Monday, February 20, 2006

Help the Poor: A Black and White Issue


I have been waiting for a couple months to get this series of posts going. I have been desperately looking for the time to deal with this issue properly. Over the past few months I have dialogued with two Christians who have politically left leanings. Both are mature Christians who serve the Lord and have engaged with me in a gracious manner. There have been a few issues that we have dialogued about, but the main issue has been the need to help the poor in our society. This is the one thing that I really love about Democrats, a genuine heart-felt desire to aid those in need. I do however think their efforts are misguided.

I want to take a look at the issue of Christianity and its relationship to the poor over the next few posts. I want to start with the statement that Christians are commanded by God to help the poor. Christians are not to question whether or not they should help the poor. Helping those in need is a black and white issue.

In Acts 6, the early church shows that they were committed to aiding the needy. The first deacons were appointed for the specific purpose of helping the poor widows within the church. Even today deacons, more than anything, should be leading out is service especially to the poor. We are building into the structure of Grace Community Church the purpose of Service. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are working towards eventually having a deacon being directly over our service projects which will be specifically to the poor and needy.

During Paul’s missionary journeys, part of what he was doing was raising funds for the poor within the church at Jerusalem. Even poor parts of the world gave generously to this cause of aiding the poor.

In Galatians 2:10, Paul records about one of his meetings with the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. They were debating the theological issues surrounding the conversion of Gentiles into the church. The Jerusalem church ended up agreeing with Paul’s arguments, blessed his efforts, and as Paul concluded this account he records that “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.”

James records at the conclusion of some statements about genuine authentic faith that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).

Aiding those in need is a black and white issue. The church is to lead the way in helping the poor. God gives us the command to help the poor and the early church generously gave to those in need. James connects our spirituality to whether or not we help the poor.

All of this leads to the conclusion that if you are not aiding those in need in our society then you are not a spiritual person. You have some issues with your walk with the Lord if you are not generous with those in need.

The Christian church, more than any other organization or institution, has a great history of aiding the poor. I pray that this never ceases to be, because helping the poor is one of the purposes of the church. It is not a question of whether Christians should help the poor; it is a black and white issue.

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