As we noted in the prior post, the reality (Ephesians 2:8-10) that we are saved by grace, through faith, for something – to help build for the kingdom – forms the backdrop for our understanding of the biblical mandate for helping the poor.
And this biblical mandate for helping the poor is clear, strong, and pervasive. In fact, there are over 2000 verses, spread throughout all 66 books of the bible, that deal with issues of poverty, wealth, and justice. God clearly has a special heart for the least and last; just as clearly, His people have a role to play in His plans to help them. Now certainly, the alleviation of poverty is not God’s primary objective, His end goal – we understand from scripture that His kingdom is much, much more than that. Yet, justice is, as Eugene Peterson (author of The Message) puts it, “a serious gospel-prophetic mandate” – a concern that God expects His people to share and to act upon.
So powerful is God’s desire for His people to act justly and love mercy (Micah 6:8) that He binds this priority up with worship. After announcing in Isaiah 1:14-17 that He is weary of their assemblies, “this trampling of my courts,” God declares in Isaiah 58:4b-8, “You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and to not turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.”
This holy concern for justice is particularly relevant for us, the Church in America, precisely because we are far and away the wealthiest Church in the world. As Richard Stearns observes in The Hole in Our Gospel, “The Church in America must confront the uncomfortable challenge of being endowed with an abundance of blessings in an extremely poor world.”
Hence, the tagline for our site here at Givers by Design:
Blessed to be a Blessing…
For more on what the Bible says about helping the poor, check out the sermon titled Answering the Call.
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