Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth (Ephesians 4:28).
The Bible has much to say about helping the needy. One sure way as to how to determine whether a person is filled with the love of God in him is whether he has concern for the needy:
But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? (1 John 3:17).
Apostle John makes it very clear. If a person does sees a needy person, and has no compassion for him, the love of God does not dwell in Him. He has no love. The spirit behind this verse is that how can a person say that he loves if he cares not for the needy. Such love is one that manifests in compassion, and is not stingy, or begrudging, nor proud.
While 1 John 3:17 especially refers to loving a needy brother or sister in Christ, it spirit is of the agape love of God, and therefore refers to love of God towards all people, including those undeserving of help according to the Law of God. It is that which is full of mercy and grace, that which is patient with people, and hopes for people to be saved for their own good. It loves despite the rejection by the person being loved.
Such love holds nothing back, loving people, despite that the person may be undeserving. This is not to deny that one must love with discernment and wisdom. For love is not soft, mushy, or sentimental, as so many people so erroneously think. Rather, love is tough, in upholding the righteousness and holiness of God, despising with an immense hatred of all sin, and anything that taints a person with sin. It is zealous for the true righteousness and true holiness of God, and absolutely any righteousness or holiness that is false or hypocritical in any way.
Love gives only that which is good for the recipient, and refuses to give anything to the recipient that is bad to him or her. For example, it does not give $5 to a person who he knows will only use it to buy drugs, which will do nothing but will damn that person further to Hell. As such, God may allow a mammonised Christian to buy a house with debt, beyond his means, allowing him to be happy for a while but only to later be full of anguish, such that he may learn that repent of his failure to totally depend on God.
True agape love often manifests with a apparent harshness and even anger, anger of the genuine sort that consistently insists on truth, and cares not about the faulty feelings, or sinful or fleshly desires of others. Rather, it despises such sin in others, and seeks to prevent people from appeasing it and being trapped by it. Despite opposition, it continues to rebuke, and will never ever ever ever compromise or succumb to appeasing the person's sinful mindset, desires, thoughts or feelings. It has no respect for such, for it seeks true righteousness and holiness.
It may even reject the person, shunning him. Such may seem cold and cruel, but such rejection where done to uphold all righteousness and holiness of God, is love. Failure to shun a person, but rather, entertain him foolishness, be it in twisting Scriptures for his own agenda, or to justify his sin, is not love. It does nothing but in making him think he is wise, will damn him, or take him off the path of righteousness, hindering his race for the faith, in the case of a true convert. For it rejects the foolishness of the fool, therefore exposing his foolishness, which is for his good. A true convert is not exempt from being a fool.
For Proverbs 26:4-5 says:
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
A fool is to be answered not by his foolishness, for one will be foolish. A fool must be answered by exposing his foolishness. One such way is to totally and absolutely reject his foolishness, telling him that one will not accept his foolishness, and shunning him, exposing his foolishness.
Do not be deceived by the fools in the professing modern western Church. It is full of fools. Many of those who are praised as wise are fools, for they appear wise on the outward, but are outwardly full of foolishness. They appear to seek the will of God, but seek to fit it within their own will. Where God's will is inconsistent with their own, they bend the will of God, and attempt to alter it. Such persons are dangerous, for they are not truly seeking the will of God at all in trying to fit it into their will, in totally and absolutely surrendering themselves to him, no matter what the cost. This requires one to daily beat one's flesh, the whole of oneself into submission:
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (1 Corinthians 9:27).
This is how one must live to truly follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It requires not just humility, but utter and total humility that one must absolutely strive for. It is sheer humility that one needs to truly love God.
To truly love God is to absolutely and totally acknowledge one's utter dependence on Him, and his mercy, and as such, actively seek to sacrifice the whole of oneself to do the will of God. It means to consecrate all that God has given oneself to serve Him. All freedom is to be used to serve Him in full. All food and shelter one has is to be acknowledged as given by His grace alone, and not a so-called "right", to glorify Him. Such things are not to be enjoyed, or indulged in for oneself.
Food and shelter are that which one is to be contented with, no matter what amount. Whether one has a full course meal, or a spoon of rice and small fish each day, such is given by God's grace for one to survive, so that one may glorify God, and not oneself. Whether one lives in a mansion, or under a coconut tree in a small makeshift hut, such is given by God's grace for one to survive, so that one may glorify God and not oneself.
