"Poor" in the New Testament

What does the New Testament have to say about the poor? Below is the result of a search. I used the ESV for the search, but the scripture quotations below are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain.

Matthew 11:4 Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5  the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. (Repeated, Luke 7:22)

Mark 10: 17 As he was going out into the way, one ran to him, knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one—God. 19  You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not give false testimony,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and mother.’ ”
20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have observed all these things from my youth.”
21 Jesus looking at him loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the cross.” (Repeated, Luke 18:22)

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the broken hearted,
to proclaim release to the captives,
recovering of sight to the blind,
to deliver those who are crushed,
19 and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (This was a quotation from Isaiah 61, which Jesus read as part of an address to the synagogue in Nazareth.)

Luke 19:8 Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”

John 13:29 For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus said to him, “Buy what things we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. [Apparently such donations had been made, in the past, from the money box.]

Romans 15:26 For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem.

2 Corinthians 9:6 Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion. for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He has scattered abroad. He has given to the poor.
His righteousness remains forever.”

Galatians 2:9 and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, those who were reputed to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. 10 They only asked us to remember the poor—which very thing I was also zealous to do.

Thanks for reading!

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 33

Charity is a paradox, like modesty and courage. Stated baldly, charity certainly means one of two things—pardoning unpardonable acts, or loving unlovable people. But if we ask ourselves (as we did in the case of pride) what a sensible pagan would feel about such a subject, we shall probably be beginning at the bottom of it. A sensible pagan would say that there were some people one could forgive, and some one couldn’t: a slave who stole wine could be laughed at; a slave who betrayed his benefactor could be killed, and cursed even after he was killed. In so far as the act was pardonable, the man was pardonable. That again is rational, and even refreshing; but it is a dilution. It leaves no place for a pure horror of injustice, such as that which is a great beauty in the innocent. And it leaves no place for a mere tenderness for men as men, such as is the whole fascination of the charitable. Christianity came in here as before. It came in startlingly with a sword, and clove one thing from another. It divided the crime from the criminal. The criminal we must forgive unto seventy times seven. The crime we must not forgive at all. It was not enough that slaves who stole wine inspired partly anger and partly kindness. We must be much more angry with theft than before, and yet much kinder to thieves than before. There was room for wrath and love to run wild. And the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Sunspots 521

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: Left Behind is going to be available through Netflix. E. Stephen Burnett does not recommend it, from any source.

Christianity: The New English Translation of the Bible, which can be downloaded free, in various formats. It is not public domain.

A Christianity Today columnist has begun wearing the same outfit to work all week. (In this case, the columnist is a female.)

Computing: Metaflop is a web site that lets you create your own fonts by modifying a pre-existing one.

Wired says that Coolors is a web site that lets you create your own color palettes, easily. It works. I plan to post a poster, with colors selected from that site, tomorrow.

Gizmo's Freeware has a Free Windows Desktop Software Security list, annotated.

The History Blog tells us about the first selfie, taken in 1839.

Health: Christianity Today reviews a book that claims that Christians, historically, have embraced advancements in medicine, and should continue to do so.

Politics: Benjamin L. Corey gives statistics on how much (or little) Christians actually give that goes to help the poor, and says that his support of government assistance isn't because he is a socialist, but because, if the church isn't coming anywhere close to meeting needs, then government should, by default.

Science: Time reports on a baby, conceived in vitro, with mitochondria, taken from the mother, and inserted into the egg.

National Public Radio reports on miscarriages. They are more common than you think, and the most common cause is a chromosomal abnormality. In other words, miscarriage prevents births of severely abnormal babies.

Wired on why, and how, cats purr.

Image source (public domain)

Televangelists and how much they get paid

National Public Radio reported, yesterday and on April 1st (the link is to the combined report) about how some of the largest Christian entities take in millions of dollars, often with no accountability to anyone, except a controlling board, which may consist mostly, or entirely, of the leader's family. That's shameful. Some televangelists have lavish homes, fancy autos, and lots more. (scroll down in the report to see an aerial view of a "parsonage" valued at over six million dollars!) Apparently, based on NPR's research, at least one organization of this type gives viewers the impression that it gives much of the donations they receive to various charities, when, in fact, only about 5% of such money goes to hospitals, missions, and the like.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Congress have not cracked down on such behavior, and don't seem likely to do so in the future.

