First and foremost—and I’ll probably
be repeating this in the days ahead—there is one foundational passage which
should inform and direct all our dealings with other people. This passage is Gen.
1:26-27. Whenever the question is “How should I treat this person?” no
matter who that person is, however you answer it must be in the context of this
overwhelming truth: Every person is created in God’s image/likeness. We’re all
“stamped” with his image. The image is marred and scarred and deformed by sin,
but it’s still there. We can debate exactly how this manifests itself in human
creativity, personality, etc., but for now we need to understand that the fact
that every person is created in God’s image needs to affect how we treat them.
For example, James told
us that how we speak to/about other people should be affected by this truth.
How does this affect issues of
wealth and poverty? Well, I’d submit that it has to do with human dignity. Of
all the creatures listed in Genesis one and two, we’re the only ones noted as
created in his image. I love dogs, my wife loves cats (I tolerate them), and we
might all be moved by the “cuteness” of this animal or that animal. But no
matter how smart they are or how human-like their actions might be, they’re not made in God’s image.
To me, one of the main application
of this truth, hinted at in James re: speech, is that every human being is to
be accorded a certain amount of dignity. Please forgive the following
illustration, but it really speaks to my point. If you see a person who--for
whatever reason—acts like an animal or a pet, doesn’t that bother you or make
you uncomfortable? Isn’t there something inside you that responds to the
intrinsic “wrongness” about it? Because you know—even if you haven’t thought
about it—that a human being should not act like an animal: eating from a bowl
on the floor, speaking only in barks or meows, walking around on all fours.
But my friend, this truth is denied
by how we tend to treat the poor. Let me go a little further down this
illustration “trail.” My dogs in my home are not really expected to earn their
keep. Some dogs do, but their place in our home is not dependent on them
bringing in income to offset the (considerable) expenses on feeding them,
keeping them healthy, etc. Every morning I ask my dog in a teasing voice “Are
you hungry?” and she runs to her bowl (if she isn’t already there) and taps it
repeatedly. It’s really cute—for a dog.
I feed her, take care of her medical
expenses, provide toys and attention, and all she has to do is obey me. The
fact that she acts adorably (and thus entertains me) is a bonus, but not
necessary for her to live with us. I don’t ask or expect anything more from
her.
So when you see a homeless person on
the street and hand him money, aren’t you treating him like a stray dog? When
you see someone in physical need and don’t ask anything from them to help
themselves to get out of their situation, isn’t that treating them like a pet?
I’d like to think that I know
Scripture pretty well. To my knowledge, the pattern of just giving a handout to an
individual in need is never smiled upon in Scripture. The fact is
there: You see plenty of instances of beggars in narrative portions, such as in
the Gospels and Acts. The book of Acts and Paul’s letters certainly authorize
financial aid to churches whose members are in need. I’ll address these counter-arguments
in the next posting, but suffice to say the financial aid to churches and
church members came with a lot of caveats.
In my TAWG Blog posting cited above,
the main passage for that day is Lev.
19:9-10. God told landowners not to glean during harvest time. I touched on
this point, but it bears repeating and expansion: God told wealthy people to be
generous in their giving to the poor, but he told the poor to go out and
collect the food themselves. Thus they retained some of their dignity as people
created in God’s image.
Part of the fact that we’re created
in his image is that we’re workers. God worked at the beginning of creation, and
when he placed our first parents in the Garden, he put them to work as well. Work—especially
creative work—reflects this image of our Creator. Anything other than a person
working to earn the bread he eats is less than God’s ideal. A person might be unable to work or produce something for
others, e.g. those with a debilitating illness. But if he’s unwilling to work,
then Paul has some words
for him.
“The one who is unwilling to work
shall not eat.” If you’re unwilling to work, the Body of Christ--by the words of Paul the Apostle--is forbidden to
feed you .
You want to know a fantasy of mine?
In my fantasy, I’m a reporter at a news conference in which a Leftist politician
calls for more government spending on “Entitlements.” He quotes Jesus’ words
something to the effect of how we’re supposed to take care of the “least of
these” or how we’re our “brother’s keeper” (yes, I’ve heard the President say
those words).** Leave aside for a moment
that Leftists tend to scream when they feel that someone is “imposing their
religion” on someone, e.g., try to restrict abortion because we believe that
life begins at conception. They’re perfectly happy to try to “impose religion”
when it means we spend more money on “helping the poor” or if they’re
“advocates for peace.”
Sorry,
getting back on track with my fantasy. The politician just quoted the Bible
(taking the verse entirely out of context) trying to use it to justify more
spending on government welfare programs, and I raise my hand. He calls on me,
and I ask “Mr. President/Senator/Congressman, since you believe that Scripture
tells us to hand money to the poor, how do you deal with 2 Thessalonians 3:10?”
I wait for a moment while he gives me the deer-in-the-headlights look. “2
Thessalonians 3:10? It tells us that if someone isn’t willing to work, we
shouldn’t feed them. It’s in the New Testament, the same place in the Bible
that you quoted a minute ago. Mr. President/Senator/Congressman, if you’ve
never read that verse, are you familiar at all with the writings of Paul? The
Apostle? Christians the world over think he’s pretty authoritative, just as
much as the writers of the Gospel that you just quoted. Mr.
President/Senator/Congressman, are you going to answer my question?”
Well,
I can dream, can’t I?
On a much lighter note, here are a
couple of videos of my dog around feeding time. Yes, she taps her bowl.
**
This really drives me crazy. Talk about pulling a verse kicking and screaming out of context. This phrase comes from the
words of Cain when God asked him where his (murdered) brother was: “Am I
my brother’s keeper?” The Hebrew denotes a “keeper” in the sense of someone
taking care of an animal, like a zoo keeper. No, I am not my brother’s
“keeper,” and he shouldn’t want me to be. My brother is not an animal that
needs to be fed and cared for like a dog. He’s a person. Using the very phrase
shows contempt for the image of God every person has.
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