Topics to consider

It was actually just this last winter that my church spent time examining our role in caring for the poor. In an effort to ensure that I do not just plagiarize the work of my elders in their paper yet still bring their wisdom to this discussion, I think laying out the categories they used will be a helpful way to examine what the Bible has to say about the poor.

The first issue to address is who are the poor? Do we just use the poverty line set by the government? Or do we use the 125% of the poverty line used by many organizations whose purpose is to aid the poor? Or is there some other standard we should use?

Next in identifying the poor, is there a difference in the way we should treat Christians who are poor and non-Christians who are poor? Does the fact that someone is part of the universal church place extra obligations on fellow believers to care for that person? Or do we have an extra obligation to the non-Christian to show how Christ can care for their spiritual poverty just as we can care for their physical poverty?

When the poor are identified, it is useful to turn to identifying where the responsibilty to care for the poor is placed. One place to start is the government. What is the government supposed to do for the poor? Certainly the government is to treat the poor justly. Does this require more than a passive refusal to oppress the poor? Must the government actively work for the betterment of the poor and provide for their care?

The church understands poverty to be a picture of our spiritual condition. Does this give the church a unique obligation to care for the poor? Is caring for the poor a requirement to effectively preach the gospel? Can the church speak to our spiritual poverty without addressing the physical poverty of the community or does the church working to address physical poverty confuse the gospel message so that people equate the gospel with helping the poor?

Is the way I care for the poor individually supposed to look different from the way my local church as a local church cares for the poor? What is my responsibility as an individual when I am approached by someone who is homeless? Should I ever spend my money on something I don't need, like going to a concert, when that money could be given to an organization that could feed someone?

This post asks many questions. In doing so, it lays out a framework from which to move through and thoughtfully consider these issues. For my next post I plan to include Scripture and examine what a passage or several passages have to say about these issues.