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.
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. By this we shall know that we are of
the truth and reassure our heart before him…
James 1:27 & 1 John 3:16-19
Historically,
churches have tried to distinguish between ‘deserving poor’ and ‘undeserving
poor’ and to restrict their help to the former. As far as it goes, that is a
sound principle to act on. But in my experience, many Christians with more than
enough to meet their needs, living comfortable lives, simply do not know what
it is like to be poor and so be in a position to make proper distinctions about
who ‘deserves’ help.
Church
leaders who have helped a person once, perhaps by clearing their
debt, and being faced again with the same person with the same problem three or
six months later, may conclude that the person has been the author if their own
misfortunate. They may not understand that sustained solvency is just
impossible for them when someone is ill or something breaks down.
It is,
for example, wrong to assume that social security or welfare state support,
like payments for people unable to find work or in very low paid work, are sufficient
to fund a healthy lifestyle. On the contrary, they pay what the State can
afford and what is politically acceptable. The media does not help if it
overlooks struggling people and highlights those who know how to exploit the
Benefits system to live in greater comfort that many people at work.
I
realise that distinguishing between people in genuine need and those who are
pretending is difficult because so many cities host ‘professional beggars’; I
realise that some poor people could better use the money they have, but that is
true of most other people as well.
‘But if
anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need…’ Is it not
the case that most of us can see more
than enough genuine need around us that we do not have to worry unduly about
the need that may not be genuine?
_____________________________________________
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
Handling
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