It would be a very rare thing to find a Christian that does not think that we should help the poor.
However, there are many different opinions amongst Christians about whose responsibility it is to help the poor.
Yes, all Christians have a responsibility to be compassionate, caring, and always ready to help those in need but from an administrative or corporate standpoint is it the government’s responsibility to help the poor? Is it the church’s responsibility? What about businesses? Do employers have a responsibility to help the poor?
Let’s take a look at some different Bible verses that illustrate some of the roles that God has designed for helping the poor and then please chime in via the comments below.
The Proper Motivation for Helping the Poor
Christian’s should have the attitude of wanting to help everyone as much as they are able to.
Philippians 2:3 states that Christians should, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;” (NASB) Two things stand out to me:
A) Proper Perspective – We should esteem others as being better than ourselves. This is not something that we can apply selectively (James 2).
When we see someone holding a sign on the side of the road asking for money do we immediately think to ourselves that we are better than them?
How would we wish to be treated if that was us on the side of the road holding the sign?
B) Proper Attitude – No doubt many people make charitable contributions of very substantial amounts and their motivation for doing so is not to sincerely help others or to be obedient to Christ’s commands but rather to puff themselves up in a selfish or conceited manner.
Prioritizing Helping the Poor
Given that Christian’s should help the poor as much as they are able to – in fact, Proverbs 21:13 says that, “Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.” (NKJV), we are also faced with the fact that we will always have the poor with us (Mark 14:7) and given that we also have limited resources which we are to use wisely as good stewards of all that God has entrusted to us (as illustrated in Jesus’ “Parable of the Talents” in Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-28) the question becomes who should we help and how?
There are people all around us that could use help but where do we start?
Apart from our individual responsibility to help the poor how should we corporately set initiatives to help the poor as efficiently as possible?
The Employer’s Biblical Responsibility to Help the Poor
In Leviticus 23:22 the Bible has a command directed specifically to employers/land owners/business owners concerning how the poor should be treated:
And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not make clean riddance of the corners of your field when you reap, neither shall you gather any gleaning of your harvest: you shall leave them to the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God. (NKJV)
Some important thoughts about this verse:
A) God did not command employers to harvest the entire field and then give a certain percentage to the poor – rather He commanded that land owners would purposefully leave some of the land unharvested (i.e. the corners) and leave some of the spillovers still on the ground (i.e. the “gleanings”) so that any of the poor that wished to could come and harvest the extras for themselves (i.e. they had to work for it themselves).
This is an important distinction because where many social programs go awry is that things are given to the poor without requiring any work from the poor.
This is in accordance with II Thessalonians 3:10 that states, “For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.” (NASB)
Notice that the phrase “willing to work” is used which I believe shows that of course some people are physically unable to work and we should show charity on them and give to them regardless.
B) God did not command the government or even the church to step in and force the employers to pay a certain percentage of money to the government (i.e. a tax) or to the church (i.e. an offering) so that the church or the government could then take that money and turn around and redistribute that many however they deemed best.
God specifically commanded employers to take the responsibility for allowing those who are poor and willing to work an opportunity to work for food.
The Church’s Biblical Responsibility to Help the Poor
In James 1:27 the Bible gives the definition of what true “religion” looks like: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (NKJV)
Granted many religious groups get this right but mistake religion as something that saves while ignoring Ephesians 2:8,9 which states that,
For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (NKJV)
Clearly salvation is not something that can be earned but is rather a free gift of God that can be received by faith in Jesus Christ.
Once saved by faith should Christians simply ignore the poor?
No!
This is when Christians are commanded to demonstrate what this”pure religion” looks like.
The Government’s Biblical Responsibility to Help the Poor
In Romans 13:1-6 the Bible clearly demonstrates how Christians should be obedient to the government and that it is God that has put the government in place (and that God directs the heart of the King just like the rivers of water in whatever direction that God wills – Proverbs 21:1).
Punishing bad behavior like murdering and condoning good behavior like helping the poor is the Biblical role of government.
However, is it possible for the government to steal from it’s people? Can the government overreach it’s God given role over it’s people or is the government freely able to take what it pleases and act as if “The State is the march of God through the world…” (Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: The State)?
According to the story of Naboth’s vineyard in I Kings 21 when King Ahab could not get the property that he wanted from Naboth then he unjustly accused Naboth, had him killed, and then took his property the government can commit theft and murder – even when a government’s action is in full accordance with it’s own laws.
Hegel’s philosophy of the government’s role is diametrically opposed to the true and right Biblical role of government.
God moves the hearts of government officials as He sees fit but God has not designed for government the role of taking from it’s citizens and redistributing back to it’s citizens as the government sees fit – even when it is for worthy causes such as helping the poor.
A trap that is easy to fall into for many Christians with their hearts in the right place is to immediately back any government program that is marketed as being designed to help the poor when in fact the Biblical role of government is not to take the lead in helping the poor but rather it is the responsibility of Christians individually, Christians corporately through their church and other parachurch organizations, and employers.
What do YOU Think?
Are employer’s today fulfilling their Biblical role in helping the poor?
What should the government’s Biblical role be in helping the poor?
Is the church fulfilling their Biblical role in helping the poor?
