Traveling to and from our church building I am greeted by sign-bearing beggars at one particular set of traffic lights. To a man, they walk back and forth through the traffic lines wielding signs asking for food or spare change. Though I have seen people give them coins, I have not done so myself. It is obvious that such able-bodied men would do society and themselves a service by engaging in honest employment. They are not “The poor” that the Bible tells us to give to.
Christians are givers. God’s abundant love toward us is our motivating force when showing love to others; “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Having been rescued from spiritual poverty and put under the blessings of our generous God, we, in turn, look to the needs of others.
God is so concerned that we take our responsibility towards the needy seriously that he promises that He will pay us back with interest. In fact, He treats your acts of kindness toward the needy as “Loans directly made to Him.” He says:
“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,
and he will reward them for what they have done”
(Proverbs 19:17).
It is hard to believe that God makes himself a debtor for everything that is given to the poor! Debts that are paid back to the generous through the temporal blessings of this life and the eternal blessings of the next.
In the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats Jesus says that those who blind themselves to the needs of the poor and the persecuted will not be welcomed into heaven. Jesus makes it clear the way that we treat the poor and persecuted is exactly the way we treat him.
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:40).
Jesus also says that God still pays His debts to those who lend to Him through the Bank of the Poor:
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38).
John Staiger