God and Jesus didn’t want us to be tempted and enticed by others richer than us. In the New Testament James 2v1-7 wrote, “My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, have a seat here please. While you say to the poor man stand here or sit at my feet, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts. Listen my brethren. Has God not chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich and faith and airs of the Kingdom which he has promised to those who love him. If you really fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture you shall love your neighbour as yourself”.
In teaching Christian beliefs God and Jesus wanted us to be kind, forgiving, ready to share and generous to others. Thus accumulating as treasure a good foundation for the futures so as to win the life that is true life i.e. the after life ().
Luke wrote: Jesus said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing” Luke12 v22-23.
“But when you give a feast invite the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind. And you will be blessed as they cannot repay you” Luke 14 v13-14. In this extract from the bible, God is trying to teach that if you have made a lot of food and its only for yourself, then invite the people who need it most to eat with you. Doing this means you will be blessed for your good deed with a place in heaven.
“You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” said Jesus. I think what he is saying is that to become one-hundred percent pure in your faith you must follow out his task which is to sell your extra possessions and donate the money to the poor. This will show God that you are kind and charitable so he will reward you with a place in heaven. Mark 10 v21.
God made us all so we are all brothers. So when we ignore or insult the poor, we are insulting our brothers. Most of the extracts that I have picked out of the bible are all structured to defend the poor and when you ignore them you will miss out on the benefits in the afterlife. This should make people respect the poor but we know that in this modern age this is not the case.
RS2 How might these Christian and Biblical teachings affect the attitude and behaviour of a Christian towards helping the poor?
All these teachings from the bible should be ministered to the poor with unselfish charity. Some of these may not be plausible in today’s modern society. Many people lead a very busy social and working life to donate time to helping the poor. A lot of people do help the deprived because they follow the bible’s teachings and because its in their heart and nature to help others. One example of a person who devoted her life to God and helping the unfortunate is Mother Teresa. She treated people with great care. She devoted her whole life to treating the poor, living with them and sharing their lives. She changed a lot of people’s attitudes towards the poor, making them change their ways. She influenced and inspired people to help the poor such as Princess Diana, the Princess of Wales. She also enlightened the developed countries with regard to third world poverty. As she had won the Nobel Peace Prize this made people aware of her work which in turn probably made others look differently towards the poor. This one single woman made such a difference to thousands of people’s lives.
There are also many international organisations that exist to help the poor and developing countries. They send resources to all over the world where they are needed. Some very well known agencies are Oxfam, Save the Children Fund, Water Aid, Farm Africa, Tear Fund, United Nations, CAFOD (Catholic Fund for Overseas Development) and Christian Aid. The last two are charities in the Christian church so are aware of the biblical teachings of caring for the poor.
Many Charities for instance Christian Aid believe in strengthening people to find their own solutions to the problems they face. This was how it was meant for the poor to look after themselves as mentioned in the bible. Christian Aids policy is to strive for a new world transformed by an end to poverty and to campaign to change the rules that keep people poor. They work wherever the need is greatest regardless of religion. Poverty occurs regardless of race, creed or religion. Christian Aid and other international agencies provide emergency relief for victims of war and famine, but most of its funding is used for long-term development projects in community health, education, agriculture and the provision of clean water.
“Christian Aids purpose is to expose the scandal of poverty and to contribute to its eradication”
By looking at the picture below it shows that some people don’t take any notice of the bible’s teachings for helping the poor. It shows that when a person is crying for help, instead of helping them, crowds of journalists come and go just to sell stories. The journalist makes no effort to help the poor. By looking at it at a different angle, it shows that the journalist make the more developed countries aware of the poor persons cry for help. The public will donate their help after reading the sad stories. So it is the media who have helped the charity and not the bible. The only way the public can learn about the poverty in the third world is through the media.
Of course all such charities rely on the generous donations of money, clothing and time. A lot of people give to various charities. Its easy to put your hand in your pocket, but it’s a lot harder to actually devote time to help the poor. Most Christians wouldn’t want to sell all their belongings and the proceeds go to the poor. Most of us want a nice and comfortable life (unlike Mother Teresa). So I don’t think the teachings are practical for today’s society.
In summary God wanted us to always give to the needy and deprived. We will never all have the same opportunities in this world, but maybe the wealth could be more fairly distributed.
RS3 ‘Charity begins at home. We have enough problems of our own to bother about people in the Third World’. Discuss this statement with regard to the issue of charity and helping the poor. Give a balanced argument and provide reasons to support your opinions.
This quote has many different views and points of argument. I agree that we have our own problems in life but they are not as bad as in some areas of the world. Once you have your own problems out of the way then go and help others. Charity does begin at home because your family is your main concern and you should have been brought up by your parents to be caring. You should see that your family is provided for before you give away objects. ‘Home’ could be taken on a broader basis to include your church and community. Adverts asking for donations of money, clothing, cakes etc for fund raising events are important to improve the local environment. Should we think of ourselves first as a community or think of those who are starving in the third world? Alone, these small local organisations can’t make much of an impact to helping the poor in Africa but all together they might.
I also disagree with this statement because God taught us to help those in need so we should follow his teachings. Not everyone has to help them. If you don’t have anything to give as you yourself may be on the bread line, but if you have extra you should give what you can. “He who has two coats let him share one to him who has none. And he, who has food, let him do likewise”(Luke 3 v11). We as a nation are greedy and should learn that we don’t need it all. “When you reap the harvest, you shall not be so thorough that you reap the field to its very edge, nor shall you glean the stray ears of grain. Likewise, you shall not pick your vineyards bare, nor gather up the grapes that have fallen. These things you shall leave for the poor and the alien” Leviticus 19 v 9-10.
We should be concerned with helping the Third world. They haven’t the resources to help themselves out of their poverty. They need help on a large scale. So some of our charitable funds could go on home issues and the third world’s needs.
Having given alms or charity to a cause can make you feel good about yourself. You may feel that you have given a little back what you owe the world and God for allowing you to be part of this wonderful existence.
Giving charity doesn’t just mean giving money or grown out or unwanted clothes. You could give your time and skill to charities. This may be in any form of education such as schooling, health education, showing labourers how to farm or developing water irrigation.