There are some prominent Christian organizations that are financially transparent, for example the Billy Graham Evangelistic Organization, Samaritan's Purse, and Charles Stanley's In Touch Ministries. See here for a chart of 30 prominent organizations, indicating which of them file with the IRS, and which don't, on the grounds that they are a church; which organizations have regular services - not all those who claim to be a church have regular services; which organizations are members of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability; and a summary of any financial information (if such is available at all).

There is information available as to which charities are transparent, and how much of what they take in is actually used for the purposes of the charity. The ECFA, above, is a good place to start. The Better Business Bureau has information on religious (and other) charities. Also, see CharityWatch.

Jesus said this:
Matthew 6:19 Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; 6:21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Scripture quotations from the World English Bible, public domain) Senator Grassley said, in the report, said something like "Christ came into Jerusalem on a donkey, so why do these preachers have to go places in their own luxury cars and jets?"

Some people, I hope Christians, don't seem to pay much attention to that idea. It is true that Paul said this: Philippians 1:15 Some indeed preach Christ even out of envy and strife, and some also out of good will. 1:16 The former insincerely preach Christ from selfish ambition, thinking that they add affliction to my chains; 1:17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Good News.

1:18 What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. I rejoice in this, yes, and will rejoice.

So, even if someone is making a fortune for him or herself out of preaching, Christ can be proclaimed through such a person. But I wouldn't want to be that person. It's not up to me to judge others, but it is up to me to be a wise steward of the money God has allowed me to have.

Thanks for reading. Read the NPR article.

Psalm 72 on government assistance to the poor

Psalm 72:1 God, give the king your justice;

your righteousness to the royal son.

2 He will judge your people with righteousness,

and your poor with justice.

3 The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people.

The hills bring the fruit of righteousness.

4 He will judge the poor of the people.

He will save the children of the needy,

and will break the oppressor in pieces

12 For he will deliver the needy when he cries;

the poor, who has no helper.

13 He will have pity on the poor and needy.

He will save the souls of the needy. (World English Bible, public domain)

I had never seen this, but I should have. Psalm 72, apparently written by either David or Solomon, speaks of the government -- which, in those days, was the king -- saving the children of the needy, having pity on the poor and needy, and delivering them. Presumably, this should have included material blessings. In other words, the Psalm seems to be condoning, even expecting, that the government, and/or the rich, would help the poor.

There are plenty of Old Testament passages about God's displeasure when those in power treat the poor unjustly. This one indicates His pleasure when they help the poor.

This post is a reaction to a better post on the same subject, governmental assistance to the poor, by Ken Schenck, Bible scholar.

Thanks for reading.

How to treat aliens

I have been enjoying the Bible Search on-line tool from the American Bible Society, which allows me to search for a word in nine versions at once, then expand particular verses so that I can see what other translations do with it.

I recently searched for the word, alien, this way. I discovered that that word seems to be more common in the NIV than in other versions, which may use stranger, sojourner, foreigner, and outsider. I take it that each of these words refers to the same thing, namely a non-Israelite living in, or passing through, Israel. The Blueletter Bible indicates that the transliterated Hebrew word is ger.

I wish to quote some of those passages, using the ESV, which allows such extensive quotation on-line.

Exodus 22:21 gives the Israelites the approach that they were to use in dealing with aliens among them: 21 "You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. . . ." Exodus 23:9, Deuteronomy 10:19 and Leviticus 19:33-34 say the same thing. The Leviticus passage indicates that the Jews were to love aliens. I checked, and all nine versions use love. This is all the more remarkable, considering that, for the last part of their sojourn, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. The command sounds a lot like the Golden Rule.

Leviticus 17:10-16 demonstrates that there were guidelines for aliens, too. This passage says that they were, even though non-Jewish, expected to obey the restrictions on eating blood. There are other passages about the law and aliens. However, my main emphasis is on how the Israelites were to be generous to them.

The Jews were commanded to harvest their crops in such a manner that some would be left for the poor and aliens to pick up, in Leviticus 19:9-10. This is how Ruth, a non-Jew, got food for herself and her mother-in-law.

Do these laws of the ancient Jews have validity for today? Perhaps, perhaps not. But they indicate that some of us might consider whether our indignation at illegal aliens has Biblical justification. Perhaps there are implications for Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Thanks for reading.