There are many people calling
themselves Christians, who follow the movement that is commonly known as the
“social gospel.” According to this movement, the heart of the Christian faith is
about bringing change to society by helping the poor, downtrodden and abused.
Those who follow this teaching have no
time for the idea that people need to be saved from God’s judgment. In their
view, although Jesus’ death on the cross served in some way to demonstrate God’s
love, it was not a sacrifice for sins. And they reject the idea that people in
their natural state are on course for hell after death.
Opposing this distortion
It is quite right for genuine
Christians to vigorously oppose this movement. These views are far removed from
the Christian faith of the Bible and are thoroughly heretical. In reality, the
social gospel is not Christian at all.
However, we often find that when
Christians oppose an error of some kind, they overreact. Frequently, the baby
is thrown out along with the bath water. And many fall into this trap when
opposing the social gospel.
Although the core of the Christian
faith is about salvation by faith in Christ and God’s building of His church,
the Bible makes it clear that giving practical help to those in need should be
a large part of normal Christian living. In fact, it is striking just how
strongly this theme is emphasized.
Here are some New Testament examples:
Luke 3
In Luke 3:10-11 we are told something
about John the Baptist’s teaching on repentance:
“10 And the crowds asked him, ‘So what shall we do?’ 11 And He replied, ‘Whoever has two tunics should give one to someone who does not have any, and whoever has food should do the same.’”
There is no doubt that what John says here
applies to Christians today as much as it did to people in the first century.
And note how radical this teaching is. If
someone with two tunics gives one away to someone who doesn’t have any, then
both people would end up with one tunic. The person giving and the person
receiving would have the same quantity. This is extremely generous giving.
It would be taking this passage too
rigidly to understand it as a rule set in stone. It is not implying that in
every single situation when a person with more than one of a certain possession
meets someone who has none, the person who has should give until both parties
have the same quantity.
On the other hand, however, we mustn’t
ignore or explain away the radical nature of John’s teaching. It is certainly
implying that it is often God’s will for a person to give until the receiver
has as much as the giver.
This passage, then, shows how important
it is for us to be generous in giving to the poor.
Luke 12
In Luke 12:33 Jesus says:
“Sell your possessions and give to charity.”
Verse 22 – “And He said to His
disciples” – makes it clear that this instruction is directed to Jesus’
disciples, not just to the crowds that listened to Him.
There is no good reason for thinking
that the command in v. 33 doesn’t apply to Christians today. It is true that
some of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels ceased to apply directly to His
followers when the New Covenant was inaugurated after His death and
resurrection. However, this is the exception rather than the rule. Unless there
is a special reason for thinking that a Gospel command is no longer directly applicable,
we should assume it still applies today. And nothing suggests that Luke 12:33 no longer applies.
So this verse stands as a biblical
command to Christians today to sell their possessions and give to charity.
This shouldn’t be taken to mean that every
single Christian should sell everything they possibly can and give away all the
money they make from selling. That would contradict other biblical passages.
However, we mustn’t go too far the
other way either and ignore the radical character of Jesus’ words here. This
verse is teaching us that selling possessions and giving away the money that is
made to those in need should be a common practice for Christians. And because
selling possessions to give away money wouldn’t normally be done while a person
still has cash in hand, this verse surely also implies that giving away all the
money we have should be a common Christian practice too.
Galatians 6
In Galatians 6:10 Paul tells the churches in Galatia
“So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those who belong to the family of faith.”
There are several things to note about
this verse.
First, “as we have opportunity” means
that acting on what Paul says here is something that Christians should do often.
Second, the doing good that he refers
to certainly includes helping people who are in practical or financial need.
Third, the verse is clear that we
should help everyone but especially our fellow Christians.
Ephesians 4
In Ephesians 4:28 Paul writes:
“The thief must no longer steal, but instead he must work hard and do what is good with his own hands, so that he will have something to share with anyone in need.”
Note how Paul doesn’t just say that a
former thief who becomes a Christian should give up stealing and work to
support himself. Instead, when contemplating this person working and earning
money, Paul’s thoughts turn immediately to charitable giving.
There is a strong implication here that
giving to those in financial need is an important part of the Christian life.
Hebrews 13
In Hebrews 13:16 the author writes:
“And do not forget to do good and share what you have, because God is pleased with sacrifices like these.”
The sharing in view here is certainly a
sharing of money and material possessions. And the writer is explicit that sharing
these things pleases God.
James 1
In James 1:27 James writes:
“Pure and undefiled religious worship in the sight of our God and Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
Some English translations of this verse
have “visit orphans and widows” instead of “take care of orphans and widows.” However,
in these translations “visit” is being used in a special sense, to mean “visit
with a view to helping,” which basically means “take care of.”
James wrote these words at a time when
there was no state financial help for those in poverty. And this meant that
orphans and widows were often especially vulnerable. That is why he mentions
these groups of people specifically. He is not suggesting that his readers
should help only orphans and widows. Rather, his point is that Christians
should help those who are in need, especially those who are in financial need.
Note in this verse how no less a thing
than “religious worship” is summed up as the performance of just two types of
act, one of which is to help people in need. Of course, this shouldn’t be taken
to mean that helping people and keeping morally pure is all that is involved in the Christian faith. There is clearly
hyperbole in James’s statement. Nevertheless, this verse strongly underlines
the importance of giving help to those who need it.
