Love for all
March 4, 2010 (Thursday)
A Russian billionaire forfeited his $60 million down payment (plus interest) on the most expensive house in the world, built in France by a Belgian king. The lady who owns the house gave all the money to ten charities.
There will be a one second period of silence so that all of us can shed tears for the young Russian playboy billionaire. What? No tears? It’s hard for us to feel sorry for such a rich man whose lifestyle involved hiring 20 prostitutes for a party not long ago.
Actually, there are many people in the world who find it impossible or very difficult to feel sorry for anyone under any circumstances.
What bothers me, however, is the fact that there are many Christian people who have little compassion for people who are less fortunate than themselves. Jesus taught us to care about people. The Bible has more than 300 verses about helping the poor.
God’s heart is open toward the poor and suffering people of this world. “I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor” (Ps. 140:12).
God commands us as His people to care about poor people: “If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks” (Deut. 15:7).
Jesus taught us to care deeply about the needy among us: He said, “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.” (Matt 5:42).
Perhaps we should tremble when we hear the words of the prophet Ezekiel, “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it” (Ezek. 16:49ff.).
God cares about poor and suffering people. So must we.
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For more verses on this subject, please click here.
If you would like to see more Scripture verses on this subject, please go to the search page of your browser and search for, “The Bible and the Poor.” You may be surprised at the amount of material available on this subject.