What scriptures do you know, where God commands us to minister to the poor?

Why is God so passionate about the righteous caring for the poor?

Why does God get upset when the poor are not being ministered to?

What is at the heart of God commanding us to minister to the poor?

Reading:
Not only has God ordained that there be poor, but there is another side of that – He has also ordained that we minister to the poor. Don’t go by this too quickly – God has ordained that we minister to the poor. The scripture is wrought with scriptures declaring that the righteous regard the poor. This is not just an afterthought. God over and over again speaks of His concern for the poor and downtrodden. One cannot read through the whole of scripture without finding this theme. James states, “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.” Christianity is associated tightly with ministering to the poor and downtrodden. Why is God so passionate about this? God is even seen getting angry at those who ignore the poor. In Isaiah 58, God rebukes Israel, telling them they have not truly fasted nor found Sabbath rest:

“Cry aloud; do not hold back;
lift up your voice like a trumpet;
declare to my people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
and oppress all your workers.
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the Lord?
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.
“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;
then you shall take delight in the Lord,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

God associates caring for the poor and downtrodden with worship, fasting and Sabbath rest. James associates it with pure religion. This is not a “maybe” part of a Christian walk, it will be part of the Christian walk. When we begin to understand what the depth of the Cosmic Story is about how God pursued and loved those who were poor, destitute, crazy, rebellious, and undeserving, how he loved us, we begin to get a glimpse of how important this is to God, and why God commands us to minister to the poor. God is so passionate about the righteous loving the poor, because He is so passionate about loving us, passionate enough to send His son to die. And God gets upset when we don’t love the poor, because as Christians this violates the image of the Gospel that God ordained when He stated the poor will never cease from the land. Portraying the Gospel in a very real way is at the very center of ministry to the poor, therefore God commands us to minister to the poor and destitute.

Scripture reading:
Read these verses and discuss what they mean to you and in regards to ministering to the poor.

Micah 6
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

1 Corinthians 6:19b,20a
“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.”

Proverbs 21:13
Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor
will himself call out and not be answered.

Proverbs 28:27
Whoever gives to the poor will not want,
but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.

Questions:
Why is God so passionate about the righteous caring for the poor?

Proverbs 21:13 states, “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.” Proverbs 28:27 states, “Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.” Why does God get upset when the poor are not being ministered to?

What is at the heart of God commanding us to minister to the poor?

Are you ministering to the poor? Is this occurring in our own church?

Jonathan Edwards wrote,
THE duty here enjoined, is giving to the poor. “If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: — Thou shalt surely give him.” Here by thy poor brother is to be understood the same as in other places is meant by neighbor. It is explained in Lev. 25:35 to mean not only those of their own nation, but even strangers and sojourners. “And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner.” The Pharisees indeed interpreted it to signify only one of their own nation. But Christ condemns this interpretation, Luke 10:29, etc. and teaches, in contradiction to their opinion, that the rules of charity, in the law of Moses, are to be extended to the Samaritans, who were not of their nation, and between whom and the Jews there was the most bitter enmity, and who were a people very troublesome to the Jews.
What do you think about what he said?

Jonathan Edwards wrote,
God gives us direction how we are to give in such a case, viz. bountifully, and willingly. We should give bountifully, and sufficiently for the supply of the poor’s need. Deu. 15:7, 8, “Thou shalt not shut up thine hand from thy poor brother; but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.” And again, in verse 11, “Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.” Again, we should give willingly and without grudging. Deu. 15:7, “Thou shalt not harden thine heart from thy poor brother,” And verse 10, “And thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest him.”
What do you think about what he said?

Jonathan Edwards wrote,
This is a duty to which God’s people are under very strict obligation. It is not merely a commendable thing for a man to be kind and bountiful to the poor, but our bounden duty, as much a duty as it is to pray, or to attend public worship, or anything else whatever. And the neglect of it brings great guilt upon any person.
What do you think about what he said?

Questions:
In Deuteronomy 15:11, God states that the poor will never cease from the land, what did this indicate about the “Promised Land”?

