Biblical Foundations of Poverty Ministry

In recent years there has been a great deal of discussion about the best way to respond to the poor in America .  President Clinton, upon taking office in 1992, pledged to "end welfare as we know it." President Bush has promoted government funding for religious organizations that serve the poor.

Many political conservatives believe they have a window of opportunity to demonstrate community-based welfare strategies that empower small, local non-profit groups can do a better job serving the poor than large, bureaucratic government programs.  If this is true, how are churches and local Christian charities fitting into U.S. welfare reform?

As the founder and director of a West Michigan ministry to the poor, I am concerned that many of our churches are missing the opportunity to offer significant alternatives to government poverty programs and do so in the name of Jesus Christ.  Part of my fear is based in the observation that most of the members of evangelical churches have a knowledge gap when it comes to what the Bible teaches about God's heart for the poor and the believer's responsibility to serve the poor in Christ's Name.  Many professing Christians in our conservative churches never think about the poor or ministry to the poor as a valid part of their Christian life.  Many church boards never consider outreach ministry to the poor and homeless.  Before churches will be able to be used by God to demonstrate to our nation what Christians can do to reach the poor, Christians must first have some idea what God says about response to the poor.  This paper is a summary of several key Scripture passages which trace the theology of poverty in God's Word.

There is no clearer statement in the Bible about God's attitude toward poverty ministry than Proverbs 29:7, "The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern." 

This is a powerful, uncompromising statement that leaves no doubt that concern for the poor is seen by God as the fruit of knowing Him. The latter phrase of the proverb serves as a warning to the church member who never thinks about the plight of the poor and oppressed.   It is possible for a professing Christian to give cognitive assent to evangelical doctrine but still remain unregenerate.

History is filled with examples of religiously orthodox people who held a cavalier attitude toward the poor.  In 1780, when Robert Raikes wanted to reach out with education to the poor, illiterate children of London , the official church would have nothing to do with such a venture.  Raikes found a few godly women who were compassionate toward the rowdy, dirty street children and these women opened their homes on Sunday afternoons to launch the first Sunday Schools. 

In Proverbs 29:7 the phrase "justice for the poor" does not mean always giving poor people what they ask for. In fact, unqualified church charity often does more harm than good by being so meager it discourages the poor.  At the other extreme, unqualified charity from church programs, not unlike government welfare, often enables and continues unhealthy patterns of dependency. 

Determining a course of justice for the poor is more than used clothes and canned food.  Doing justice for the poor demands a major investment of time and resources. Justice for the poor means assessing and investigating, on a person-by-person basis the causes of a person's poverty.  Then comes the often slow process of designing and implementing an effective course of action that places appropriate responsibility with the person helped.  Doing justice for the poor is about liberation-not furthering or fostering dependency. 

Churches would be better off doing nothing to help the poor if their charity is only the impersonal one-size-fits-all dispensing of groceries and other give-aways.  Often these charity programs are ill-conceived.  The recipients often feel even worse off after they receive their box of groceries.  Why?  Because there is a total absence of a genuine caring relationship.  True justice for the poor involves associating with people of low position (Romans 12:16). 

Homeless people on the streets of Grand Rapids tell me that the hardest part of their plight is having non-homeless persons treat them as if they were invisible.  Mother Teresa, known for her work among the poor in developing countries, said that the poverty of America is a poverty of loneliness.  When we take the time to really know a poverty stricken person, we may need to deal with an unscrupulous slum lord on behalf of a widow.  We may need to testify in court on behalf of a mentally ill street person who was savagely beaten.  We may need to appeal the firing of a worker who "blew the whistle" on illegal practices in the work place.  We may need to line up job interviews for a fellow church member who has been "down-sized" out of a job.  We may need to recruit a mechanic from our congregation to repair the brakes on the ancient car of a single mom who desperately needs that old clunker to get to her new job she just got after ten years on welfare!

Proverbs 29:7 provides a simple two part outline for approaching an expanded biblical treatise on the same issues: 

  1. Those who are truly God's people will demonstrate ministry to the poor.

  2. Those religious people who ignore the poor, no matter that orthodox creedal statements pour from their lips, are not God's people. 

An expansion on the concepts of Proverbs 29:7 is found in Matthew 25:31-46.  Here Jesus describes, in the context of His return, the "righteous" of Proverbs 29:7 symbolically as "sheep" and the "wicked" as "goats."

Jesus measures response to the poor and oppressed, people without food, water, shelter, clothing, and people who are sick or imprisoned.  Those who have responded by caring for the poor are pronounced as "righteous" and their destiny is assured with Christ in His eternal kingdom.

Is Jesus teaching that we can earn salvation and eternal life by being nice to poor people? NO. Jesus is teaching the principle "if you love Me you will keep My commandments" John 14:15.  Throughout the Old Testament, the only Scriptures the Matthew 25 people had, the people of God are instructed to look out for the interests of the poor.  The "sheep" of Matthew 25 have lived out their faith by obeying the Scriptures as evidenced by their practical assistance to the poor.  Their good deeds have not earned their salvation-but are evidence of salvation.

In contrast, the goat people of Matthew 25 are identified with the "wicked" of Proverbs 29:7.  They have not lifted a finger to help the poor, revealing their total lack of obedience to God's Word.  They do seem to hold to biblically correct theology in terms of Jesus' identity.  They call Him Lord, but are nonetheless on their way to eternal punishment.

I am afraid that there may be many members sitting in our churches each Sunday who are actually on their way to hell and don't know it. They call Jesus Lord but never experience even the slightest stirring in their hearts to take action to assist the poor in the congregation or community.  Part of the responsibility for this tragedy may be with Christian colleges and seminaries and pastors who have not educated their students or parishioners in the great theme of God's heart for the poor that runs through the Scriptures.

Continue to Page 2 >