Caring for the Poor

Poverty is a central issue for Christians. To be credible in the modern world, we must provide proposals for the cure of poverty. In this article, I will outline several biblical methods for dealing with poverty.

The scriptures do not give responsibility for caring for the poor to rich people of society. Rich people are cautioned against trusting in their wealth. They are warned that their wealth may quickly disappear. They are also warned that they may die before they have a chance to enjoy t heir wealth. However, the Bible is realistic and does not expect the rich to do good to the poor.

Furthermore, Jesus is not in the business of forcing rich people to be generous. The modern approach to poverty is to tax the rich and give their money to the poor. The implicit argument goes like this. Rich people are not as good as the rest of us, so they cannot be trusted to be generous of their own accord. They should be forced to be generous. We should tax the rich more, so the money can be used for the poor.

The problem with this approach is that Jesus never forced people be good. He never forced the rich to be generous. The Bible gives responsibility for the poor to Christians, not the rich. Christians who want to tax the rich to bless the poor are “passing the buck”.

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