Pastor,
I've been turning something over in my mind, and trying to make sense of it. Again and again in scripture, we're commanded to help those in need (e.g. James 1.27 "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world" or Leviticus 19.9-10a "you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you father the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner").
There are even more verses in the Bible about loving brothers and sisters in Christ, which I assume also means helping them (e.g. twice in I Peter, "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart," "Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling," and "By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning,that we should love one another. [...] By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. [...] And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us").
Yet, when I look at my own life, I serve my family, I babysit for other church members occasionally, and I volunteer at a stable to help the mentally/physically handicapped. I do not help widows, orphans, or the poor, but mainly my own family. Is that Biblical? My family does come first--and with a sister with a newborn, a mother who is sick, and a sister who is in finals, there are plenty of opportunities to serve--but many of the things I do they could live without, it just makes their lives easier. Reading in Acts of those who had everything in common and who sold their houses to give to the poor, I wonder what a Biblical generosity today would look like; how does that translate?
But it was really brought home when a church member and a good friend lost his job, before he or his wife got another job. I don't mean this to be a criticism of the church, I'm just wondering--when I was helping out with their kids, when he first lost his job, they were using an EBT card for a month. It was just a month, and they needed it, so that is not a criticism of them at all, but, in theory, at least, I have always thought it was the church's job to help the poor, not the government, that the church should be feeding the hungry, not EBT, WIC, or other government programs. But here was a member of our church, who we did not provide for. I asked my friend, the wife, about this some--because she's wonderfully honest and I knew I could--and they're not on a food card anymore, since both of them have jobs, but it raised some questions for me, like what should I be doing, and am I missing something? What does the Bible say about charity/generosity, and how do I live that now? Reading books about foreign missions (such as When Helping Hurts, which shows how American generosity often teaches dependency on charity, not growth), I've seen that defining "poor" can be difficult, let alone "help," or what wise generosity looks like. Yet I also read biographies of Mother Teresa, Amy Carmichael, and others, who changed hundreds of lives without much money, but by following God's commands and giving what they had. Currently, I'm giving what I have to my family, and sometimes to others. Is that enough? Or am I called to more?
I've been turning something over in my mind, and trying to make sense of it. Again and again in scripture, we're commanded to help those in need (e.g. James 1.27 "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world" or Leviticus 19.9-10a "you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you father the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner").
There are even more verses in the Bible about loving brothers and sisters in Christ, which I assume also means helping them (e.g. twice in I Peter, "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart," "Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling," and "By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning,that we should love one another. [...] By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. [...] And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us").
Yet, when I look at my own life, I serve my family, I babysit for other church members occasionally, and I volunteer at a stable to help the mentally/physically handicapped. I do not help widows, orphans, or the poor, but mainly my own family. Is that Biblical? My family does come first--and with a sister with a newborn, a mother who is sick, and a sister who is in finals, there are plenty of opportunities to serve--but many of the things I do they could live without, it just makes their lives easier. Reading in Acts of those who had everything in common and who sold their houses to give to the poor, I wonder what a Biblical generosity today would look like; how does that translate?
But it was really brought home when a church member and a good friend lost his job, before he or his wife got another job. I don't mean this to be a criticism of the church, I'm just wondering--when I was helping out with their kids, when he first lost his job, they were using an EBT card for a month. It was just a month, and they needed it, so that is not a criticism of them at all, but, in theory, at least, I have always thought it was the church's job to help the poor, not the government, that the church should be feeding the hungry, not EBT, WIC, or other government programs. But here was a member of our church, who we did not provide for. I asked my friend, the wife, about this some--because she's wonderfully honest and I knew I could--and they're not on a food card anymore, since both of them have jobs, but it raised some questions for me, like what should I be doing, and am I missing something? What does the Bible say about charity/generosity, and how do I live that now? Reading books about foreign missions (such as When Helping Hurts, which shows how American generosity often teaches dependency on charity, not growth), I've seen that defining "poor" can be difficult, let alone "help," or what wise generosity looks like. Yet I also read biographies of Mother Teresa, Amy Carmichael, and others, who changed hundreds of lives without much money, but by following God's commands and giving what they had. Currently, I'm giving what I have to my family, and sometimes to others. Is that enough? Or am I called to more?
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