If you’re a Christian, you can’t help but read the Bible and be overwhelmed by God’s concern for the poor, weak and marginalized in society.
He tells us to be concerned for the widow and the orphan. Jesus himself said in Matthew 25 that, “As you did to one of the least of these, you did to me” meaning that if we gave food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty and clothes to the naked, it’s as if we did it to Jesus!
There are over 2,100 verses that describe God’s love and heart for the poor, weak and infirmed.
As Christians, I don’t think any one of us would deny that we should help the poor – and yet, we oftentimes don’t have a heart for the poor, we don’t care like we should that there are many without proper food, shelter or healthcare.
Why is it that God has such a heart for the disenfranchised and we don’t?
Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of us who are doing some great things to help, but what’s the best way to help the poor?
I write this as someone asking these very questions to myself and trying to break through some stereotypes that I have regarding the poor.
For example, should you give money to a homeless person? Should you give money to someone in need only if they deserve the money? Should you provide food, clothing and shelter with strings attached? Should we just give money to organizations and let them handle everything?
My goal with this post is to get us thinking beyond ourselves to try to stir in our hearts (and my heart) a deep love and passion for loving our neighbors as ourselves.
So let’s take a look at a few categories that we may fall in to when we approach helping the poor.
Help Those Who Deserve to Be Helped
Oftentimes, we take an approach to helping the poor that says, “you got yourself into this mess, you need to get yourself out – and then I’ll help you”
In other words, you don’t deserve to be helped because you’ve made some bad choices, or you have dependency problems, therefore I won’t help you until you first help yourself.
Or, this camp will also say, “I’ll only help when things get really, really bad because I want you to suffer the consequences of your poor decisions”
So, essentially, they view the poor as ones who have brought their poverty upon themselves – and only until they prove themselves worthy, or if they are destitute enough, then they can some help.
Here’s the problem with this category – if we are to love our neighbors as ourselves we would surely help ourselves long before we are destitute, and we’d surely help ourselves work through our bad choices long before it gets too bad.
We withhold mercy because we feel the poor needs to prove themselves! What if God gave His mercy that way?
We’d all be in big trouble.
Help Whether They Deserve It or Not
This camp can be just the opposite. They give to the poor no matter what – and they keep giving, sometimes to the same people, and the poor makes no progress.
This camp is only concerned about providing mercy, which is great – but at some point if the poor is not willing to help themselves and are only looking for handouts, then we become an enabler to their problems.
Sometimes churches will get themselves into this situation where they give money to an impoverished person with no strings attached and the same person comes back a week or two later. The church feels bad because this person is in really bad shape and they give more money.
The next thing you know you’ve got more and more people coming to the church to receive aid because word got out that this church gives out money.
Here’s the problem with this category. Providing aid to the poor without any demands of progress will actually result in more negative affects and create bigger dependency problems than if no money is given.
Help by Providing Relief and Development
So, what is the best way to help the poor? The first thing to realize is this – it’s only by God’s grace we are not in that situation. We need to be humble. You didn’t choose your family or the way your parents raised you, or if your parents got divored, or the town where you were brought up. Many of the things that affected who you are as a person was not your choice. Some were, but many were not.
Secondly, I think we need to be discerning. We need to discern what the needs of the poor really are. Initially it’s money, but what is causing the money problems. What’s the root?
If they are having difficulty budgeting and blowing their money on frivolous things, I think we owe it to them to confront that and try to teach them some basic budgeting and money skills.
If they have no money because they can’t hold a job, but the reason they can’t hold a job is because they can’t afford transportation, maybe we need to look into buying a used car for them to help get them on their feet.
We need to be ready to provide relief – money as mercy up front – and development – helping them with life, job, social and money skills.
This is the hardest route to take. It means we have to talk to them and get to know them. It means we have to find out what’s going on and be willing to get a little messy ourselves!
In my opinion, being willing to provide relief and development provides the best chance of survival and progression for the poor, not only physically, but spiritually also.
When you help a poor person in this way and model Christ’s love, they will be more willing to listen to you.
What do you think the best way to help the poor is?
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Some good thoughts and a good summary of the different camps.
