Pt 3 :: Remember the Poor
There is much to say about chapter 2 at the start. But there is one verse that strikes out to me:
v10 "Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." Firstly Paul has been accepted by the other apostles - his testimony is true and the gospel he is sharing is real. There have been a lot of false teachers about, so you have to be careful! But right at the end, after accepting him they wanted him to remember the poor and Paul was eager to do this!
I have been reading a book on intrigual mission - putting the proclamation of the Gospel and the demonstration of the Gospel together. It means speaking and living the Gospel - action without words and words without action just don´t work. They work together as two blades that make a scissor. Some may think that all you have to do is just tell the Gospel and thats it or all you have to do is give someone a bottle of water and they will get it. But they wont. There has to be both.
But what of the poor? Have you ever noticed how God really cares for the poor and the widowed? (Zach 7:10, Amos 2, Isaiah 61:1 and more) Yet its easy for us to ignore them, its easy for us to pretend that they are not there. But its hard when its all around you, when you have slums on your doorstep or as walk down the street there are children asking for money. So what do you do? I dont have an answer, but I am thinking about the question a lot. I can´t give to everyone in Peru but equally I cant ignore them.
Why is it so difficult to reach out to them, not just with words of the Gospel but with love and compassion? Why doesnt it affect our hearts that there are people going hungry every night and even worse there are people that dont know Jesus. Sometimes our hearts can become very dull. And yet Paul is told to remember the poor. To remember the needy. What does this look like really, in Peru and in England?
2 comments:
Hey, good post. It is a challenge to just give money - especially if you're not breaking even on the bills yourself. I think the hardest part comes from being stuck in a comfort zone. I feel its very easy to do this in British society - even if we see homeless or jobless people on the street, there is a distrust that they aren't doing enough for themselves. We justify not giving because we can't trust anyone with our money anyhow. I think you'll find some of the same questions in my Middle Class Church post last year.
The irony is, we see God more through helping the needy and being uncomfortable but we're often too comfortable to notice!
Yeh I agree. I think also there is also the issue of the attitude of your heart as well. You can give or work for a charity and yet your heart can be bad. Its like asking yourself - do I love these people? In reality a lot of the time we have to say no, we love ourselves more. Its heartbreaking, but I know im apart of it and your right, we are often too comfortable...!!
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