The Poor

"There should be no poor among you, for the LORD your God will greatly bless you in the land He is giving you as a special possession. (Deuteronomy 15:4 NLT)

I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine.  We were discussing what God would want us to do with money.  I brought up the idea of helping the poor.  He responded by pointing out that Jesus told us that the poor would always be with us, so that wasn't a great place to pour our money.  He was right about Jesus making that statement.  He wasn't right, though, about the context.

You see, a woman had just come into a group meeting with Jesus.  She took a jar of perfume worth about a year's wages and poured it over Jesus' head as a gift.  Some of the people were indignant because she didn't sell the perfume and give the money to the poor.  Jesus replied, "You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to. But you will not always have Me. She has done what she could and has anointed My body for burial ahead of time. I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman's deed will be remembered and discussed." (Mark 14:7-9 NLT)

She had done something more important with the money.  She worshiped God.  Jesus was with us only one time in all of history.  She honored him while he was here.

Notice what Jesus said about the poor, though?  You can help them whenever you want.  He wasn't telling us not to help the poor.  He was simply saying that he was only here once in all history, so honoring him was the higher priority.

Should we help the poor?  Jesus said he came to bring them good news (Luke 4:18, 7:22), and that the kingdom of God was theirs (Luke 6:20).  He told us to give to the poor to be clean (Luke 11:41), invite them to eat with us (Luke 14:13, 21), and that holding on to our riches get in the way of our being accepted by God (Luke 18:22ff).

Jesus must have really known his Scriptures:

"But if there are any poor Israelites in your towns when you arrive in the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward them. Instead, be generous and lend them whatever they need. Do not be mean-spirited and refuse someone a loan because the year for canceling debts is close at hand. If you refuse to make the loan and the needy person cries out to the LORD, you will be considered guilty of sin. Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do. There will always be some in the land who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share freely with the poor and with other Israelites in need. (Deuteronomy 15:7-11 NLT)