One glorifies God from having such needs met by being able to have the energy, intellect, talents, gifts and time to serve Him. True glorification of God does not just involve total sacrifice. It is total self-sacrifice. One does not glorify God by having such needs met, by being self-satisfied, smug behind being so well-cared for, and even having the audacity to assume that such things are one's "rights" that God is obliged to meet them.
Many people in the modern West, including many in the modern western Church are full of pride, and self-satisfaction, smug behind their wealth. They thinks they are so prosperous and "blessed", out of their pride. Do not be deceived, such thinking is just pure pride and nothing else. In their pride from having their needs comfortably met, they think they are not needy, but they truly are needy.
They just as needy as the person in a third world nation who lives under a coconut true and just eats one spoon of rice a day. They, like the people of poor nations, are just as utterly dependent on the mercies of God, every millisecond on their lives.
However, the pride of a rich person, being one whose needs are all comfortably met, prevent him from acknowledging this. This is why he despises those who lack their needs, because of his pride, in thinking himself superior, that because he has his needs more comfortably met than the person who lacks his needs being meet, he is more deserving and worthy. This manifests in a lack of compassion, not just an absence, but lack of compassion for those who lack of their needs being met.
Such lack of compassion so easily justified by the reality that one works, in which one claims that because one has worked for what one has, why should one give to the needy? If a person is poor, not in any way his own fault, there is absolutely no excuse to not give to the needy, helping him with is a true need of his.
However, even if the person is not a deserving poor, such a person is to be treated with mercy. Mercy is a manifestation of love, which is all to keen to give a person a second chance so that he or she may have a chance to repent. Though such persons may be enemies of Christ, the Bible says:
But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful (Luke 6:35-36).
To think that one deserves one's needs to be met because one works is simply the manifestation of pride, and therefore the hatred of God. Work is to be done so that one may give to others, not just one's own family, but those who are needy:
Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth (Ephesians 4:28).
Work is not to be done to have things or consume things for oneself.
That is why the Bible says that he who has no compassion on the needy has not the love of God in Him. The lack of compassion towards the needy is abominable in the eyes of God, for it is nothing but the height of arrogance and pride, and the hatred of God. Among other things, you will be judged on the Day of Judgment by how you treated the poor and the needy.
To have no compassion on the needy is just a sin as much as any other sin, which the true follower of Christ should absolutely abhor and despise.
The Bible has much to say about helping the needy. One sure way as to how to determine whether a person is filled with the love of God in him is whether he has concern for the needy:
But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? (1 John 3:17).
Apostle John makes it very clear. If a person does sees a needy person, and has no compassion for him, the love of God does not dwell in Him. He has no love. The spirit behind this verse is that how can a person say that he loves if he cares not for the needy. Such love is one that manifests in compassion, and is not stingy, or begrudging, nor proud.
While 1 John 3:17 especially refers to loving a needy brother or sister in Christ, it spirit is of the agape love of God, and therefore refers to love of God towards all people, including those undeserving of help according to the Law of God. It is that which is full of mercy and grace, that which is patient with people, and hopes for people to be saved for their own good. It loves despite the rejection by the person being loved.
Such love holds nothing back, loving people, despite that the person may be undeserving. This is not to deny that one must love with discernment and wisdom. For love is not soft, mushy, or sentimental, as so many people so erroneously think. Rather, love is tough, in upholding the righteousness and holiness of God, despising with an immense hatred of all sin, and anything that taints a person with sin. It is zealous for the true righteousness and true holiness of God, and absolutely any righteousness or holiness that is false or hypocritical in any way.
Love gives only that which is good for the recipient, and refuses to give anything to the recipient that is bad to him or her. For example, it does not give $5 to a person who he knows will only use it to buy drugs, which will do nothing but will damn that person further to Hell. As such, God may allow a mammonised Christian to buy a house with debt, beyond his means, allowing him to be happy for a while but only to later be full of anguish, such that he may learn that repent of his failure to totally depend on God.
True agape love often manifests with a apparent harshness and even anger, anger of the genuine sort that consistently insists on truth, and cares not about the faulty feelings, or sinful or fleshly desires of others. Rather, it despises such sin in others, and seeks to prevent people from appeasing it and being trapped by it. Despite opposition, it continues to rebuke, and will never ever ever ever compromise or succumb to appeasing the person's sinful mindset, desires, thoughts or feelings. It has no respect for such, for it seeks true righteousness and holiness.