Importantly too, there is no suggestion
in the text that the people who should be helped are only Christians. James is
telling his readers to help any who are in need.
This verse teaches us, then, that a
major part of what it means to live a Christian life is to help people in poverty.
Summing up
The combined weight of the passages we
have looked at makes it very clear how important it is for Christians to
practically help those in need.
There are also plenty of other
texts that teach along the same lines. These include Leviticus 19:18; 23:22;
Deuteronomy 10:17-19; 15:7-11; Job 31:16-22; Psalm 41:1; 112:5-9; Proverbs
11:24-26; 19:17; 21:13; 22:9; 28:27; 31:8-9; Isaiah 58:6-7, 10; Matthew
19:16-22; 25:31-46; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 6:24; 16:19-31; 18:18-23; 19:8-10; Acts
2:44-45; 4:32-37; 11:29-30; 20:35; Romans 12:8; 15:25-28; 1 Corinthians 13:3;
16:1-3; 2 Corinthians 8:1-15; 9:1-15; Galatians 2:10; 1 Timothy 6:18-19; Titus
3:14; James 2:15-16; 1 John 3:17. And many more passages could be added to this
list.
As far as who we should
help is concerned, the principle outlined in Galatians 6:10 sums up the overall
emphasis of biblical teaching: we should help everyone but especially our
fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Because we Christians are all part of
one spiritual family, it is no surprise that our priority should be to help our
fellow believers.
Tithing
I think one reason why Christians are sometimes
hesitant in their giving is because they are wrongly influenced by the Old
Testament regulations about tithing, i.e., giving one tenth (e.g., in Leviticus
27:30-33; Numbers 18:21-32; Deuteronomy 14:22-29).
Some seem to have the idea that God
doesn’t usually expect Christians to give away more than ten per cent of what
they earn. Others, although not thinking that God typically sets a limit at ten
per cent, believe that He specifically requires them to give ten per cent of
what they earn to their local church.
Both these ideas are mistaken, however.
There are a few things to note here:
First, the Old Testament commandments
about tithing never included instructions to give a tenth of monetary income,
only a tenth of certain crops.
Second, these commandments are part of
the Law of Moses, which was superseded in Christ (e.g., Galatians 3:23-25;
Romans 7:6; 10:4; Hebrews 7:18-19; 8:7-13).
Third, even the argument that Old
Testament tithing provides a good principle for Christians to follow today is a
very weak one. The New Testament contains a lot of teaching about financial
giving, as we saw above, but in the relevant passages there is never any
explicit or implicit reference to tithing.
It is true that twice in the Gospels we
find Jesus accepting the validity of tithing herbs (Matthew 23:23; Luke 11:42).
However, in the context of each passage He is speaking to Jews who lived under
the Law of Moses. There is no suggestion in these verses that Christians should
give tithes of their incomes.
The fact is that nowhere in the New
Testament are we encouraged to follow any principle of tithing.
There is therefore no clear or even
vague rule for us today telling us how much of our money we should give away.
Nevertheless, we must not think that
God is somehow neutral on the matter. There is no doubt that He knows exactly
how much He wants each person to give.
We have already seen that selling
possessions in order to give should be a common Christian practice. In view of
that, I think in the wealthy Western countries of today God probably wants most
Christians to give away more than ten per cent of their income, in many cases much
more than that. And in light of the passages we looked at, a substantial portion
of what we give should typically go towards practical help for the poor,
especially the Christian poor.
Personal responsibility
I think another reason why
some Christians are at times reluctant to help people financially is because
they don’t want to discourage them from taking personal responsibility for
their own lives.
It is true that we should take personal
responsibility into account when considering helping someone. And it is usually
quite right for us to withhold practical help when people can do something for
themselves without much difficulty.
However, we must be careful not to take
this too far. There will be many occasions when we simply don’t know all that
is going on in someone’s life. People may at times not be as irresponsible as
it might seem on the surface, and we should always be prepared to give someone
the benefit of the doubt.
Furthermore, there is a big difference between
someone being able to do something without much trouble, and someone being able
to do something only by enduring real distress. Only a hard-hearted person
would make light of this difference.
For example, just because a man manages
to make enough money to feed his family doesn’t necessarily mean that it would
be a mistake to help him financially. His job may involve working very long
hours in bad conditions, and God may well want us to give him money to ease his
hardship.
Giving to the undeserving
I suspect that Christians are also sometimes
hesitant to give money to people, because they think they don’t deserve it.
Often a person can end up in financial difficulty through their own fault, and in
such a case a Christian might think it is inappropriate to help them.
It is certainly right for us not want
to encourage bad behaviour, and this may at times mean withholding help so that someone
learns a lesson.
However, we should never refuse to help
a person simply because they don’t deserve it. At its heart, the Christian
faith is all about God giving His mercy to us undeserving sinners. And we
should also give freely to the undeserving.
In Matthew 5:45 Jesus says:
“. . . He [God] causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the upright and the unjust.”
We should have a similar attitude.
Final thoughts
In the world today there are millions
upon millions of people in real poverty, who badly need practical and financial
help. They include many Christian brothers and sisters.
The Bible makes it very clear that
giving money to such people should be a major part of the normal Christian
life. This has nothing to do with supporting the so-called social gospel. It is
just about following Jesus.
See also:
