Sirach 29:21-28. "The essentials for life are water and bread and clothing and a house... Better is the life of a poor man under the shelter of his roof then sumptuous food in another man's house. Be content with little or much. It is a miserable life to go from house to house, and where you are a stranger you may not open your mouth." When you do not have a home of your own, you will end up playing host without being thanked, you will hear bitter words. Others have authority over the house in which you live, and thus authority over you. They can order you to take in others or give up your home at their behest. "These things are hard to bear for a man who has feeling."

In a practical sense, Sirach is telling his son to be content with lesser food and drink and entertainment and the like in order to own his own home, however small it may be. Living in a home one doesn't own, by oneself or with others, just leads to problems - you cannot be fully yourself, you have to watch your words ("you may not open your mouth"); you have to listen to others, even if they are wrong or cruel ("you will hear bitter words"); you have to share your space and your food, often without being thanked. Plus you can have your home taken away at the whim, or legal action, of the owner or his lender.

Moving away from a literal reading of this passage, we can see that it applies also to being satisfied and content with the gifts God gives us, and using them in a practical way, applying them to the right priorities. We should not sacrifice basic necessities, like secure shelter, for indulgences or to try to live up to a standard of living that we cannot afford. We should not spend the mortgage money at a five-star restaurant, in other words!

Also, we should not depend on others, even those with the best of intentions, to satisfy our basic needs in the long term. Sometimes we must accept help, it is true, but we should not become dependent on that help, like on government welfare or handouts. God provides for our needs. If we find ourselves in a position where we have to accept help, and we all do sometimes, that is fine, but use the help to get ourselves into a more self-sufficient position. That is, use the help for the priorities that Sirach lays out here, so we do not remain reliant on the help.

We become beholden to people, even the government, when they are sustaining our most basic necessities. We can see in modern history, that when the government pays for all of our stuff, there are certain things we must do and certain things we cannot say - they have a bit of control over us (this can be horrendous, at times, like when they pay for our healthcare and then deny potentially life saving care to save money).

God wants us to be free of human control, he wants us to willingly follow him, that is why he gave us free will. Living at the mercy of others diminishes that freedom to some extent sooner or later. So it is best not to rely on it forever.