I would ask, why are we COMMANDED to help the poor? What is the root of everything that we are commanded in the New Testament? I would say that it is to further his kingdom by displaying Christ’s love to the world. We aren’t just giving to be nice, we are giving to be an example of Christ’s love to the world.
Making disciples should be the end game. I don’t know about you, but God kept loving me, and loving me, and loving me, and loving me when I didn’t deserve it. I still don’t.
Like you said, what if God loved us the way we love others? When I am confronted with an opportunity to give, and I start to ask myself questions about how that person is going to use the money, I try to remind myself “who the heck are you to judge this person’s motive, and who the heck are you to put requirements on someone to recieve God’s love?”
One last thought – It’s God’s money, not mine.
My heart really goes out to the poor and those in need. I pray that we as Christians begin doing more to help instead of walking/driving by because “it’s not our problem” when it actually is. What you do to the least, you’ve done to God.
Gary, good point about making disciples and demonstrating Christ’s love. God’s glory is really the end game. He gets glory from the making of disciples and the demonstration of His love to others – especially those who can’t ehlp themselves.
It’s because He’s been so generous to us that we can even think about being generous to others and live that out!
I’ve been extremely poor, and I was homeless with my 4 kids for almost a year, 7 years ago. The reasons why are not important. At that time, I thought all homeless people were drug addicts or alcoholics, and imagine my surprise when I found it was mostly families in the shelter we stayed in for awhile. During that time, I have never felt more ashamed or more judged by others, including ministers who said things like, “I thank God I’m not in your shoes!”
God brought my family close, and the kids and I still have a wonderful relationship. I also got out of that situation and was able to buy a house.
What I learned, though, is that it is not up to me to judge what someone is going to do with the money I give them. I don’t care if someone scams me for gas money, I will give it to them if I have it. I don’t care if they want to take their child to MacDonald’s, if I have it, I will give it, because going out to eat is a wonderful treat when you don’t have anything. Like Gary said in the first reply, it’s not my money. It’s God’s. My job is to give. I’ll let Him sort out the motives and hearts of those I give money or food to.
The Life You Can Save, by Peter Singer.
It’s everything one needs to figure out how to best save the lives of individuals living in extreme poverty.
Life-changing read (for me at least)!
http://tiny.cc/fJIyL
One way to help the poor is to not become one of them. Get out of debt, save and give. Get out of the bondage of debt so we are able to help others. Begin giving and tithing now, even while in debt.
Cindy, thanks so much for sharing your story – I think many times we are way to quick to judge (myself included) and way to slow to sit down and listen to people’s stories.
I’m so glad God was able to bring you out of that situation and that the relationships with your kids are close!
A while ago I was in a Bible class and the topic was welfare. The punch of the lesson was when it became clear that people generally do not like the government program of welfare; however, it is a program that should have been instituted by the church. The church does do a good job of helping people in times of need, but apparently not enough if the government has to step in and require us to help more.
When giving to homeless I will first offer to buy what they need if it is possible, like a meal. If I can’t, I give some money. I have not always done this. But I came to the realization that I simply do not know their suffering and the events that preceded their current situation. I have talked with many homeless and some of them are only one bad day away from me.
One way a lot of us can help the poor is the first help ourselves. As stated in 1 Timothy 5:8, not providing for your family is worse than being an unbeliever.
Getting yourself out of debt and out of financial bondage yourself will allow you to help the poor even more. Both with your time and your additional resources.
Great summary of all the viewpoints in this article!
We need good steady jobs that pay a living wage. Most everyone I know who is poor is that way because they can’t find steady work that pays a living wage. Not because they blow their money (they don’t) or because they’re on drugs (they’re not), but because they don’t have ‘ins’ in the job world and someone else always gets hired over them, because someone else knows the boss personally or someone else is more experienced. So we just keep applying, and trying to get hired somewhere full-time, to no avail.
Giving a fish just doesn’t help long-term. We need to be able to access the pond to fish for ourselves.
