Sunday, April 14, 2013

The Poor Will Always Be With Us

NOTE: This is a continuation of what was started with [The Other Lazarus].  Oh, and it would do you well to also consider what was given through Sateigdra Knowles in [Death Through Decadence: The Universal Problem of Class].

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” [Matthew 26:6-13 NIV]

Alas, the absolute truth of the matter truly is that far too many in the Christian community use what Christ Jesus said to His disciples about the poor always being with us to justify spending resources on everything but trying to help those who find themselves in need.  Be assured that they do this to their detriment.  For it is also written: There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. [Deuteronomy 15:11 NIV]

Just in case there is some confusion over just what being openhanded means: If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. [Deuteronomy 15:7-11 NIV]

Ah, but are we not now commanded to take it even farther?  For it is written: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” [John 15:9-17 NIV]

No, He was not referring to “Christian love,” which is far too often detached and indifferent at best.  For the kind of love that is truly of our Heavenly Father is the same as the kind that good parents should have for their own children—only in a much purer form, and anyone who truly knows Him would know this.  For it is written: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. [1 John 4:7-21 NAS]

Simply put, all who are truly in Christ should want to love everyone as they should want to love the members of their own immediate family.  For who in their [right-mind] can truly justify spending thousands of dollars on expanding the kitchen and pantry in their own home while one of their loved ones does not have enough to eat, nor adequate shelter from the elements?

Getting back to Christ Jesus being anointed with that expensive perfume, be assured that this was an isolated incident, and there are times when it is in accordance to our Heavenly Father’s will for us to spend resources He has given on constructing grand church buildings and other things.  As with everything else, the key to truly understanding when lies in getting to truly know Him.  For those who can truly hear His voice do not have to guess at which way He would have them go.

Of course, Satan and his horde of rogue angels are quite good at sounding just like our Heavenly Father, and you think all who are truly in Christ are keep completely safe from the wiles of the devil and his demons, the Apostle Peter would have a thing or two to tell you.  For it is written: When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” [Galatians 2:11-21 NIV]

Therefore, let us not take anything too much for granted.  For even a desire to truly care for the poor and the needy is of the devil and his demons when it is done out of a sense of duty—be assured.

There is a way that seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death.

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2 comments:

Brenda said...

Hi Jerry,
that is right. It has to be God who prepares the good works that we walk into, not good works prepared by ourselves.

Unknown said...

Thanks for stopping by, my dear Brenda!!! Very well said.