Help the poor who have no hand and legs.donate them for their daily bread
“And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3)
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Almost everyone has encountered this situation, a stranger or vagrant approaches you with a story of financial destitution. On first response, you may have compassion and reach for your wallet. But wait, if this person is a stranger, do you know they are speaking honestly? How do you know where this money will go? Will it go to an alcohol or drug habit? Will this money be used for any evil deed? Will this money enable a person who is able bodied not to work? 2 Thessalonians 3:10 tells us if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. If you give out of a spontaneous emotional moment, how can you know you are being a good steward of what the Lord has given to you? This money does not belong to you; it is the Lord’s, and you are the steward: will you use the money of your Master for something sinful? Should not a Christian give to the Church or a well researched mission? Let’s sit together at the feet of the Lord Jesus and see what is the biblical answer to these questions.
“And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3)
Please subscribe to donate
Almost everyone has encountered this situation, a stranger or vagrant approaches you with a story of financial destitution. On first response, you may have compassion and reach for your wallet. But wait, if this person is a stranger, do you know they are speaking honestly? How do you know where this money will go? Will it go to an alcohol or drug habit? Will this money be used for any evil deed? Will this money enable a person who is able bodied not to work? 2 Thessalonians 3:10 tells us if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. If you give out of a spontaneous emotional moment, how can you know you are being a good steward of what the Lord has given to you? This money does not belong to you; it is the Lord’s, and you are the steward: will you use the money of your Master for something sinful? Should not a Christian give to the Church or a well researched mission? Let’s sit together at the feet of the Lord Jesus and see what is the biblical answer to these questions.
People usually would not like to be
tricked to give money to a deceiver who pretends to be a poor and a
beggar, some for bad reasons, others for good reasons. Worldly people
have some selfish reasons for refusing to be deceived like that, while
the children of God refuse to give money to a deceiver for a good reason
which is love… Yes, indeed, often not giving is the loving thing to do. God is love (cf. 1 John 4:8), and yet God does not
give us everything we ask the way we ask for them, because love does
not want to hurt the loved one, and some of our requests are sinful or
not profitable for us. And those who are born of God are the children of
God who imitate God by walking in the same love: “Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love“ (Ephesians 5: 1-2). And love hates sin… Love “does not rejoice at iniquity but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). It is not
a loving thing to do to give money to a man who will use that money to
buy drugs or to gamble or to buy alcohol or to do any other bad thing.
If we contribute to any of these sinful things, we will not be helping a beggar or a poor,
but we will be helping the cause of the devil, which is something the
children of God who imitate God would not want to do. The Lord said: “To him that asks of thee give, and from him that desires to borrow of thee turn not away.” (Matthew 5:42) This is not an unconditional giving, but it is conditional just like the promise “Ask, and it shall be given to you.”
(Matthew 7:7) This is certainly not a promise that God will give us all
what we ask, even if it is something bad or against His Will, as in
other places He explains that we will not receive unless we ask
according to His Will: “And this is the boldness which we have towards him, that if we ask him anything according to his will he hears us.” (1 John 5:14); “Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask evilly, that ye may consume [it] in your pleasures.”
(James 4:3) The same thing will happen with the children of God who
imitate their Father: some people will ask them and will not receive, as
they ask something bad or against the Will of God to consume it to
their pleasures or to sin.
So how should we know which beggar we
should help? Should we just throw out the baby with the bath water?…
Should we just say: “Here is another deceiver; I won’t give him, because
I don’t want to be deceived..”? Some would say this, thus not learning
anything from the warning of the Lord about the last days: “and because lawlessness shall prevail, the love of the most shall grow cold” (Matthew 24:12)… Others would like to look “holier than thou” and would say: “It is true that this beggar may be a poser, but don’t forget that there is another possibility: that this beggar is really in need, and I may
be refusing to do good to him…”, and they will just give all beggars
with this assumption, not realizing that some of them will be using the
money for sinful things, and thus they participate in that sinful act…
Note that this last category of men would not see the poor who are their
neighbors and whom they know, and would just look for people to help in
some strangers whom they think the Bible calls “poor”, as if the poor
are some aliens who come from planet Mars… Both of these positions are
not correct according to God’s Word: God teaches us in His Word that we
should help the poor, so we should not refuse to help all beggars just
because some may be deceivers; and we should not build our decision to
give or not to give on assumptions like “maybe” or “possibility” or
“what if”, because God has not left us in uncertainties; His Word gives
us all what we need for godliness and good works according to His Will
(cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17). God teaches us in 1 Corinthians 13:3 that even
if we give all our possessions to feed the poor, but we don’t have love,
then it profits us nothing. If we will just give money to a beggar
without loving him, then that’s wrong in ALL cases without exception,
because the purpose of the commandment is not that this poor get money,
but the purpose is love from a pure heart: “But the end of what is enjoined is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith”
(1 Timothy 1:5). And love in the Bible is not a feeling or an emotion,
but an attitude, a nature and an act! Love is in actions. If I just give
money to any beggar, even if he is not a deceiver, I am still doing bad
to him, as I am giving a bad message to him that possessions are so
important, even more important than the true Gospel that includes denying ourselves and giving up all our possessions, and not seeking possessions: “Thus then every one of you who forsakes not all that is his own cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33). In other words, the Bible teaches us to help the person of the poor, and not just his pocket, thus not encouraging him to covetousness and not risking to be helping him to do something sinful. If we take care of the person of the poor, then we will know for sure
that we are helping a poor according to God’s Will, because we will be
acting in biblical love, as we will know who he really is and we will be
able to help him in his real needs; and even if he is a poor because of
drugs (for example), then we will be able to help him get free from
drugs by the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This Gospel is not just
words that we throw to a person, but truth preached with love,
which I remind you is an ACT, and not some feelings or emotions… And
the gift that we will give is not always necessarily money, as it
happened with Peter and John who said to the beggar who expected to
receive money from them (sometimes what a beggar expects is not what God wants to give him through His children): “Silver and gold I have not; but what I have, this give I to thee: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean rise up and walk.”
(Acts 3:6) It is not said in the Bible that Jesus financially helped
the widow who put two small copper coins in the treasury, giving “all she owned, all she had to live on.” (Mark 12:44) That widow would glorify God in her need, as God would provide her needs according to His
way, and the purpose of Jesus was to glorify God through her example,
which is more important than giving her money. When the blind beggar
Batimaeus came to Jesus, the Lord didn’t give him money, seeing he was a
beggar, but He asked him: “What do you want Me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51). The Lord wanted to give him what he really needed, and not money… Look at the answer of that beggar: “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!” (Mark 10:51). Oh! His real need was not money… The simple conclusion is: the Bible teaches us that if we don’t know for sure that a beggar really needs what we will give him, or if we see that we have no ability to take care of his person with love rather than of his pocket, then that’s a clear biblical revelation from the Holy Spirit to us that we should not
give money to that beggar who came to us, because in all cases we will
be hurting him and doing bad to him rather than good. At least, we will
be encouraging him to covetousness, which is a sin as much as murder and
adultery and immorality! This is the biblical way by which the Holy
Spirit talks to us, and not by some dreams or emotions that we may have
towards a “beggar”… And we should not just justify our disobedience by
saying that we have no ability to love the person of that beggar,
because the commandment to give to the poor should be obeyed by love,
and not legalistically; so if we don’t have love and we don’t want to
obey the Lord concerning that beggar even if big sacrifices are needed,
then that should make us test ourselves whether we are in the Faith,
because all the children of God have this fruit of the Holy Spirit which
is love (cf. Galatians 5:22).
