We would all like to believe that poverty is a simple problem with a simple solution—you won’t be poor if you work hard and live responsibly, and if someone else is poor, that means they must be lazy or are facing the consequences of bad life decisions. And while it is true that these factors can certainly play a role in poverty, the problem is much more complex than such a simple outlook could possibly explain.
In his letter, James spends a significant amount of time talking about the poor. By understanding his letter, we can understand both how the Bible defines who the poor are and what the Bible says we should be doing in response to the poverty we see in the world around us.
First, who are the poor? In our day, we most often think of this term with relation to finances—those who are poor as those who don’t have very much money. However, the biblical definition is a little more nuanced. Financial struggles certainly play a role, but James also makes it clear that the poor are those who are powerless and oppressed and also those who have been displaced and exiled. This is an understanding of the poor that goes all the way back to the Old Testament, and it is quite different than much of what we understand as poverty today.
Second, how should God’s people respond to be poor? As Christians, we are called to care for the poor. We ought to be those who care for those who can not care for themselves, including the orphans and widows whom James speaks about in 1:27. We ought to be those whose faith in free grace of Jesus Christ in the gospel transforms our lives and causes us to live lives of sacrificial generosity toward those around us who need help. Our good works do not define our standing before God, but as Martin Luther famously said, “God does not need our good works, but our neighbour does.”
As we seek to care for the poor and needy among us, first in our families, then in our churches, and then in the wider world around us, we do so with the expectation that one day God will right every wrong. Scripture tells us that a day is coming when the lowly will be exalted, and those who exalt themselves will be brought low. And so those of us to whom the Lord has given much have an opportunity to humble ourselves before the return of our Saviour and King. One of the primary ways that we practice this humility is by caring for the poor, lowly, and oppressed around us rather than using our wealth for our own pleasure and for our own purposes. And as we do so, we trust that God will use us mightily for the sake of his kingdom as those who store up our treasures not in this life, but for the life to come!
All the best,
Luke Burrow
