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Isaiah 58: 6-9
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
Mark 14: 7-9
7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.
8 She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.
9 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
Acts 4:32-35
32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
35 And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.
I once had a very devout woman come to me with a concern about her having saved for years to have enough money to buy her daughter a new car upon graduated from college. She was concerned that given all the admonitions in the Bible, to help the poor, perhaps she should instead give the money to charitable causes. We turned to the Bible where in Mark 14 Jesus commended the woman who had expended a gracious and costly ointment for Him. Which was worth almost a year's wages for the average workman. Moreover, I made the point to her that there is no prohibition against being gracious to one's children. After all, there will always be poor people. Which by the way is a phrase written in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy (15: 7-11).
7 If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:
8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.
9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee.
10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.
This got me to thinking. First, why would Jesus say that there will always be poor people and secondly what is Jesus
Getting at when saying: YOU can do good to them (whenever).
Hopefully, it will help the understanding to know that Jesus was the kind of person to say that:" it is More blessed to give than to receive". If He had come into this world to make everyone financially rich As the Prosperity Gospel folks would have people to believe...then He was remiss in not making sure all Of us are financially well off. Thing is He came to gives us life and life more abundantly. A LIFE IN FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM. His idea of being rich is to give things away not stockpile riches all for one's Self.
As for that question why will there always be poor people in this world. I found three reasons for This in the Scriptures. They are in brief; Sins of omission against the poor (as in never helping anyone), sins of commission against the poor (exploitation), and also sins of self-induced misery by the poor themselves against themselves.
The people of Israel were told by God to not harvest the corners of their fields, but to leave them for the Poor. My dad followed this practice on his farm by leaving the corn on the ground that was left when The corn picking machine turned around at the end of each of the rows. It is a way of being considerate Of others and honoring what God said to do. However, a lot of people do not bother to follow this Practice. They omit any consideration for the poor and think only of themselves. You know being Stingy, Selfish, and hard hearted. They overlook the importance that God puts on us helping people When it is "in our hand" to do so. I believe it is in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus said when you give A feast invite the lame, the poor, and the blind. In case anyone is wondering what is up with that. Well, it shows that you honor God by helping people who can not pay you back. Just like we can Not pay God back for what it cost Him to redeem us. Our generosity to the poor shows an appreciation For His grace towards us. I think it is a health thing for a church to have an attitude like that, but More often than not such a radical view is frowned upon by the stuffy types in the congregation. This even though they or any of us are not too good to help anyone. In Deuteronomy 15 it says to Help your poor brother (it does not say only if he deserves it). It simply says HELP your poor brother. Giving him sufficient for his need. There is call for discernment in how one goes about helping others. Just throwing money at a problem is not necessarily the best solution. You likely have heard the old Saying: Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day, but teach him to fish and you have fed him For the rest of his life. It is OK to take some time with people an teach them some life skills that will Stay with them. Yes, there are immediate needs but do not overlook helping people get to the Root cause of their problems. Share with them your own life experiences and how you managed To cope through some hard times in your past. It is so sad when so many people could do this only If they would. It says something about a person when some rationalize the statement that there will Always be poor people and therefore they need not help anyone. While on the other hand it also Says something about a person when they realize that yes there will always be poor people, but None the less, they chose to do what they can to help others all throughout their life. It does honor God by the way to live a life that does not omit being gracious and merciful to others.
Now, how about the second group. Those who commit sins of commission AGAINST poor people.
There are many People in this fallen world who are raised up in poverty to start with. Their parents may have Had some mental or physical debilitation that made them desperate for any work they could get. Others, may Have been raised in a family where a college education was something just not financially attainable. Whatever the root causes the focus here is on those who would exploit these people to their own ends. In the letter of James (5: 1-6) there is mention of such people.
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
Those who were rich by unscrupulous Means. Like those who withheld wages from their laborers by fraud and in effect kept the poor In their low estate. Look at the plight of Cold miners in rural West Virginia who basically worked Themselves to death digging coal with a pickax and owed their "soul to the company store". Look At the gangsters who take thousands of dollars from poor Mexicans only to dump them in the desert On Americas Southern border. Look at those who take advantage of young children and recruit them Into a life of childhood sexual abuse for the pornography industry. Yes, look at these people, they May flourish and make millions for a few years. But you will not see any of them in God's Heaven. They are self-condemned, they set themselves up for God's Judgment.
