Josh: 0:06

Welcome to Made for Good, a podcast where we explore how to live out our purpose through good works at a budget country. Hey, I'm Josh

Mark: 0:13

and I'm Mark. Today we're talking about a frequent theme in Scripture remembering the poor, hearing for those in need is really not just an act of kindness. It's more of an essential part of what it really means to follow Christ. Bible makes it super clear, josh, that generosity and compassion for the poor are a reflection of how we understand God's grace to us. So let me ask you a question. Okay, why do you think that helping the poor is something the Bible emphasizes so much? I think in fact, it's mentioned. The word poor is over 200 times in Scripture.

Josh: 0:53

I think you answered the question yourself. If it's mentioned over 200 times, the answer to your question is because it matters to God. Oh, yeah, exactly. Okay, I get that it's mentioned so much so it matters to God. But I think another response to that question could be it's because how we treat the poor reveals our hearts. Think about it If we truly understand God's love and generosity towards us, then we should naturally want to extend that love to others. The Bible consistently ties our faith to how we care for the most vulnerable for the most vulnerable, absolutely.

Mark: 1:27

You know there's a passage in Galatians 2 where Paul is recounting an encounter that he had with some of the Christians, that he and Barnabas had with some of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. Barnabas and Titus went with him and he's recounting this to the Galatians and they're talking about several things that went on and how their mission was going. And then at the very end of that section in Scripture, this is again. They're meeting with James and Cephas, who's Peter and John. So Peter James and John Paul calls them pillars in the church. They gave he and Barnabas the quote right hand of fellowship. They were approving of what they did, that we should go to the Gentiles. So their mission, paul and Barnabas, were to go to the Gentiles to preach the gospel to them and of course, peter James and John would focus on preaching to the Jews In verse 10, very key verse only.

Mark: 2:37

Okay, here's an exception to something important. Here only, they ask us to remember the poor. So Peter James and John wanted Paul and Barnabas to remember the poor. So Peter James and John wanted Paul and Barnabas to remember the poor. And what is the last part of that? The very thing I, paul, was eager to do. So they're in what we call violent agreement that they should remember the poor. So we're going to talk about what does that mean? Yeah, I remember there were some poor people. It's not that of course, it's addressing their needs. So even in the early church, remembering the poor was not an afterthought. This seemed to be, in this communication between early church leaders here, a priority, and so today we're going to dive into what that means for us in remembering the poor, how we can put that into action.

Josh: 3:30

Let's get right into our Bible basis segment of this episode, where we get into 1 John 3, 16 through 17. One of the strongest commands in scripture is to care for the poor, and 1 John 3 puts it plainly, starting in verse 16, where it says by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? That's a direct challenge. If we have the ability to help and we choose not to do it, we're ignoring the very love that God has shown us.

Mark: 4:09

Yeah, and I mentioned we mentioned a while ago that the Bible has a lot to say about remembering the poor and the poor in general, over 200 times. This is not just a New Testament concept. You go all the way back and read in Proverbs. Proverbs 3.27 reinforces this. It's the same message. It's even more direct Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it. Helping the poor, it's not just a nice thing to do. You know that we get around to it. It is seen as a responsibility of those who have the world's goods, the ability, and it's a direct reflection of our faith put into action.

Josh: 4:58

And, Mark, I think that's key Faith in action. It brings us. You know, I'm just thinking about our first episode, when we talked about Jesus. But if we believe in God's generosity towards others or towards us, I should say we should naturally want to extend that generosity towards others.

Mark: 5:14

Absolutely. Now let's break this down and look at the mission this week of remembering the poor. The Bible gives us so many examples of God's heart for the poor, his care for the poor. Here's some really powerful ones. We're going to do a couple in the Old Testament and Proverbs and we're going to jump back into the New Testament.

Mark: 5:35

Proverbs 14, 31 says Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker. But he who is generous to the needy honors him. So God takes insulting or oppressing a poor person as an insult to him. And then the flip side of that is generosity to those who are needy is actually a way to honor God. Proverbs 28, 27,. Whoever gives to the poor will not want. So that's about trust. He who hides his eyes will get many a curse. And then go over to the New Testament, matthew 26, 11. Jesus said, for you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. So this is a kind of a sampling of God's opinion about the poor, how he cares for the poor, how he looks at how we look to the poor and meeting their needs or ignoring them.

Josh: 6:44

Mark, that's really powerful, those verses you read. As I was listening, I was just thinking these verses make it clear Helping the poor isn't just about kindness. It's about honoring God. Ignoring the needy is seen as an offense to Him, while generosity is seen as an act of worship.

Mark: 6:59

Yeah, and you mentioned worship. You know that's the concept of worship. Yeah, and you mentioned worship. That's the concept of religion. If you look at James 1, verse 27,. That defines pure religion this way. It says religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father, is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained or unspotted from the world. So when you look at that visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained or unspotted from the world. So when you look at that visit orphans and widows in their affliction it's about addressing their needs. Right, it's a reflection of our faith. It shows that our faith is genuine and it is active, is genuine and it is active. It's not just words or thoughts. It causes us, as we've talked about before, the compassion of Jesus caused him to do things. The compassion that we feel for those who are poor should cause us to take action.

Josh: 7:55

Let's just have a reality check. Sometimes, though, if we're being honest with each other, we assume the poor are there because of their own decisions.

Mark: 8:05

Yeah, that's something that we need to be very careful about. How the poor became poor is not material to our responsibility to help. Obviously, you want to be wise, you don't want to reinforce bad behavior, but what are some other reasons, josh, why we struggle to help the poor?

