There was some controversy recently when the American Vice President, J. D. Vance, made some suggestions about the order of priority in which people, including Christians, should help those in need.
Vance stated:
‘. . . there’s this old school concept – and I think it’s
a very Christian concept, by the way – that you love your family, and then you
love your neighbor, and then you love your community. And then you love your
fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that you can focus and
prioritise the rest of the world.’
Vance made his
remarks in the context of trying to justify the U.S. government’s cancellation
of most foreign aid. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of pushback against him
from people who wanted the aid to continue.
So what should
Christians make of what Vance said on this topic? Does he have a point, or is
he making a mistake?
Some relevant biblical verses
As Christians trying to understand this issue, the first
thing we need to do is turn to the Bible.
Importantly, there are biblical verses that support a
principle of Christians especially helping people who are close to them in some
way.
1 Timothy 5 includes some relevant verses, as follows:
‘But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them
first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to
their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.’ (1 Tim 5:4; ESV)
‘But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and
especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse
than an unbeliever.’ (1 Tim 5:8; ESV)
‘If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let
her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for
those who are truly widows.’ (1 Tim 5:16; ESV)
These verses make it clear that Christians have a special
obligation to help blood relatives. And because our resources to help others
will always be limited, these verses certainly support a
principle of prioritising helping them over helping others.
Another relevant verse is Galatians 6:10, which says:
‘So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to
everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (ESV)
This verse is clear that Christians have a special
obligation to help spiritual relatives, i.e., fellow believers in Jesus Christ.
And, again, because our resources to help others will always be limited, this
verse supports a principle of prioritising helping them over helping others.
Expanding the list
So the Bible encourages us to prioritise helping blood
relatives and fellow Christians.
But what about other groups of people, such as those in
the town where we live or the country where we live?
I think that the principle of helping blood relatives in
1 Timothy 5 can naturally be expanded to include these groups too, and that
they should be prioritised to a certain extent. It would seem strange not to do
this.
Some examples of prioritising helping those
close to us
If, then, Christians have children who lack decent
clothes and there are other children who also lack decent clothes, they should
prioritise clothing their own children.
Or, if there are some fellow Christians in a foreign
country who are in dire poverty and also some non-Christians in the same
country who are in the same level of poverty, Christians should prioritise
helping their brothers and sisters in Christ.
Or, if there are people in our town who are hungry and
others in a more distant town who are also hungry, I think we should typically
prioritise feeding those who live nearby.
This list could be extended with other similar examples.
Priorities in tension with each other
Of course, sometimes priorities will be in tension with
each other. So, for example, if there are fellow Christians on the other side
of the world who are in some great need, and there are non-Christians in our
own town who are in equal need, who should we prioritise helping?
I think there is no simple formula to answer this
question and that God’s will will vary from case to case. It isn’t my intention
in this article to get into details like this. I am interested in the main points
of this issue.
But generally speaking, it makes sense for Christians to
prioritise helping groups who are close to them: their own families, fellow
Christians, people who live nearby and people of the same nationality.
Not going too far
So Christians should prioritise helping various groups of
people who are close to them in some way. Importantly, however, there is a
limit to how far this principle should go.
What prioritising groups close to us shouldn’t mean is
that we always find excuses to give to these groups instead of outsiders. There
is a world of difference between, on the one hand, feeding your own children
before other people’s children, and on the other hand, giving many luxuries to
your own children while other people’s children go hungry.
In other words, it is right to prioritise getting groups
close to us to a certain level of material provision, but there is no
justification for getting groups close to us to a level of material provision
that is leaps and bounds above that of suffering people who are more distant
from us.
Galatians 6:10, that I quoted above, points us in this
direction. When this verse says that we should do good to everyone and
especially to fellow Christians, this clearly implies that we should normally
expect to be doing at least some good to non-Christians. And, given that
doing people good often involves meeting their physical needs, such as
providing food and clothing, the verse surely implies that we should help
non-believers in this way.
So Galatians 6:10 clearly teaches that we should help
people in one group that is relatively distant from us, i.e., non-Christians.
But the same principle surely applies to other groups that are relatively
distant from us too, such as those who are not blood relatives, those who don’t
live close to us, and those who are of a different nationality.
Governments of countries
So far I have been talking about how individual
Christians should approach the issue of how to prioritise helping people. But
it seems to me that the same sort of principle should certainly be made about
the governments of countries.
Firstly, a government should help its own citizens in
need before it helps those in another country.
If, for example, there were devastating earthquakes in
Indonesia and Pakistan at the same time, it should be obvious that the
Indonesian government should prioritise bringing help to affected people in
their own country before helping those in Pakistan. And likewise the Pakistani
government should help its own people first.
But secondly, just as the principle of prioritising
certain groups for help shouldn’t be used as an excuse by individual Christians
not to help outsiders, so the same is true of governments.
A government can always find useful ways to spend money
to help its own citizens. But it often happens that, for one reason or another,
people in other countries urgently need help in some way. When this happens,
countries should be generous in looking out for each other. This is surely the
will of God.
Getting back to J. D. Vance, I am aware that I can’t see
what is in his heart with certainty, and I don’t want to judge him without
knowing all the facts. Nevertheless, I do think I should say that the
impression I get is that he is looking for excuses not to help people around
the world who are in need. Some of the aid money that the U.S. government has
cancelled really does seem to be money that was used to help people in significant
need.
Vance gives the impression of wanting to solve almost all
of America’s problems before helping others. If that is true, there is nothing
in Scripture that would support such an attitude.
See also:
Christians
Must Be Generous in Giving to the Poor
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