Helping the Poor

Most all Christians understand the golden rule of Matthew 7:12  “whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them”.  And we know the story of Tabitha (Dorcas) in Acts, as well as Jesus’ counsel that how we treat others is a reflection of our treatment of Him: Matthew 25:40  “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Since we take the counsel of comparing all Scripture so we do not become imbalanced, we must consider other passages too; including those counseling us in good stewardship principles. 

When Peter and John met a lame beggar they knew he needed something far more important than material goods. In Acts 3:6, Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you”.  That should be the goal of every true Christian – helping in a way that lifts up Jesus and His gospel.

We also have the inspired counsel of Ellen White. Lets look at and discuss some of her counsel on this subject.

Did you know there are 2 categories of poor?:  (1) those who are poor due to misfortune and (2) those who bring misfortune upon themselves by their poor decision making.

That reminds me of Jesus words in John 12:8, when He said we would have the poor with us always. Both groups need help, but the help will be different with both groups.  Those in group #1 need a helping hand in the way of material help, while those in group #2 have a greater need to learn to make better decisions. While the second group may sometimes also need material help, that isn’t always what they need most. To always help group #2 with material needs can, and sometimes does, lead to destructive co-dependency. They may sometimes need some “tough love”.

Notice these inspired thoughts below (emphasis mine):                                                                             “There are two classes of poor whom we have always within our borders–those who ruin themselves by their own independent course of action and continue in their transgression, and those who for the truth’s sake have been brought into straitened circumstances. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and then toward both these classes we shall do the right thing under the guidance and counsel of sound wisdom.  {6T 269.1}  

“Methods of helping the needy should be carefully and prayerfully considered. We are to seek God for wisdom, for He knows better than shortsighted mortals how to care for the creatures He has made. There are some who give indiscriminately to everyone who solicits their aid. In this they err. In trying to help the needy, we should be careful to give them the right kind of help. There are those who when helped will continue to make themselves special objects of need. They will be dependent as long as they see anything on which to depend. By giving undue time and attention to these, we may encourage idleness, helplessness, extravagance, and intemperance.  {6T 277.4}  

When we give to the poor we should consider: “Am I encouraging prodigality? Am I helping or injuring them?” No man who can earn his own livelihood has a right to depend on others.  {6T 278.1}  

This next inspired thought below is one of the reasons I encourage churches to have 2 sources of assistance: 1) the Community Services to assist the community in general, and also a Deacon’s fund to help local church members in particular (1 Tim 5:8 – “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel”). We have a special duty to help our own family members.

“God wants His people to reveal to a sinful world that He has not left them to perish. Special pains should be taken to help those who for the truth’s sake are cast out from their homes and are obliged to suffer. More and more there will be need of large, open, generous hearts, those who will deny self and will take hold of the cases of these very ones whom the Lord loves. The poor among God’s people must not be left without provision for their wants. Some way must be found whereby they may obtain a livelihood. Some will need to be taught to work. Others who work hard and are taxed to the utmost of their ability to support their families will need special assistance. We should take an interest in these cases and help them to secure employment. There should be a fund to aid such worthy poor families who love God and keep His commandments.  {6T 269.3}  

We need to be careful that helping the poor does not take our focus or resources off our real mission. And we need to be careful not to be “enablers” of those who would use the system or even take advantage of the church’s mercy (though I would rather err on the side of generosity than miserliness).

“Care must be taken that the means needed for this work shall not be diverted into other channels. It makes a difference whether we help the poor who through keeping God’s commandments are reduced to want and suffering, or whether we neglect these in order to help blasphemers who tread underfoot the commandments of God. And God regards the difference. Sabbathkeepers should not pass by the Lord’s suffering, needy ones to take upon themselves the burden of supporting those who continue in transgression of God’s law, those who are educated to look for help to anyone who will sustain them. This is not the right kind of missionary work. It is not in harmony with the Lord’s plan.  {6T 269.4}  

Here is a key chapter, and counsel, on helping the poor. Sometimes people must be “left to themselves” to learn the lessons of better decision making.

