A young follower of Jesus told me the other day that he felt like he was losing his faith. When I asked him why, he replied that he struggled to trust in God because of all the pain in the world. He went on to describe the prevalence of violence and hatred, but he especially focused on the extreme poverty that he sees everyday in our very own city, St. Louis. How could the God who provides allow for children to live without basic necessities? How could the God of protection allow families to be taken advantage of by a fallen system? How could the God of compassion watch as the elderly suffer because they can’t afford air-conditioning? These are hard questions and I could not pretend to answer them satisfactorily over a cup of coffee, even more so on this forum.
However, I believe there are answers. The Bible gives us the most exhaustive understanding of Christ and his relationship to the poor. It does not mean that the answers will extinguish our nagging concerns, but they are Truth nonetheless.
First, God is all-powerful, but evil still has a crippling effect on our world. Poverty exists because sin is real and powerful and destructive. Sin affects the way we cherish our stuff. Sin affects the way we spend our money. Sin affects the way we give or don’t give. Think of this, the way you spend your resources is part of the answer to the question ‘Why there is there so much poverty in our world?’ Every time you spend a buck in a way that that is not for God’s glory (I Cor. 10:31) you are stealing from the poor.
Second, God did not leave us in our state of sin and misery. God could have left the world to itself completely, leaving all of humankind physically and spiritually poor. Thankfully, he did not. Instead he joined us in our poverty and misery. Even more, he took upon himself the full and final outcome of evil, death (Phil. 2:1-11).
Thirdly, God gives us hope. Even while we suffer the crippling nature of our sin and the sin of others, we need not despair. One day soon those that are followers of Christ will be with him and these days will be forgotten. That is why Paul says in Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Praise Him!
Finally, God tells us to give. How should we live until that glory is revealed? By giving of our resources (time, money, skills, gifts) for the benefit of those in need, like Jesus did. Historically, the church has given more to aid the poor than most all other organizations. However, studies have shown that Christian giving has decreased dramatically over the last 50 years (see www.generousgiving.org). An article in World magazine suggested that if followers of Christ actually gave 10%, the church would gain $156 billion dollars (currently the average per Christian is 2.9%). This is money that could be used to feed the poor, protect the weak, pay an electric bill, teach a man to fish, you name it. But instead we think we need the latest cell phone, plasma TV, entertainment center, wireless network, organic veggies, sleep-comfort bed, laptop, riding lawnmower, blackberry insert more stuff here. I am not saying it is wrong to have these things. I have some of them and would love to have more of them. But when these things take priority over giving to the church, then our understanding of God’s provision has been perverted.