Are you fulfilling your Biblical role in helping the poor?
Author Bio:Joel Ohman is a Christian Certified Financial Planner™ and the founder of 4 different companies that have a focus on consumer personal finance websites including a website for comparing credit cards, doing car insurance comparisons, and searching for insurance quotes.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
This is so weird that you would post this today..around where I live there aren’t too many homeless but this morning I saw a well groomed and fairly well dressed (clean clothes, decent jacket) man with a sign saying something about lost job, and desperation.
I thought to myself, “he looks pretty good for being homeless”, and I toyed with the idea of picking him up and taking him to work with me, as we are always hiring truck drivers. Someone else pulled up and handed him something and I drove away..
What I’m getting at is, regardless of religion, we are all human and have the opportunity to help each other. We should take action on that whenever possible and help those that need. (speaking to myself here as well.)
Great topic today R2.
Wow Joel, you have opened up a huge and complicated question. First, based on Romans 13, I don’t think it is government’s role to help the poor. This could be disputed, but if government does help the poor, the help should be (based on 2 Thes 3:10) that any able bodied people who receive help should also work.
I think the church has acquiesced to the government in providing help, but this is where it all gets dicey. The church doesn’t want to use its resources for those who are already receiving government resources. Just as we as individuals are called to help those in our own family as a top priority, perhaps the church too should prioritize any help to go first to those in the church families. This way the help could be monitored. The help could be in the form of providing help with budgeting or finding work for the
unemployed.
Like I said, this is a complicated issue. Good topic.
I think employment taxes paid both by employer & employee that pay for Social Security and Unemployment Insurance are a modern version of “not harvesting the corners.”
The church has dropped the ball with social programs, and has continued to cede it’s responsibility to the government, since at least the New Deal. The way I see it, a case can be argued that this lack of action by the Church is in direct correlation with the increased apathy towards the church, both believer and non-believer alike. People now put their faith more in government and less in the Chuch.
The bigger the government, the smaller the individual.
Wow, you’ve covered a lot here Joel!
We always seem to have issues with the individual vs. government, then often fall back on Rom 13 as perhaps the most concise biblical pronouncement on the role of government. Personally, I have a few issues with the use of Rom 13 in this way…
1) Rom 13 talks about those in authority, which extends to church leaders, employers and others in authority, as well as to government. We’re to have an obligation to respect those in authority, not just political figures.
2) From a Christian perspective, government is to act in the same manner expected of the individual. There is no exemption to Godly directives by virtue of the fact that we operate in a group, be it a mob, a family, a company or a government. It isn’t “the people must do this, but the group is excused”. Government is also under God, but like individuals, it often misbehaves. It has a divine appointment, but it isn’t divine by virtue of that appointment, any more than any of us as individuals with our own specific appointments.
3) God appoints authority, but this is a generic concept. If we think it’s specific, then we have to believe that God appointed the likes of Hitler and other diabolical leaders, which can’t be true.
4) The fact that government does or doesn’t do something, doesn’t relieve us of anything, so our responsibility to the poor remains even if government is involved.
I think I might have overreached a bit here, but Rom 13 is one of those passages that gets me going. Sorry!
I think many of our government social safety net sort of programs keep people poor as well as deter individuals from taking initiative to help out the poor in there own way. These social programs are terribly mismanaged and gouge tax-payers to pay for them. Religious or community based programs that can help out people on an individual bases are then hurt because there members can not afford to donate. If we eliminate the government programs and subsequently lower taxes, there will be more money for private donation to these smaller charitable organizations that are better run and more dynamic in their abilities to help the poor. This would provide a bottom up approach to help solve the problem.
@Rex I agree with you fully – unfortunately President Obama plans on doing quite the opposite by cutting back the current tax deductions for charitable contributions for those making more than a certain amount of money which would discourage private charitable contributions even more: http://philanthropy.com/article/Obamas-Plan-to-Reduce/63024/ – Joel
A big problem I find (ESPECIALLY amongst today’s rich) is that people are particularly condescending to the poor. And it’s such a disgrace in my emerald eyes. They either do that to puff their egos and reputation… Or to get a tax break. Go figure…
I think what the poor need (especially in less developed nations) more than anything we can give them financially, is something that improves their standard of living without compromising their lifestyles.
For once I’d like to see the latter happen. I feel like I’m asking too much for that though. Haha…
As for what I’m giving, I’m hoping that I can give enough education and motivation in regards to abode mastery and, like you, finance. In my eyes, the best life to live, is a belfry and peaceful one.
If anyone is interested in donating or volunteering with a great organization, you should check out universalgiving.org. It’s a great site, where you can find many different organizations to give to, and you are guaranteed to be partnering only with top-performing NGOs because Universal Giving has a rigorous vetting process, that evaluates them on everything from financials to leadership. They also take no cut, so 100% of you donation goes to the organization you choose!
Check it out, they have a pretty extensive database! universalgiving.org
It is the church that is suppose to help the poor, but since the government stepped in years ago (welfare, food-stamps, and other entitlements) the church backed away from this to a large degree.
I think it is important to be a good steward of your resources.. before donating your time or money, you need to consider whether it is the best use of it.
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