“Inquiries are often made in regard to our duty to the poor who embrace the third message; and we ourselves have long been anxious to know how to manage with discretion the cases of poor families who embrace the Sabbath. But while at Roosevelt, New York, August 3, 1861, I was shown some things in regard to the poor.  {1T 272.1}  

“God does not require our brethren to take charge of every poor family that shall embrace this message. If they should do this, the ministers must cease to enter new fields, for the funds would be exhausted. Many are poor from their own lack of diligence and economy; they know not how to use means aright. If they should be helped, it would hurt them. Some will always be poor. If they should have the very best advantages, their cases would not be helped. They have not good calculation and would use all the means they could obtain, were it much or little. Some know nothing of denying self and economizing to keep out of debt and to get a little ahead for a time of need. If the church should help such individuals instead of leaving them to rely upon their own resources, it would injure them in the end, for they look to the church and expect to receive help from them and do not practice self-denial and economy when they are well provided for. And if they do not receive help every time, Satan tempts them, and they become jealous and very conscientious for their brethren, fearing they will fail to do all their duty to them. The mistake is on their own part. They are deceived. They are not the Lord’s poor.  {1T 272.2}  

     The instructions given in the word of God in regard to helping the poor do not touch such cases, but are for the unfortunate and afflicted. God in His providence has afflicted individuals to test and prove others. Widows and invalids are in the church to prove a blessing to the church. They are a part of the means which God has chosen to develop the true character of Christ’s professed followers and to call into exercise the precious traits of character manifested by our compassionate Redeemer.  {1T 273.1}  

     Many who can but barely live when they are single, choose to marry and raise a family when they know they have nothing with which to support them. And worse than this, they have no family government. Their whole course in their family is marked with their loose, slack habits. They have but little control over themselves, and are passionate, impatient, and fretful. When such embrace the message, they feel that they are entitled to assistance from their more wealthy brethren; and if their expectations are not met, they complain of the church and accuse them of not living out their faith. Who must be the sufferers in this case? Must the cause of God be sapped, and the treasury in different places exhausted, to take care of these large families of poor? No. The parents must be the sufferers. They will not, as a general thing, suffer any greater lack after they embrace the Sabbath than they did before.  {1T 273.2}  

     There is an evil among some of the poor which will certainly prove their ruin unless they overcome it. They have embraced the truth with their coarse, rough, uncultivated habits, and it takes some time for them to see and realize their coarseness, and that it is not in accordance with the character of Christ. They look upon others who are more orderly and refined as being proud, and you may hear them say: “The truth brings us all down upon a level.” But it is an entire mistake to think that the truth brings the receiver down. It brings him up, refines his taste, sanctifies his judgment, and, if lived out, is continually fitting him for the society of holy angels in the City of God. The truth is designed to bring us all up upon a level.  {1T 274.1}  

     The more able should ever act a noble, generous part in their deal with their poorer brethren, and should also give them good advice, and then leave them to fight life’s battles through. But I was shown that a most solemn duty rests upon the church to have an especial care for the destitute widows, orphans, and invalids.   {1T 274.2}  

Church’s do not always put a member in charge of the Community Services department or Deacon’s fund for the right reasons, using the right criteria. This next quote especially shows the importance of the gift of discernment in the head of a Community Service Center or Head Deacon, and the importance of choosing someone who themselves exhibits sound stewardship principles in their life/family:

“Men and women of God, persons of discernment and wisdom, should be appointed to look after the poor and needy, the household of faith first. These should report to the church and counsel as to what should be done.  {6T 278.4}  