Good topic. I’ve pointed out to my readers that, like it or not, people will ask or wonder if they “deserve” whatever financial assistance they get. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/budget/2010/01/when-is-it-your-responsibility-to-be-frugal/
Giving to the poor is not a question in my mind, it must be done. The larger question is what should be the Christian’s responsibility to see the situation that made them poor come to an end. I am thankful that many local shelters work to move people out of their situation and back into productive lives. I am disappointed that we keep sending relief dollars back into the same areas of the world over and over, and leave development projects that could break the cycle unfunded. While we will never see every poor person put into a self-sustaining situation, we need to balance our focus.
This is not a new problem. See if you can get a copy of “How the Other Half Lives”. Handouts don’t work unless there’s some measure of “coming along side” to help. Accountability, sure. Understanding, absolutely. The scripture has parameters in place, such as the definition of widows, the institution of the deaconate, responsibilities of men for their own households, not charging usury, and even the concept of gleaning.
One of the saddest things we’ve experienced is criticism when we’ve had financial hits. We are very frugal. My husband is a pastor and his position does not give him the freedom to ask for help, or get a second job. In a previous call, a pastor’s wife from another church found out our need. Their church gave us some money and we were told by our leadership to give it back because it embarrassed them. So we did. I had hoped our church would help. They didn’t give us anything.
I think the good coming out of difficult experiences is we’re much more sensitive to other people’s struggles. (Like Cindy said.) Since we’re still in a tight place (though not nearly as rough as before), we are very careful about how we give to those in need from our personal resources. He calls us all to faithfulness and He commends both generosity and discernment. So there’s a balance.
I think the problem I have is that I’m never sure the money is going to be put to good use. I love helping animal shelters with donations and giving food to hungry dogs, cats, etc., but with humans, who is to say we aren’t wasting money? I would hate to see my hard-earned money be spent on something wasteful. If I could be sure these people would put my money to good use, I would have absolutely no problem helping. Until then, I’ll keep helping the animals with donations.
Jason, thanks for this post. My work deals directly with people who are economically impoverished. Every day, I interact with people in an urban setting who are homeless or on the verge of homelessness. The reasons of economic poverty are diverse and can be very complex. It is easy to assume that the poor are poor because of slothfulness, lack of self-control, addictions, etc. These things are true, but certainly not always. For others, it is easy to assume that poverty largely results from social injustice i.e. government structures that suppress certain people, corporate greed, etc. These things can be true, but certainly not always. The Bible addresses both paths to economic poverty – Proverbs highlights the personal issues that lead to lack of sustenance and many of the prophets warned against the social injustice of the Israelite leadership. Discernment is key here as you stated.
With all of my clients, I find one thing that is more unique than their economic situation – their relational quotient. What do I mean? Poverty is more foundationally relational than it is financial. None of my clients have healthy relationships with God, self, family, or friends. We fail to understand poverty, when we only, or even primarily understand it financially. It is in right relationship with God, self, and others, that we gain wisdom and wholeness in all areas of life, one being financial. Seeing poverty in this light enables us to relate more realistically with the financially distressed. It breaks down the barriers of ‘us’ versus ‘them,’ and demands more compassion as every person can relate to relational poverty in some capacity. The book ‘When Helping Hurts’ is very helpful in understanding poverty this way.
Jason,
Thanks so much for starting this discussion. Here’s three things that really helped me. They are different types of suggestions, but I think they make a big difference.
1. Do a police ride along at night. These are harder to these days, but if you find the right police station they will let you see what happens in the city at night.
2. Do visitation in Section 8 housing complexes. Sitting with the poor and hearing their stories is amazing.
3. Ask someone who works in an inner city ministry about their lesson and experiences. Bonus – spend the day working with them first.
Great comments here everyone – I love this type of discussion to get us thinking a bit.
Jon, I really liked what you said about the relational quotient. That is something that really needs to be highlighted more in discussions like this.
I think it was Tim Keller, author and Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in NY that said poverty is essentially being “neighborless”. It’s the idea that not having good, quality relationships leads to poverty.
Relationships are a huge factor in spiritual maturity as well as overall “life success” for lack of a better term. Quality relationships provide accountability, direction and joy to name a few. It is quite sad when folks are missing out on that!
