Yesterday at our church brunch a woman came to the table where I was chatting with our pastor. She started to interrupt but he stopped her and said he would talk to her later. He told me she came with a different story each week but always asking for money.
A man, often with his wife, comes into our building after the service is over and lines up for food. They bring containers and take enough for a week, hiding it until they can leave. When anyone talks to them, they claim they cannot speak English.
The leadership in our church believes in taking care of the poor, yet these behaviors make that task a bit of a puzzle. We are commanded to be gracious yet not to behave as they are behaving. So what do we do when people greedily take advantage of us?
First, the NT offers some clear commands:
For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:2–4)
From the very beginning, the church has prioritized ministering to the poor. “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:44–45) Notice, this is for the needy who are believers, as is the following description of Paul organizing a relief fund in Jerusalem:
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 . . . . (1 Corinthians 16:1–4)
It is the same in another situation: “So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.” (Acts 11:29–30) The church is to consider the poor among them. Nothing is said about those living in poverty outside the church. However, God has plans for some of them:
Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? (James 2:5–7)
The NT forbids Christians to be greedy. We have no excuse; God takes care of our needs and beyond that, we are to be content and help others. However, it also says this:
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Ephesians 4:17–19)
According to this, greedy, self-serving people are hard of heart, even unaware of their sin. While some who are false teachers “in their greed they will exploit you with false words” (2 Peter 2:1–3) this is not about that kind of greed. Nor is the NT written for them. This passage separates how we treat greed in the church and what we need to do (or not do) with greedy people who are not believers:
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:11–13)
PRAY: Lord, You are saying to discipline believers who fall into sin, but leave the judgment of those outside the church to You. I also read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and realize that some who are saved were once “greedy” and guilty of other sins, but are now “washed, sanctified, justified” so this woman and that man could one day be part of Your Body. Give us wisdom in how we treat them.
PONDER: Why not find out what that woman needs and take her shopping? Why not sit with that man and eat with him, thanking him for filling a plate for us? Can I be sacrificially creative concerning these poor who seem exploitive? Jesus was — He died for them.