It may even reject the person, shunning him. Such may seem cold and cruel, but such rejection where done to uphold all righteousness and holiness of God, is love. Failure to shun a person, but rather, entertain him foolishness, be it in twisting Scriptures for his own agenda, or to justify his sin, is not love. It does nothing but in making him think he is wise, will damn him, or take him off the path of righteousness, hindering his race for the faith, in the case of a true convert. For it rejects the foolishness of the fool, therefore exposing his foolishness, which is for his good. A true convert is not exempt from being a fool.
For Proverbs 26:4-5 says:
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
A fool is to be answered not by his foolishness, for one will be foolish. A fool must be answered by exposing his foolishness. One such way is to totally and absolutely reject his foolishness, telling him that one will not accept his foolishness, and shunning him, exposing his foolishness.
Do not be deceived by the fools in the professing modern western Church. It is full of fools. Many of those who are praised as wise are fools, for they appear wise on the outward, but are outwardly full of foolishness. They appear to seek the will of God, but seek to fit it within their own will. Where God's will is inconsistent with their own, they bend the will of God, and attempt to alter it. Such persons are dangerous, for they are not truly seeking the will of God at all in trying to fit it into their will, in totally and absolutely surrendering themselves to him, no matter what the cost. This requires one to daily beat one's flesh, the whole of oneself into submission:
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (1 Corinthians 9:27).
This is how one must live to truly follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It requires not just humility, but utter and total humility that one must absolutely strive for. It is sheer humility that one needs to truly love God.
To truly love God is to absolutely and totally acknowledge one's utter dependence on Him, and his mercy, and as such, actively seek to sacrifice the whole of oneself to do the will of God. It means to consecrate all that God has given oneself to serve Him. All freedom is to be used to serve Him in full. All food and shelter one has is to be acknowledged as given by His grace alone, and not a so-called "right", to glorify Him. Such things are not to be enjoyed, or indulged in for oneself.
Food and shelter are that which one is to be contented with, no matter what amount. Whether one has a full course meal, or a spoon of rice and small fish each day, such is given by God's grace for one to survive, so that one may glorify God, and not oneself. Whether one lives in a mansion, or under a coconut tree in a small makeshift hut, such is given by God's grace for one to survive, so that one may glorify God and not oneself.
One glorifies God from having such needs met by being able to have the energy, intellect, talents, gifts and time to serve Him. True glorification of God does not just involve total sacrifice. It is total self-sacrifice. One does not glorify God by having such needs met, by being self-satisfied, smug behind being so well-cared for, and even having the audacity to assume that such things are one's "rights" that God is obliged to meet them.
Many people in the modern West, including many in the modern western Church are full of pride, and self-satisfaction, smug behind their wealth. They thinks they are so prosperous and "blessed", out of their pride. Do not be deceived, such thinking is just pure pride and nothing else. In their pride from having their needs comfortably met, they think they are not needy, but they truly are needy.
They just as needy as the person in a third world nation who lives under a coconut true and just eats one spoon of rice a day. They, like the people of poor nations, are just as utterly dependent on the mercies of God, every millisecond on their lives.
However, the pride of a rich person, being one whose needs are all comfortably met, prevent him from acknowledging this. This is why he despises those who lack their needs, because of his pride, in thinking himself superior, that because he has his needs more comfortably met than the person who lacks his needs being meet, he is more deserving and worthy. This manifests in a lack of compassion, not just an absence, but lack of compassion for those who lack of their needs being met.
Such lack of compassion so easily justified by the reality that one works, in which one claims that because one has worked for what one has, why should one give to the needy? If a person is poor, not in any way his own fault, there is absolutely no excuse to not give to the needy, helping him with is a true need of his.
However, even if the person is not a deserving poor, such a person is to be treated with mercy. Mercy is a manifestation of love, which is all to keen to give a person a second chance so that he or she may have a chance to repent. Though such persons may be enemies of Christ, the Bible says:
But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful (Luke 6:35-36).
To think that one deserves one's needs to be met because one works is simply the manifestation of pride, and therefore the hatred of God. Work is to be done so that one may give to others, not just one's own family, but those who are needy:
Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth (Ephesians 4:28).
Work is not to be done to have things or consume things for oneself.
That is why the Bible says that he who has no compassion on the needy has not the love of God in Him. The lack of compassion towards the needy is abominable in the eyes of God, for it is nothing but the height of arrogance and pride, and the hatred of God. Among other things, you will be judged on the Day of Judgment by how you treated the poor and the needy.
To have no compassion on the needy is just a sin as much as any other sin, which the true follower of Christ should absolutely abhor and despise.
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