The Truth About Feeding The Poor

In America there is an ambitious desire to help the poor. Churches and humanitarian organizations raise billions of dollars to feed, shelter, cloth, and help the impoverished around the world and at home. This endeavor seems noble, and always comes with the proverbial "awww.." and "God bless you sire and madam..," but is it Biblical? "Well certainly it is! It's the chief command of Christ!" Uh actually no it is not, Jesus said the greatest commandment was, "love the Lord your God with all you are (soul, mind, and strength), this is the greatest commandment, and the second it like it, love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:36-40). Our Lord and God then added, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35). Who are our brothers or fellow disciples? Was Jesus talking about the brotherhood of mankind? Nay, it is only Christian believers, "Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother," (Mark 3:35, cross ref Romans 12:2), and "And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!" (Matthew 12:49).


The Help the Poor movement is not remotely correct. Jesus did not command us to help unbelievers, When he said, "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." (Matthew 25:31-46). These verses are taken out of context by organizations and churches, Jesus says brothers, and that as He said earlier in same Gospel account was, "Those who do the Will of my Father are my brothers, sisters, and mothers." (Matthew 12:50), and "And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!" (Matthew 12:49). This is a believer, not an unbeliever. We are commanded by Christ to help other Christian brothers and sisters, not heathens and wicked folk who will only exploit our generosity without listening to the Gospel. Pope Francis I has made a dogma out of helping the poor, Francis even calls it the 'gospel' of Jesus (Pope Francis promotes a false gospel, see Galatians 1:8-9, 2 Corinthians 11:4) that we are suppose to practice as a chief virtue, but as I have laid out, the Lord Jesus Christ refutes this, and even says, "The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me." (Mark 14:7).

When the Jewish Christians were starving in Jerusalem, the Greek Christians collected money, "Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me," (1 Corinthians 16:1-4) and it happened again in a Greek locations, "For you see, the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem." (Romans 15:26). Clearly the money collected in these two cases was for fellow Christians, not unbelievers! And yet most churches and humanitarian Christian organizations want to feed, cloth, and help unbelievers. While certainly this can have merit in evangelism, it is not what the Scriptures prescribe. I have witnessed first hand how helping the poor can be a determent; because they learn that you will codependantly supply their needs and they use their collection of money for drugs, and other horrible things. There is an obsession in the west to help the poor, the Social Gospel, and the truth is its built on pride, not helping the poor. It is so that individuals or organizations can say we helped cloth orphans ,and more. The Apostle James says, "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." (James 1:27). Who do you think are orphans and widows James is talking about? Believers or unbelievers? Believers, because it ends in refusing to let the world corrupt you! There is only so much revenue and money to help people, and as Christians we should be helping one another first, then if there is an overflow, we can help others. It should be "Love your brother," first and then "love your enemy," in regards to gifts.

Even the Apostle Peter saw to appointing deacons to feed fellow Christians, not unbelievers, "In those days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Grecian Jews began to grumble against the Hebraic Jews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, "We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program.Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them, But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith)." (Acts 6:1-6). We have to understand that at this point there was no distinction between a Jew or Christian as there is today, at that point the Christians were a sect of Judaism called The Way, and so when you read about the Hebraic Jews and Grecian Jews, these are converts to Christianity, but their customs are different and they bickering over food supplies. The term Christian does not even arrive until Saul becomes the Apostle Paul much later in Acts. It is also important to note that the Christian Community at this point has created a community were everyone lives in quarter or with tents, and so those being helped are Christians; the non-Christian Jews already had plenty to feed their poor because the Pharisees and Sadducees were in bed with Rome, got their positions from Rome, and had wealth from Rome to spread around.

The most taken out of context Bible verse about taking care of poor is this one, "Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." (Matthew 25:31-46). Again the last verse, when you did it to the "least of these my brothers" refers to brothers in Christ, "Who are my brothers, sisters, and mothers? Those who do the Will of my Father in Heaven," (Matthew 12:50) and "He replied, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice." (Luke 8:21). Obviously only a Christian brother or sister is hearing God's Word and putting it into practice!


When it comes to the poor, our obligation as Christians is to help our brothers and sisters in Christ; then we can help unbelievers. I am unsettled how pastors raise funds and have pity on tribes in Nigeria, Africa, or want to fund a soup kitchen for the unbelieving poor in their city, but neglect their congregation who might be on verge on financial collapse, lost a job, or in need of food and money! The Pastor enjoys a three figure salary, while his 'sheep' starve. Ugh, this is not what God intended! So take heed you proud poor feeders, if you neglect the Body of Christ and feed foreigners you shall receive this rebuke, "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "And he will answer, 'I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:44-46). Woah! That is a punishment! This is what I believe the Apostle John meant when He says, "Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him," (1 John 3:15), and "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen." (1 John 4:20). John says this because our brothers and sisters have Christ inside them, "For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory," (Colossians 1:27), "And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God," (Romans 8:10), and "Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16), "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you," (John 14:20), and "But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world." (1 John 4:4). This is why Jesus is rebuking those in Matthew 25:44-46, because they are rejecting Jesus to reject a fellow brother or sister in Christ, and not offer them help; and likewise if you hate a brother or sister in Christ you hate Christ because He lives in them as aforementioned.