We Must Help The Poor

Bill Hughes sent me this link the other day to an excellent post written by Kevin DeYoung. In it he states,

The Bible is full of explicit commands and implicit commendations to help the poor.

... Clearly, God cares about the poor and wants us to care about them too.

But how?

I've wrestled with this question personally not a few times, and I wrestle with it as a pastor. I imagine many of you have wrestled with it, too. How should we personally live out these commands, and how should we live out these commands as a church? We ought to be wrestling with these questions. We dare not be indifferent or unconcerned.

As he admits, DeYoung doesn't answer all the "What about...?" and "What if...?" questions that inevitably rise. What he does do is provide two clear and helpful principles to take with us as we walk through life in this needy world.

Principle 1: We are most responsible to help those closest to us.

Principle 2: We are most responsible to help those least able to help themselves.

I hope you'll read how he unpacks these two principles and be helped, as you seek to help the poor.