Dear Friends,
I will never forget my experience walking through the dark streets
of Savannah, Ga one night. I was with my son walking back to the car after a
night out at a restaurant. On the way, we passed a homeless beggar on the
street. I kept walking while my son stopped, took out several bills from his
wallet, and handed them to the man.
I still recall my feeling of embarrassment that evening. I was a
Christian pastor, and shouldn’t it have been me and not my son who stopped, and
out of compassion, pulled out those bills and handed them to the beggar?
Have you ever been in a similar situation? You walk on by someone
begging on the street corner, and you wonder should I stop and show compassion
and give him some money or should I ignore his appeal thinking that all I would
be doing would be enabling him and his begging behavior.
Last night at a meeting at church, this question came up in our
discussion group. We all agreed that there was no easy answer to the dilemma of
whether to give or not to give to such a person.
But doesn’t Jesus tell us to “Give to everyone who asks of you,
and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.” (Luke 6:30)
Both the Old and New Testament are full of admonitions to show
compassion to the poor and needy. Jesus reminds us that those who show mercy to
the poor, the sick, and the needy are in effect ministering to Him personally
and will be rewarded accordingly (Matthew 25:35-40).
Proverbs 14:31 reminds us, “Whoever is kind to the needy honors
God.” And Proverbs 21:13 states “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the
poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.”
The apostle John writes, “If anyone has material possessions and
sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in
him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in
truth?” (1 John 3:17-18)
But the Bible also reminds us that we are to be good stewards of
our resources, and doesn’t that caution us against giving away our resources
indiscriminately, especially when we have good reason to believe that we
might be fostering an ongoing problem and simply enabling the one receiving our
money. Doesn’t Paul say, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” (1
Thess.3:10)
What if our giving only fosters an irresponsible lifestyle and
perpetuates this kind of living. What if the begging person is just too lazy
and doesn’t want to work, or what if your money is only used to encourage some
addiction?
Iain M. Duguid in Living in the Gap Between Promise and Reality
addresses this question by pointing out how most of us respond to this issue.
“We base our response on two questions. First, does the person deserve my help?
Second, can I help him without any risk or inconvenience to myself? If the
answer to both questions is yes, we are normally glad to do what we can for the
other person. However, if the answer to either or both questions is no, we tend
to hold back.” (p.42)
Yes, too often in making our decision to give or withhold our
gift, we make it on the basis of whether we consider the person ‘deserving’ and
whether our giving is in any way an 'inconvenience' to us.
I suspect, however, that we would all agree that Jesus would not
use these standards to determine the answer to our giving.
After all, we are the least deserving people of all, and yet Jesus
willingly gave up His life for each one of us. He died for underserving people
and his death was certainly not convenient-who wants to lose his life for
underserving people?
In deciding the answer to this question, I think it may be best to
err on the side of risk and not caution, based on the abundance of
Scriptures which call for ‘risk’ and ‘inconvenience,’ over safety and comfort.
If the Holy Spirit nudges you to give, go ahead and give, for it is important
to listen to those Holy Spirit nudges God places in your heart.
However, if on the other hand, you feel a strong prompting of the
Spirit not to give, whatever that reason may be, we should honor that
compunction and pass on by.
I close with a story from “Christianity Today” about the way C.S
Lewis addressed this issue.
“One day Lewis and a friend were walking down the road and came
across a street person who reached out to them for help. While his friend kept
walking, Lewis stopped and proceeded to empty his wallet. When they resumed
their journey, his friend asked, ‘What are you doing giving him your money like
that? Don’t you know he’s just going to squander all that on ale?’ Lewis paused
and replied, ‘That’s all I was going to do with it.’” (Quoted by Chris Kennedy,
“Viewing the World Through the Lens of Faith,” November 21, 2019)
Yours in faith and friendship,
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