Helping Without Hurting: The Bible and the PoorExemplo

A Final Apologetic

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:13-14)

Regret. By now your eyes should be open to the materially poor. People in your own city struggle to pay bills, feed families, and obtain good health care. Miles away, you know that millions of orphans are without food, shelter, and education, living in the bush or in the streets. You may feel regret — for blindness to your neighbor, feelings of spiritual and intellectual superiority, and your own materialism. At the end of regret, you may be tempted to despair, to say amidst a torrent of brokenness, “What difference can I make?”

Repentance. In the end, repentance and action, not regret and paralysis, is what God calls us to embrace. We are not to wallow in the past, but rather to turn from sin and passivity to hope and love. Concerning his own growth in Christ, the Apostle Paul exhorts us to forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead, to press on. In our turning toward hope and love, there is work to be done, and yet “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). God is at work in renovating our hearts, and we are called to be active participants in that change.

Love. Francis Schaeffer, who founded an apologetics ministry called L’Abri, so often said that love between Christians was “the final apologetic.” Moving beyond regret and repentance, it is our love for the materially poor that makes the truth of the gospel seem credible to the watching world. As Brian Fikkert says: “We are to embody Jesus by doing what He did and what He continues to do through us: declare—using both words and deeds—that Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who is bringing in a kingdom of righteousness, justice and peace. And the church needs to do this where Jesus did it, among the blind, the lame, the sick and outcast, and the poor.” So, Christian, press on. There is work to be done.

King Jesus, we repent. Let us not live in regret but in hope and love. Help us to embody Jesus among the poor.