then what hope do we
have?
Fortunately, the Bible has an answer. The prophet
Isaiah declares that God helps those who are utterly helpless:
“You have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm
and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless
is like a storm driving against a wall.” (Isaiah 25:4)
a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm
and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless
is like a storm driving against a wall.” (Isaiah 25:4)
God provides tangibly for those who are helpless and needy.
God helps those who can’t help themselves.
And who does the Bible consider
helpless? Everyone! “All have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God,” the Bible tells us:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.” (Romans 3:10–12)
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.” (Romans 3:10–12)
When it comes to our greatest need—rescue from sin
and death—there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves.
All have turned from God; all have
sinned. We are utterly unable to find true spiritual peace through our own
efforts.
Thankfully, that is where God comes in:
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still
powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… God demonstrates his own love for us in
this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6,8)
Christ’s death is the solution to the problem of
sin and death that we can’t solve on our own.
It’s tempting to think that we might be able to
help ourselves out of even this predicament, but the Bible clearly teaches that
there’s nothing we can do on our own to find salvation.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and
this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one
can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9)
Our help comes from God alone, and it happens when
we turn our lives over to him in faith, trusting in the work of Christ on the
cross.
This isn’t something we work for; and there’s
certainly nothing we can change about ourselves to make us worthy of God’s
help.
Instead, we are saved by the passionate,
undeserved love of God. It’s his gift to us!
So the next time you hear someone say “God helps those who help
themselves,” remind them what the Bible says instead:
God
helps those who can’t help themselves.
That means you, me… and the world.
Jeremy Bouma (Th.M.) has pastored on Capitol Hill and
with the Evangelical Covenant Church in Michigan. He founded THEOKLESIA, which
connects the 21st century Church to the vintage Christian faith; holds a Master
of Theology in historical theology; and makes the vintage faith relevant at jeremybouma.com.
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