Olivia, I’m sorry your church responded the way it did. Receiving help should not be embarrassing – we should realize that in the early church people sold their possessions to help everyone in need – it wasn’t an embarrassment, but rather an opportunity to demonstrate the generosity and kindness of Christ!
Excellent article! We are stewards of our money, because it’s not really our money; therefore, we should use it wisely, both in purchases, investments and charity.
Additionally, our attitude about giving is even more important that how much we give (See Luke 18:9-14).
These aren’t rebuttals, obviously, just my two zinc Lincolns worth. This is a great article and these things should be brought up and discusses. Well done.
Most of the homeless poor are in their 50′s or 60′s. They need cash more than anything else, with the exception of a place to live and a phone. For a church to just refer them to other social organizations without cash, like lutheran churches I know, is not doing enough.
I’m in need of a job. I’ve been fired for “disability”. I don’t want handout. I’ve applied for (literally) thousands of jobs only to be screamed at “WE DON’T HIRE THE DISABLED”.
More things that you need to know if you really want to help:
I’m UNABLE to do telemarketing.
I’m UNABLE to pass a Schedule A.
I’ve been somewhat disfigured.
I’m ABLE to do everything that everyone else does, most times I do better than others. I’ve received many accolades for my work. I have a great deal of education and experience. As my boss fired me, he said that he would give me glowing recommendations.
I’m hungry and cold.
Any suggestions to find VIABLE employment? I would greatly appreciate any do-able suggestions.
My faith is being tested – not severly but to a degree and maybe one of you can help me see the light. I am a good Christian as is my husband and for the past 12 years have run a very modestly income Home for Individual Residential Care in the poorest COUNTY in the US. I am 52, a retired nurse after a knee replacement during one of the few times I have had health insurance since starting my care home. GOD has always helped me make the right decisions in my life and I have always given when I could to promote the well being of others. One of my residents was a friend of mine as was her deceased husband. She lived with me for 6 years after his death as a ward under a private guardianship COMPANY. The COMPANY was bought by a new lady who this past October, for no reason other than her preference for a care home in Reno, moved my friend knowing full well that her family nor I could financially fight this action. I advocated for my friends rights as she did not want to move. I live in a rural area and yes, did depend on my friends income to survive – I am now in jeopardy of losing my home in the current economy. She did wrong but I cannot afford a lawyer to fight her in court. I have never hated anyone in my life but how this woman can come into our lives and do this is beyond me and I pray daily for some clarity on GODS purpose and plan. Seniors in my area are literally staying in homes that are falling down around them because they fear selling will not support their personal care needs. I want to provide the services in my home but unless I have a short sale buyer willing to let me buy this back, there will be no more home for me, my husband or all the animals I have allowed my past residents bring with them and promised to care for after their demise. I have always loved caring for seniors and disabled and my home has been a place of comfort for many terminal residents and their families over the years. My rates have not been outrageous for my care – families have donated trees to my home in rememberence of passed loved ones. I have never had money nor has my family – I have no children except the four legged ones, my husband is semi-disabled without disability. I have always been frugal in the running of this business – I shopped for my friend and all residents, with coupons only to recently find out the COMPANY having her guardianship is running rampant with her finances in paying themselves! I cry daily but am trying, against all odds, to go on and see the big picture. If money were not an all important issue, I’d know my path clearly – my friend would come home, her niece and brother would be relieved of their concerns for her, I could provide for another low income resident (maybe still no health insurance but…) and we poor people could plug along happy again with our meek, rural existance. I am on welfare at this time and in a place I never imagined being but the climb out without financial assistance is bleak. I recieve no income because self employed in Nevada with this small a business don’t get it. My home, on paper, is a 1975 mobile although remodeled above HUD standards and converted to real property, the location is rural and in the poorest county so who cares if it is mine and used for the care of others in need. I have learned that it is OK to ask for help and pray (maybe wrongfully) that GOD sends the help I need. I have worked hard all my life and every penny of money went into this property and business with great and honorable intentions. I was naive as to what others could and would do to take that away through deceptive COMPANY actions with no regard for the humans involved. Does GOD want me to fight this