A heart for the poor : Mr.Pax Tan (based on sermon notes by Kua Soo Li)
Proverbs He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who is kind to the needy
On Sunday, CDC was privileged to hear the message from Mr.Pax Tan who essentially spoke on the importance of social concern (a heart for the poor) in the life of every Christian.
Looking at our most important example, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, we see how His life and ministry was largely spent, not with the religious folk of the day, but rather with the poor, the despised, the lowly, the outcasts. He made friends with tax collectors, lepers, beggars and prostitutes. He turned no one away but accepted all who came to Him. A friend of “sinners”, He was disdained by the Pharisees and religious leaders, but in actual fact, only He had fully understood and embraced the heart of God for the poor while the leaders of the people only did so as a show and for the praise of men. In today’s terms, most of us in church remain in our nice, clean, educated, holy huddle while only a few actually obey God’s call to go out and love the poor – the drug addicts, prostitutes, Indonesian workers, HIV carriers. Yet, to our horror perhaps, our Lord Jesus would actually spend most of His time with such as these, giving them hope and showing them the salvation of God! He is Emmanuel, God with men, not just the good, religious people, but all men….. even in the lowest echelons of society.
Throughout the Old Testament, we see the heart of God the Father for the poor. His law emphasizes greatly to care for the poor, especially the widows and the orphans. As a typical example, consider the following verses from Exodus 22, stated not long after the ten commandments:-
21 "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt
22 "Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. 23 If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. 24 My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.
25 "If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest. 26 If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset, 27 because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
And the Old Testament is also full of promises of how God will bless those who are kind to the poor. Typical of this are verses from Psalms and Proverbs:-
Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble. Psalm 41:1
He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. Proverbs
He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done. Proverbs 19:17
There is a very strong connection between God’s blessing and having a heart for the poor. Cornelius was commended in the book of Acts for his offerings and gifts to the poor had come up as a memorial offering before God (Acts 10:4). As a result, he and his family were most privileged to be among the first Gentiles to receive the salvation of God. Helping the poor is certainly a wonderful sacrifice which pleases God!
On the other end, Jesus has a stern warning for those who do not have a heart for the poor and needy. He explains this in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats from Matthew 25.
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44"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?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
The sin of omission to help the poor is as serious as any of the other sins which lead to death.
May the Lord give each one of us a real heart for the poor, that we may help others not reluctantly or out of compulsion, but truly with the heart of Jesus our Lord!
God bless,
Jason
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