From the time we’re children, we struggle with the way things are. The world isn’t fair, and it’s incredibly frustrating. As we get older, we recognize that inequity is a bigger problem than we ever realized.
Fairness isn’t merely a case of who got a larger portion of ice-cream or whose turn it is to use the PlayStation. Sometimes people end up struggling through no fault of their own. And sometimes the strong take advantage of the weak and the haves take advantage of the have-nots.
Throughout the Bible, God talks about finances a lot. One reason it comes up so much is that the way we use money reveals so much about our spiritual commitment. But the subject also comes up a lot because God loves the poor and wants His people to demonstrate a compassionate and sympathetic heart toward them.
Can you imagine this transformation of heaven and earth? Unquestionably, any suffering we have experienced will end! People that we knew in this life who suffered from illness or broken families will be perfectly complete.
The Bible tells us that generosity yields an amazing crop! When we refresh others through giving, we are refreshed ourselves.
To get a better understanding of God’s heart toward the needy, let’s examine of the many Bible verses about the poor.
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”(Luke 6:38)
When we study what God says about giving to the poor, we can see His heart and understand the important responsibility God has given to us.
To get a better understanding of God’s heart toward the needy, let’s examine of the Bible verses about the poor.
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
(Luke 12:32-34)
A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.
(Proverbs 29:7)
For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
(Deuteronomy 15:11)
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to do it.
Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again,
tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.
(Proverbs 3:27-28)
But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
(1 John 3:17)
Those who despise their neighbors are sinners, but happy are those who are kind to the poor.
(Proverbs 14:21)
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.(Proverbs 31:8-9)
Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate, for the Lord will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.
(Proverbs 22:22-23)
This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.
(Jeremiah 22:3)
Those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need.
(Proverbs 21:13)
Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.
(Zechariah 7:10)
