“A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.” W.C
Fields
In a recent interview Donald Trump shared that he’s been told
“no” his entire life. He then went to on say that his father gave him a “small
loan of a million dollars” that he had to repay with interest at the start of
his career.
Very few people would
classify a million dollars as a “small loan.” Yet, at the same time, most of us
really don’t understand true poverty and what it means to be poor. I know that
I don’t.
Because of media
caricatures and sometimes generational bigotry, assumptions are often made
about the poor that have little validity. Politicians use the poor as pawns,
advancing political agendas, with little regard for assisting those who truly
need it. Most in the middle class or above rarely personally know any poor
people, at least with any depth.
That’s one of the
wonderful benefits of a local church in that those from all economic classes
are present, welcomed and accepted. A
biblical church must be classless, ageless, raceless and genderless. As
Galatians 3:28 states, “There is neither
Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Yet, most of
what we know about those outside of our normal social circles, we learned
second hand. As a result, we tend to develop stereotypes of what poor people
are like that have little validity and are certainly not universal. There’s a tendency
to imagine our own socio-economic group to be diverse, even “normal” while we
imagine “other” people belonging to a another group with which we’re less
familiar, as being, for all intents and purposes, all the same.
The end result though is that there’s a tendency to draw stereotypical
conclusions. Please be honest. Are these assumptions that you have made? While
I won’t elaborate on these, I do want to challenge our preconceptions. 1. Poor people are uneducated and often
stupid. 2. Poor people are lazy. 3. Poor people are substance abusers. 4. Poor
people are limited in their use of the English language and poor communicators.
5. Poor people are ineffective and inattentive parents.
The
fact is that you will find poor people that fit some or all of those five
statements. You will also find rich people who fit some or all of those
statements. They’re stereotypes that often have little reality or validity. For
example, just because someone has a Ph.D. doesn’t mean that they’re smart. They
may just be an educated fool.
My
reason for pointing this out is that as believers, we have a biblical
responsibility to assist the poor, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to
the Lord,
and He will repay him for his deed” (Proverbs 19:17), but we rationalize not fulfilling our biblical
obligations based on our stereotypes.
We’re also entering the season when many are
looking for more opportunities to be generous to those that are economically
challenged. Yet, because the plight of the poor has been so politicized and we
are more stereotypical than biblical, few of us have taken the time to really
think through “Who are the poor? How can
I truly help someone who is poor?” So let me share some practical
suggestions.
Make it personal. The American approach
of delegating responsibility has sidelined the average Christian and caused us
to miss being a blessing and in turn being blessed. Most of us, if we’d stop,
pray and think – already have someone in our social circle who’s economically
challenged. Begin by praying for them. Invest some time to really get to know
them. Hopefully, it will challenge you to be something very, very biblical – Incarnational. Rather than loving someone
poor from a distance in a sanitized way, you enter their world, know them, love
and serve them as Jesus would.
Let God stretch and humble you…and grow your
gratitude. The most common sin in the Church today and the average
Christian, and one rarely considered is PRIDE. It is easy to be thankful we’re not
impoverished. But we wrongly conclude that it’s because of our own initiative, hard
work and biblical obedience. We often also judge those in poverty.
Everything we have is because of God’s grace. While following biblical
principles can lead to stable or fruitful lifestyles, all people living in
poverty have not been the cause of their situations. Many are born in poverty,
many for generations, sometimes because of unjust societal structures or
oppression. This may have left them without the resources and/or knowledge to escape
it. Remember what Scripture tells us about wealth, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand
have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He
who gives you power to get wealth…” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
Take
care of your own first. It’s not first the responsibility of government
or even the church to take care of the poor. It’s first the family, 1 Timothy
5:3-4 & 8. Sadly, government stepped in because the family and church
failed. I’m thankful for government programs that help the truly poor, yet it’s
first the responsibility of the family and then the church. If someone is part
of the church, and they don’t have family, it’s our responsibility as a family
of believers to care for them. We’re to also care for brothers and sisters (Galatians
6:10), before those outside the church family.
Be
creative and help, don’t just enable. It is easier to write a check or
give groceries, than it is to take the time to teach someone life skills, like
how to get a job, how to keep it, how to budget, how to discern the difference
between needs and wants, or even to encourage someone to break addictions that
keep them in the cycle of poverty. To do this takes commitment, prayer, wisdom
and a heart investment. Yet, the end results are worth it. It’s the fulfillment
of the old adage by Maimonides, “Give a
man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for
a lifetime.”
Remember Jesus’ commission is the main thing. The greatest need
everyone has is not what they have in their stomach but what they have in their
heart. Whether they are rich or poor, healthy or sick – everyone’s greatest
need is to hear and accept the gospel. It’s what Jesus commanded us to do first
and it must be our top priority. All mercy ministries must be first gospel
focused. While we must not ignore physical needs, we just can’t ever forget
what the greatest need is. It’s very tempting to neglect the spiritual for the
physical because physical results are more evident.
This issue of the
needy can’t be avoided by Christians. We can’t stay silent on the problems of
the impoverished, hoping governmental programs will absolve us of
responsibility. It’s tragic that, by and large, too often we’ve virtually
ignored the very people with whom Jesus spent the bulk of His ministry while we
retreat within our stained-glass walls to sing about becoming “more like the
Master.” It’s time every believer, every Bible-believing Church once again take
seriously the command of Jesus to care for the needy and support those among us
who are less fortunate.
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