What Are Our Obligations to the Poor? Part 11
June 23, 2010
Dear Friends,
If we may make a generalization about helping the poor, it is that we often lead with our pocketbooks rather than our hearts or heads. Sometimes it is easiest to “write the check” than to “check if we are doing right.” In other words, it is easy to give someone money and make ourselves feel better even if that money may not help the person.
Making sure that the money is spent wisely is difficult, so we often leave that up to organizations whose mission is to collect money and put it to use in the manner in which we intended it to be used. This makes it important that the organization to whom we give our money is using it as stated and has operating principles in line with our own principles.
Almost every week now we read something in the news about the pirates in Somalia. As you may be aware, Somalia is a failed state. They have no real government to stop the pirates or to do much else for that matter. Do you know how they got like this? Well, in a book called The Road to Hell, author Michael Maren makes the case that it was US tax dollars and relief donations made to organizations like Save the Children that destroyed Somalia. How did that work? Basically, during the famine relief efforts, western countries poured tons of money and other assets into Somalia in such a haphazard and inappropriate manner than most of it was siphoned off to the “bad guys.” The more we tried to help, the more we hurt. The more money we poured in, the richer the bandits became until they overran the government. The author concluded “My experience there made me see that aid could be worse than incompetent and inadvertently destructive. It could be positively evil.” Remember that the next time a story about Somali pirates comes on the news. We need to check if we are doing right, not just writing a check. The organizations we support financially need to endorse and live these principles too.
We can think of this on the micro level too. How many times are we approached by someone asking for money on the street who we are pretty sure is going to use that money for drugs or alcohol? Are we helping that person by giving them the money? If we give because we feel guilty or it makes us feel good, we are making it about us. We have our reward. It is easy to give the money; it is hard to change that person’s life by giving them what they need. Yet, the love of Christ constrains us to open more than our purses – we need to open our hearts and our eyes.
So, the idea is that we need to give, but we need to give wisely. Is there a precedent for giving direct aid to someone – not an interest-free loan or a job with pay? There is.
There was a provision in the Old Testament for helping non-relatives.
At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town. The Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. (Deut. 14:28-29 NIV)
This brings us to our last principle,
6. It is a basic tenant of discipleship to give to the poor.
Now, I want you to notice a couple of things. First, this only occurred every three years. This was not a continuous social program that allowed people not to work. Second, notice that this was for Levites, foreigners, orphans and widows living in the town. In the average town in Israel during this time, you would know everyone. You would know if someone was really an “illegal alien”, a widow or an orphan. There is a level of intimacy with these people as opposed to blindly giving. Third, this tithe was for people who earned it (Levites), who had no basic assets or inheritance to provide for themselves (foreigners) and for those who circumstances were severe through unusual circumstances (orphans and widows). Lastly, I want you to notice that this was not voluntary. If you wanted the Lord’s blessing, you needed to do this.
As we have pointed out several times already, giving to the poor is just assumed in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul writes a great deal about it to the relatively wealthy Corinthians. This primarily Gentile church didn’t seem to understand the Jewish custom very well and needs a bit of coercing by the apostle to live up to their Christian duty. Paul says,
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” (2 Cor. 9:6-9 NIV)
This appears to be asking a lot. God commands us to give. Then, on top of that, we are told we are not compelled to give because He wants us to be happy about it. We see this a lot in Scripture. For example, God commands everyone to repent, but then doesn’t make us repent and wants us to want to do so. I think this is God’s love in action. He tells us what is best for us. He doesn’t make us do it though because He wants us to “get it.” If we do something with a bad motive, we are missing the point. What is the point about giving to the poor? Well, if we go back to our early comments that everything we have is God’s, this starts to make a little more sense. God has given us everything and wants us to give to others so as to spread His love. He wants us to experience the same joy He has in giving to us by giving to others. God gives us good gifts and wants us to give good gifts to others as well.
God’s system works. It is hard to notice things that are absent, but did you ever notice that there aren’t too many mentions of beggars in the Old Testament? There are a few mentions of them in a conceptual sense. There is also a negative connotation about them such as “I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread.” (Psalm 37:25 RSV) In the New Testament we have a few beggars mentioned but they all have physical disabilities. It is always dicey to argue from something not said, but let me suggest to you that this lack of mentions is evidence that the Old Testament methodology worked. No doubt the children of Israel, like all of their other endeavors to serve the Lord, didn’t conduct these matters perfectly. Yet, despite this fact there is little evidence that begging was a problem in these times. The evidence points to the fact that the system worked. In fact, it seemed to work a lot more efficiently and effectively than our system today which seems to consume an awful lot of resources with very little results.
What we can take away from the Old Testament is not the laws themselves, but the principles behind them. These all revolved around the broken relationships between men and their poor neighbors. Let’s review the principles.
- Prohibition against Permanent Transfer of Basic Assets: We should make sure people have the basic assets needed to help themselves. We should stand up to systems which deprive the poor of their basic assets.
- Families First: The Old and New Testaments teach that the family unit, God’s primary organization for salvation, is the first place people should look for help to resolve adverse financial situations.
- Don’t Get Into Debt. If You Are In Debt – Get Out of Debt. Help People Get Out of It If You Can: We should help the poor get out of debt and teach them how to avoid getting into debt again.
- People Should Work: It is a Divine mandate for people to work who can work. If our helping allows people to avoid work, we may be doing more harm than good.
- Don’t Manipulate or Abuse the Poor: As believers, we should never participate in anything that hurts the poor. Where appropriate, we should try to address those who do hurt the poor in a Christ-like fashion.
- It is a basic tenant of discipleship to give to the poor: We need to give money to the poor, but we need to give wisely and willingly. Sometimes we can do more harm than good if we give without thinking or to an organization that doesn’t fully understand these principles.
Have a great week,
