Helping the Poor

 God has a soft spot in His heart for the poor. We should feel the same way. His plan for helping the poor is for those of us who are able to take care of our needs to share with the poor. God doesn't say for the government to take care of them, or for us to have a special program for them. We are to care for them out of love, so we all can live together in harmony having our needs met. 

God made this very clear to His people in the Old Covenant. (Leviticus 25:35,37) He told His people that if a brother was to become poor and fall into poverty, then they should help him, like they would help a stranger or a sojourner, so they could continue to live among them. God commanded them not to lend them money with interest or to lend them food at a profit. Seems clear enough to me.

This seems to be very fitting for our time of high inflation and so many people having difficulty paying for all of their necessities. It is fairly common for people to have needs, and they don't have enough money to meet those needs. It could be a broken washer or a car that needs repairs. God wants us to help them out by lending to them without expecting them to pay us back more than we gave them. They can pay us back, but only what we paid to meet that need.

The same is true for giving food to others. It should be sharing what we have or buying some food for them. Then, if they pay us back, we would not make any profit. Doesn't that seem to be the caring way to help the needy? All the time we are doing this we need to remember that God wants everyone who is able to work to provide for himself and his family, so we don't want to discourage that by our help. This is the benefit of living in community with others. We can help each other do things God's way.

#NHBaptistdotorg

Tomorrow, I intend to read Leviticus 26-27 and Numbers 1.