injustice being done to defenseless seniors, am I supposed to look the other way while this is done, am I supposed to lose everthing like I am about to? It’s not all about money but the lack of human kindness to others in some cases that puts some of us in conflict with right, wrong, advocating and poverty. If you see a couple my age on the side of the road with a broken down 1995 handicap van and an old horse trailer loaded with pets, stop and give us a hand because something not quite right put us in a predicament through no fault of our own that we could not financially fight, correct or overcome. I will be distraught about having to leave my friend in the hands of that guardianship COMPANY, her family with no help (out of state and portrayed as “not caring” by the company), losing my home and business (which is needed here) and heading to Virginia in hopes of living with family until I am back on my feet again. I did everything right in my eyes to provide for us and others in need with my home and property and business but the actions taken by one owner (she only saw my friend 5 times in six years) of one COMPANY – was sent my way to do evil and is winning! WHY and WHAT DI I DO NEXT? Jacqui
How about organizing a seminar wherein we can discuss some IGP or income generating project that they use for them to have extra income. Maybe at first, we can help them in building their small IGP or business and later on, we will let them to do the work on it. They will be the one to invest their time and their effort because they will be the one also that will get the benefits, we will just help them. Of course, we will do it for the sake of our Lord, We will help because He commanded us in His words that we need to help one another as a sign of love.
Praise God!
We need help to find someone to help with charity money I have a 1 year old granddaughter who needs surgery on her arm and hand that does not work right from birth constriction band syndrome and a grand son that was born this december and we have no money to pay for her surgery and doctors appointments .I have 3 ill sons and another grandchild on the way ,we run out of food a lot and we have trouble paying our bills our rent ,electric ect…and my sons are kind hearted and they want to help people so, I end up with people that has no home living with me I can not say no that easy because I raised them to help others and to care for the world around them. and we are going to loose our home if we can not pay the rent soon,I have no car as well. God Bless you and thank you Rhonda Stevens please contact me at 1741 se 172nd.terrace silver springs florida 34488 if you or anyone who can help me. and i live in the shed in the backyard.
I love to help people and make people happy ,I work as a technical support
engineer,and when a person call’s in with a problem and is feeling upset,I like to let them know that they are in good hands ,I also help my fellow techs on the floor,which I don’t have to but just like to,God is good and I love him with all my Heart !!!!!
My name is Lynette Collins.I live in Baton Rouge,Louisiana.I’m a single christen mother of three children.The father of my children are decease.He died from someone robbing and killing him last year.I’m going to school for business management so that I can open an restaurant next year.Unfortunately with an eviction notice,pass due bills,rent,utilities,water,phone and car note.I will always be held back from my Dream,as a single independent mother with goals.I can’t afford school supplies,uniform, or even provide my children with any clothes other than torn hand me down.My bank account is over dawn.My bills are behind.I’m using my pay checks to catch up with the rest of the pass due balances of my bills.It’s extremely difficult for me to manage off one income.My pay checks only allows me to be broke as soon as I get it.I’m at rick of getting put out of school and losing my car.Because of the note being behind.My vehicle is broken.I can’t afford a new car or pay a mechanic to fix the one I have.I’m at risk of losing everything!!!!I exhausted all of my resources through different churches and community.Theirs hardly any funds available due to the economy.It’s horrifying trying to struggle and figuring out how ends meat will be brought to the table each day as a single parent.Where living by the skins of our teeth.I’ve gotten so depressed from the reality of whats going on and living in pain every single day,all day,has taken a major toll on me and my body.I’m down to the wire.I’ve been working for this restaurant business for two years.I’ve applied for a second job on the Internet,library and in person.But,haven’t had any luck.One job did call back. But,they wanted me to have transportation.I’m a adopted child that was never fortunate in life to anything.My adopted parent was always classified as a low income family.My adopted parent are decease too.One pass away from cancer and the other passed away from diabetes.They were the only family that I’ve had and the only source of help that I’ve had and now it’s only me and my three children.It’s very hard to get anything or any kind of help,due to the recession.I’m a very hard worker.I’ve help the community,different churches and organization.I devoted my life to Christ.So,please pray for me and wish me and my children Luck on anything the Lord is gonna provide for us.