As to the third category of people, those poor who create self-induced misery for themselves and in Effect sin against themselves. In the book of Proverbs there are many mentions about the slothful... The lazy. Those who prohibit themselves form going to work, when they are able bodied to do so, but Too lackadaisical to do so. Archie Bunker called these sort of folks ..." men of leisure". They are in a Phrase poor because they have poor ways. They are poor because they have a poor attitude towards Honest work and smart investing of what ever it is that they could earn. They are often late for work And early to leave. Then when things get tight for the company these not so helpful employees are the First to be laid off and they wonder why. It is one thing to be poor due to forces outside of oneself Be it a crop failure, a flood, a hurricane or the like. However, it is something so sad when one is poor Because they themselves refuse to exert themselves or invest themselves in some line of productive Work. Once a carload of people showed up looking for help as they could not find their friends, they Had came into the state to find. Most likely because their friends were hiding from them. There was an Older fellow who was a third-generation welfare recipient, his girlfriend, his son who really wanted out Of the welfare lifestyle and his wife and child. Between me and the St. Vincent DePaul folks from the Catholic church we got them set up in a trailer park. I bought the old guy a lawn mower so he could make. Money in the trailer park by mowing lawns. Well, that worked for a brief period and then he sold the Lawnmower and was out of money again. Why did you sell the lawn mower I ask him: "Well, we were out of beer and cigarettes" he said. He sold the only means of making money that he had....at my Expense because it was more important to him to have his beer and cigarettes. It was not easy to restrain myself from asking him if he were out of his mind. However, it was self-evident that he was. These sorts of folks are a continual hindrance to themselves as their priorities in life are not all that Conducive to making anything of themselves except a burden to others. His son however, finally got A good job in a shipyard and in a Bible believing church. He wrote to me years later and thanked me for helping them when no one else would.
Now, about the verse where Jesus said: "YOU" can help them whenever you like. The Great Commission is for us to make disciples of all kinds. Do you realize that if each Christian were to take The time and effort to disciple (teach) and help one person every year or two that in ten years there Could conceivably be 5 times more Christians in the world. Do not underestimate yourself. Random Acts of kindness and sharing your peals of wisdom with those who would listen can have everlasting Consequences both for them and you. Proverbs 27: 27 says: "He who gives to the poor will NEVER lack, But he who hides his eyes will have many curses".
Now the early church tried to set things up so no one of their number had need by those with means Selling off their possessions and lands and creating a community chest for all. Well, it worked for a while. Then the Apostles who administered it died off and apparently some got greedy, and it fell apart. George Washington said of our country that for this form of government to work Godly men must be Elected to office. You know people with good sense, good motives and wisdom to go with it. In Russia The communist tried the socialism thing and while it lasted for like 70 years or so, it too fell apart. Some People got greedy and some got lazy. Workers who were not paid much began to say: They pretend to Pay us and we pretend to work. A system like that is doomed to failure.
In conclusion, regardless of what ever kind of socio-economic system one is they can heed the words Of Jesus. YOU can do good to them (the poor) whenever you want. Yes, YOU can find ways to help People who seriously need it. It may not be the handout they were expecting when you give them More than they ask for. It may seem like a hopeless cause as "there will always be poor people in the world". However, in regard to you it is not a lost cause. Sort of like the little boy on the beach who was throwing star fish back into the ocean that had washed up on the shore during a storm. Some fellows came along and made fun of him. "Kid, you are not going to ever get all of those thousands of Star fish back into the water before they die". That's right, said the boy, but I can do what I can do. Reminds me of the woman who anointed Jesus with that expensive ointment. She did a beautiful Thing said Jesus. Let alone. She did what she could. I say to you that it is likewise a beautiful thing to the Lord when we do what we can to save and Enhance the lives of others. Can you not see that it is not only poor folks or Starfish that are getting helped? It is also a witness To the Lord above that You believe that He does exist. It is a witness to the world around you that You seek to live a life that honors the Lord by helping especially those who can not repay you.
Chaplain James Rish
April 2021, First Presbyterian Wewahitchka, Florida