Open your hand

For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land. – Deuteronomy 15v11

Poverty is sadly a part of life. It is not going anywhere. It has always been here, and it always will be here. It is just a part of life.

The question for us is how to deal with the poor. It is easy enough to ignore or neglect the poor. Most of us rarely come into contact with the poor, and even when we do it is easy enough to ignore them.

Virtually every time God talks about the poor He talks about His people helping them. I think the only major occasion when this is not the case is when Judas criticises the use of the expensive oil to wash Jesus’ feet. Even here it was a matter of Judas’ heart and not really the poor.

From way back in the time of the Law God’s principle in dealing with the poor is to ‘open our hands to them.’ This was the true test of revival in the book of Isaiah. Jesus stressed it in His teaching. It a major part of the instructions to the church in the epistles.

Sadly, many churches have not yet clued in to the importance of the teaching in actual practice. Especially in the last 50-60 years we have been so afraid of being associated with the ‘social gospel’ movement that we have neglected what it obviously to be a part of our behaviour as believers.

The result is that we abrogate our responsibility to the social reformers and government and then we critcise them for doing it.

What would our societies be like if the church and God’s people were doing what is really our job? Do you think people would see the reality behind the words ‘Jesus loves you and so do I?’

We have the doctrine right. We have the words right. We tell the world that God loves them and that we love them.

If our care for the poor is any indication of whether or not we really care what are we showing the world?