Great article! It’s sad to see how many people truly need help in our world. In Milwaukee there are plenty of homeless individuals who have had to try to overcome remarkable circumstances and have failed. I have met my fair share of homeless men and women that are some of the nicest people. It’s very unfortunate that some people don’t realize it’s important to help others.
Interesting that I should find this article today. This morning I approached my church for “prayer support” because I am facing the worst crisis of my life to date. I am a lady in my 50s who came out of a violent marriage. My ex husband never paid a cent toward our 2 children’s upbringing after I fled to save my life so my children could have a mother. 16 yrs of raising them all alone, taking them to church, tithing etc…
I have listened to the Word of Faith teaching for many years and tried to hard to apply all those conditions and principles; yet it never worked for me. It seems that those ministries get richer and richer but you can be ‘assured’ that they are “blessed to be a blessing; to be in a position to help those in need”.
Well this morning, one of those in desperate need, came to ask only for “prayer support” to one of those “blessed” preachers who often boasts of how “blessed to be a blessing” he is. The one in need got an icy cold reception, judged purely based on presumption and then a ‘prayer’ than sounded more like a not very nice sermon addressed to the needy one (me) rather than a prayer of love and compassion to the One Who hears! There was no love whatsoever, just an icy cold, judgemental, stand-offish attitude and definitely offer of help in any way shape or form. I was sent to Welfare with a “I’m sure they have some way they can help you”. ‘We expect the government to care more than the church does’ type of view!
I walked out of there feeling completely humiliated and judged for having a need. Yet, I have never done drugs of any kinds; in fact I am into very healthy lifestyle, diet etc. As a born again Christian, I raised 2 kids all alone for 16 yrs, we ALWAYS went to church, tithed etc… I love listening to various preachers at home, love Jesus, the Bible and have tried my best all those years to live by faith. I have received many miracles too!
Jesus DID say that in this world we would face many trials and tribulations; it’s just the world we live in. Yet, the church looks at you with this superior attitude, and so wuick to think and even say; you must have sinned, you must have done something wrong, you must have made a bad decision to be in this situation. It’s just a cop out of what I see is one of the strongest command Jesus gave: “If you give as much as a cup of water… you do unto Me..” Until recently, I worked almost 50 hours each week to support myself.
Ironically, those church leaders of 250 or so, have been boasting for years “by faith” that they will have a “big church of 3000″; that’s been “the vision” for many years. Perhaps though, God looks at that one middle aged lady who is all alone and who was not cared for nor helped in her time of need, and He is just not keen to bring another 2999 who will be treated the same? God is not impressed with the size of the building, or the size of the tithe and offerings. God has always and always will care about His sheep being cared for.
Still, maybe if I become homeless next month, I might run into one of their street evangelist some day, and they’ll feel compelled to tell me all about how much Jesus loves me and invite me [back] to their church!!
I have to wonder WHY it is so automatically assumed that a person is poor of their o own doing; in your article you wrote: “If they are having difficulty budgeting and blowing their money on frivolous things, I think we owe it to them to confront that and try to teach them some basic budgeting and money skills.”
May I be so blunt as to explain: ONE income is ALWAYS weaker and more vulnerable than TWO! All that person on one income needs is for the car or washing machine to break down to send the budget out of whack! So often it is single mothers who are left coping with raising kids all alone on one income. Yet, we don’t say “Oh she must be finding it so hard on one income!” Instead we ASSUME that she doesn’t know how to budget, or that she is frivolous wit her money..” instead of admiring her for doing the most wonderful and hardest job in the whole world! I raised 2 kids entirely on my own and NEVER incurred any debt! No credit card, no borrowing at all. A married woman could spend whatever, pay with the credit card and there will be no judgement or assumption with regards to her values and character!
I have hit some hard times, lost my job like millions of others globally. Yet because I don’t have money in the bank, somehow, I need budgetting advice or it is assumed that I must be spending frivolously. Currently my income is $260 per week and my rent ALONE is $320. Please tell me how to budget to make it work.