“Instead of encouraging the poor to think that they can have their eating and drinking provided free or nearly so, we should place them where they can help themselves. We should endeavor to provide them with work, and if necessary teach them how to work. Let the members of poor households be taught how to cook, how to make and mend their own clothing, how to care properly for the home. Let boys and girls be thoroughly taught some useful trade or occupation. We are to educate the poor to become self-reliant. This will be true help, for it will not only make them self-sustaining, but will enable them to help others.  {6T 278.5}  

The deacons/deaconesses was the church office ordained by God with assisting the poor – working under the church leaders guidance (Pastor, Church Board, & Board of Elders). Perhaps we should choose qualified Community Service leaders from amongst the qualified Deacons/Deaconesses:

“The fact that these brethren had been ordained for the special work of looking after the needs of the poor, did not exclude them from teaching the faith. On the contrary, they were fully qualified to instruct others in the truth, and they engaged in the work with great earnestness and success.  {AA 89.3}  

“Let not the poor feel that there is nothing that they can do, because they have not the wealth of their brethren. They can sacrifice in many ways. They can deny self. They can live devoted lives, and in their words and acts they can honor their Redeemer. The sisters especially can exert a strong influence if they will cease their gossiping and devote their time to watchfulness and prayer. They can honor God. They can let their light so shine that others, by seeing their good works, will be led to glorify our Father which is in heaven.  {2T 246.3}  

“When a man is struggling with honest endeavor to sustain himself and his family, and yet is unable to do this, so that they suffer for necessary food and clothing, the Lord will not pronounce our ministering brethren guiltless if they look on with indifference or prescribe conditions for this brother which are virtually impossible of fulfillment . . . We are to make the condition of the unfortunate brother our own.  {WM 210.1}  

“Among all whose needs demand our interest, the widow and the fatherless have the strongest claims upon our tender sympathy and care. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”  {WM 214.1}  

“The father who has died in the faith, resting upon the eternal promise of God, left his loved ones in full trust that the Lord would care for them. And how does the Lord provide for these bereaved ones? He does not work a miracle in sending manna from heaven; He does not send ravens to bring them food; but He works a miracle upon human hearts. He expels selfishness from the soul; He unseals the fountain of benevolence. He tests the love of His professed followers by committing to their tender mercies the afflicted and bereaved ones, the poor and the orphan. These are in a special sense the little ones whom Christ looks upon, whom it is an offense to Him to neglect. Those who do neglect them are neglecting Christ in the person of His afflicted ones. Every kind act done to them in the name of Jesus is accepted by Him as if done to Himself, for He identifies His interest with that of suffering humanity, and He has entrusted to His church the grand work of ministering to Jesus by helping and blessing the needy and suffering. On all who shall minister to them with willing hearts the blessing of the Lord will rest.–Review and Herald, June 27, 1893.  {WM 214.2}

“A few years ago some of the poorer brethren were in danger of losing their souls through wrong impressions. Everywhere Satan was tempting them in regard to the wealthy. These poor brethren were constantly expecting to be favored, when it was their duty to rely upon their own energies; and had they been favored, it would have been the worst thing that could have been done for them. All through the ranks of Sabbathkeepers, Satan was seeking to overthrow the poorer class by his temptations. Some who have lacked judgment and wisdom have taken their own course, being unwilling to ask advice or to follow it. Such have had to suffer as the result of their miserable calculation, and yet these same ones would feel that they should be favored by their brethren who have property. These things needed to be corrected. The first-mentioned class did not realize the responsibilities resting upon the wealthy, nor the perplexity and cares they were compelled to have because of their means. All they could see was that these had means to use, while they themselves were cramped for the same. But as a general thing the wealthy have regarded all the poor in the same light, when there is a class of poor who are doing the best in their power to glorify God, to do good, to live for the truth. These persons are of solid worth. Their judgment is good, their spirit precious in the sight of God; and the amount of good which they accomplish in their unpretending way is tenfold greater than that accomplished by the wealthy, although the latter may give large sums on certain occasions. The rich fail to see and realize the necessity of doing good, of being rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.  {1T 535.2}