Reading:
In Isaiah, we read this passage –

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,”
–Isaiah 61:1,2a

There is something significant to all the passages in Deuteronomy 15:11 and the rest of the Old Testament that reveals a gut wrenching, heartfelt concern for the poor and a concern on how God’s people respond and love those who are in poverty. God in these passages is not only concerned with the poor, but His heart and love for the poor reveal something much deeper and much more pervasive. And even though Israel was coming into the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 15:11, this was not God’s ultimate plan. The fact that the needy and the poor would not cease in the land was an indication of that this was not the fulfillment, but pointed to the fact that God had something more ultimate in mind. . . . Israel was a shadow of a Kingdom that would break in to our world through the preaching of the Gospel Jesus Christ.
It’s no coincidence that this passage in Isaiah 61 was read by Jesus as He was beginning His ministry. Another passage in Isaiah 55, cries out,

“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.”
–Isaiah 55:1

In the real world, it is not just a few who are poor; we all are poor, and not only poor but utterly destitute and wretched, ugly and depraved, enslaved and rebellious, blind, broken, and needy. Romans 3 shows us that none of us escape this poverty –

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

God has ordained that there be poor, destitute, and orphans in the land, because all of us are poor and destitute in our sin. The poor are a picture of who we are, in a small sense, for our poverty and destitution is far greater than any physical need and even goes into the depths of hell, for in our sin, we are separated from communion with God. In Christ’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man cries out from Hades, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.” This rich man in this parable experienced poverty, unheard of in this life. And this is our poverty without Christ. A spiritual poverty that is very real.
All the scriptures in the Old Testament about reaching out to the poor and needy in the land and the passion we see in the heart of God towards the poor, demonstrated a need for something more than the nation of Israel, something greater than the “Promised Land”. And these commands of God to love the poor, demonstrated that one day God, himself, would with open hands give himself to poor sinners. God’s passion for the poor comes from His deep seated passion for the Gospel. God was pointing Israel to the future when a greater Kingdom would come through the preaching of the Gospel and the true needs of the poor (us) would be met.

And the Kingdom has come. In ministering to poor, we get a glimpse of the greater story of Christ’s work to redeem us. Christ radically saved the spiritually poor through the power of the Gospel. He being rich lowered himself, and came into our world, becoming poor. He engaged us and gave himself, even to death on the cross, that we might be rich in Christ. Christ came for the lost, the poor, the broken, and for sinners. And not only were we poor, but we were also enemies and rebels, fools and mad, loving the ways of this world more than God. And yet He loved us first, and He came for us. When we love the poor, we are demonstrating the Gospel in a very tangible way.

Scripture reading:
Read these verses and discuss what they mean to you and in regards to ministering to the poor

Colossians 1:21-22
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

Romans 5:6-11
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Questions:
How do the poor and downtrodden relate to the Kingdom of God breaking through? What picture do we get of the Gospel?

How does the gospel play a part in the poverty?

How does ministry to the poor display the Gospel?

How does this apply to the undeserving poor, who are there on their own fault?

God has ordained that there would be the poor

Questions:
Why do you think there are poor in this world?
Can we get rid of poverty?
What does the fact that there are poor in this world mean?

Reading:

“For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You will freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’”
–Deuteronomy 15:11

God is about to take his people, Israel, into the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land and a nation that was supposed to represent God’s Kingdom breaking through on earth, and they are told something startling and seemingly out of place, “the poor will never cease to be in the land.” Why in this nation that is called the Promised Land, and is supposed to represent the best of all nations, are they told there would always be poor in their land? This promise is given with no condition on whether or not they followed the Lord or not. It was to be. God in His providence and mercy ordained that in this great nation there would be poor. The scripture show that God has an intimate concern for the poor. So what is God doing here? Why is this so? Let’s explore this. . . .

Scripture reading:

Read these verses and discuss what they mean to you and in regards to ministering to the poor.

Matthew 26:11
For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

Proverbs 19:17
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.

Matthew 25:41-46
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Questions:
Do you believe that God has ordained that there will always be the needy and the poor in the land?
What do you think God is doing here, when He tells Israel that “the poor will never cease to be in the land”?