Josh: 8:26

Well, one, we assume that someone else is going to do it. Think about what you do at church. I mean, you give, right, you put some money in the tray, or I guess now through COVID that looks a little different from church to church, but you give weekly and you just assume like the church is going to take care of it.

Mark: 8:41

Yeah, and I think that a lot of Christians will fall into this category. I gave at church. I gave my weekly contribution. I dropped it in the box in the back. I paid through some app on my phone. I gave. It's the church's responsibility. Charities, sometimes charities we want to get into, or even the government, that's the government's responsibility. I pay my taxes, so my taxes should go to help those in need and all those things are good and should be done, but it does not, I believe, work to release the individual from doing things as they see the opportunity to do them.

Josh: 9:27

Another reason that people struggle with helping the poor is well, flat out we're too busy. I feel like we've mentioned that a couple of times in our reality check segments, but it's true here too. Life moves so fast that we don't always stop and notice the needs around us.

Mark: 9:41

Well, another one is this trust the trust in God for us to give up this money to this person, but it's also trust of what the person is going to do with the money, right? A wise man once told me that it was the recipient's responsibility to God about how they spent that money. It is my responsibility to address the need as I see it in that situation. Obviously, we want to be wise. We don't want to fund or facilitate bad behavior, and so there's always a good. When someone's asking for money, there's a way to, you know, to help them, maybe without giving them money. If they need money for a meal, you can go buy them a meal. Hey, come in, let me, let me, let me pay for, let me pay for lunch, or uh, or pay for gas, or something like that.

Josh: 10:39

Before we move on, just one more reason that you know some may have is we don't feel like we have enough to give. I mean, we talked about this in our previous episode, but we think generosity is only for those with financial abundance.

Mark: 10:51

Yeah. But you know, in all this, josh, the scripture doesn't give qualifiers in this. It does not give us an excuse to ignore the poor. To ignore the poor. You know. Galatians 6.10, very clear, tells us. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are the household of faith. Now I think that most Christians these days and going back to you know giving at church. You know if someone's in need they're more than happy to help. You know members of their congregation, but this says everyone. So I'm assuming it's the guy that walks up to you in the parking lot. Sometimes you know you want to be very careful about safety, safety for your family and those sorts of things. But we all really have something to give. Sometimes people just need somebody to talk to. So the giving to a poor is talking to the person. Sometimes it's resources or sometimes it's just being kind to people.

Josh: 12:02

So what you're saying is generosity. In this context, it's not always about giving money.

Mark: 12:07

Right. There's many, many ways to help. So here's our challenge for you this week Find one way to help the poor, whether it's donating, volunteering or directly assisting somebody in need. We want you to do something that is intentional. So go through your closet. You can find some clothes that you haven't worn in a long time. Take those down to the thrift store, to a local mission place, maybe in your city, and donate.

Josh: 12:38

By the way, my wife's going to love that you're saying this, because she's been asking me to get in my closet and do that for quite some time.

Mark: 12:44

Yeah, I get the same thing, but it's good we have things we're not even sacrificing. These are things that we don't even use. They're just in the back of our closet. Maybe we haven't won them in over a year. Gather those up and take them and donate them. I personally like to donate at a place where the recipient is going to use it. So if you get, you know there are downtown missions where they take what you give and they don't necessarily put it in a store, although I've done that. You know to sell and then you want to know where the money that they're generating is going for.

Mark: 13:22

In my opinion, one of the best ways the most pure, if you can use that word way to help is to give somebody something that you have that they need, and that's a direct relationship. There are abuse spouses centers that cater to those people who need that. You can contact them. You can bring things that they need and what they're going to do is not put them in a store. They're going to give them to the people there at that facility who need it.

Mark: 13:56

Another way to help the poor is volunteering. You can volunteer at your local food bank. The food banks are set up to serve those who are poor, who do not have enough. Or you could do something like in your own community. Maybe even in your own neighborhood, if there's somebody who can't afford to pay somebody to I don't know, come and cut their lawn or something, you could do that directly for them. They have a need. Maybe they can't afford to pay somebody else to do it, you can do it. You do that directly for them. They have a need. Maybe they can't afford to pay somebody else to do it, you can do it. You can do it for free.

Mark: 14:29

And so this is one way to help the poor this week. Do it, reflect on it, maybe even encourage somebody else to come along. That's the stirring one another up to loving good works. Let's stir one another up in this way to help the poor. And then, once you've done that kind of go back, think about what you've done and look at ways. Could I do this on a regular basis? Now, if I did it on a regular basis, I may wind up with very few clothes in my closet, but there are ways to do it on a regular. But volunteering is one. Maybe set up a time where you and a friend go and volunteer at the food bank or volunteer, you know, once a month at Habitat for Humanity, to mention another. Where you're, you're, you are directly helping the poor.

Josh: 15:18

I love all of these examples because they're helpful and also we're not just talking about money here. They're helpful and also we're not just talking about money here, we're talking about time. We'll list all of these things that we talked about as far as what our mission is this week for our listeners. We'll list these on social media, list these on X, instagram and Facebook.

Mark: 15:36

Well, that's it for today's episode of Made for Good. This episode is one that's really about awareness and that's seeing those in need around us. Again, Jesus said the poor you will have with you always. That means even today there are poor. There are ways to help, many, many ways to help, and if this conversation inspired you or challenged you to go and do some good, we would ask that you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss the next one.

Josh: 16:09

And if you found this valuable and we hope that you did consider sharing this with a friend. Until next time, go out, be generous and remember you were made to care for those.