The duty of kindness to the poor.
There seems to be at first sight a discrepancy between the phrase in Deuteronomy 15:4 and that in Deuteronomy 15:11. The former is, "Save when there shall be no poor among you;" the latter, "The poor shall never cease out of the land." The first phrase is, however, a reason assigned for the injunction which had been given: it is equivalent to, "Simply, that there be no poor among you," i.e. this or that was an appointment in Israel, in order that the number of the poor might be reduced to a minimum, and that those who were poor might not become abjectly so. But no such external law could ever prevent some from falling back in the race. As long as men's constitutions, capacities, and characters were widely different, so would their measure of success be. A leveling of circumstances could be brought about only through a leveling of men, after all had been brought to a uniform starting-point. Such genial enactments as the one in Deuteronomy 15:1-6 might prevent beggary, but would not do away with poverty. "The poor shall never cease out of the land." This phrase is not to be regarded as indicating a Divine appointment that it should he so, but as a Divine declaration that it would he so. As long as men are what they are, and the varied features of temperament and ability continue as they are, so long will there be abundant scope for the exercise of sympathy and of kindly help. The points noticeable in this paragraph are five.
1. Year after year fresh claims on the kindly help of the prosperous would be presented by their poorer brethren (Deuteronomy 15:11).
2. These claims were to be generously and even gladly met, as if it were a delight. We need not charge the writer with ministering to idleness and beggary (see reference to Michaelis, in previous Homily). The word for, yea, even the conception of, a beggar, as we now understand it, is entirely absent from the Mosaic statutes. Honest and diligent work is supposed to be universal; though it might not be uniformly skilful or successful.
3. The desire to evade any obligation thus presented, was a wicked violation of the spirit of the Law (Deuteronomy 15:9).
4. The cry of the neglected or oppressed poor would rise up to God, and be heard.
5. The Lord would remember the, sin of cruel neglect and unkindness, or of haughty coldness.
Now, this chapter generally, and therefore this paragraph as a part of it, may be viewed in one of two aspects: either as a section of the Mosaic code of jurisprudence, or as an inculcation of social duty. It would be obviously beyond or beside our province to deal with it in the former aspect; we are concerned solely with the latter. We need not ask whether, in our New Testament standard, kindness to the poor is enjoined? That is understood. Our one query is this—
NOW THAT WE ARE UNDER CHRIST, AS OUR LEADER, HOW IS THE DUTY OF KINDNESS TO THE POOR PUT AND ENFORCED?
1. That duty which Moses enjoined as the leader and legislator of Jehovah's people, our Lord Jesus Christ set on the ground of his own sovereign right, and enforced by his own example. In that wondrous chapter of John's Gospel, the thirteenth, we are told that, when our Savior had washed his disciples' feet, he told them that he had given them an example that they should do as he had done to them, and also said, "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master," etc. We cannot suppose that this one act of kindness and condescension was merely meant to be literally followed. It must have been a kind of representative deed, in which our Lord virtually said, "In whatever way you may comfort or soothe a worn and weary brother by ministering to his wants, do not shrink from doing it, even though it may involve many a lowly, self-sacrificing act." Surely this covers the ground indicated in this paragraph, and includes the duty of giving to the poor and helping the needy, whatsoever their need may be.
2. Our Lord regards the poor and needy as his poor: all, generally, because he died for them; some, especially, because he lives in them. Hence, whoever would act towards them so as to show them the power and glory of a living Savior's sympathy, must let the poor feel through him the warm touch era tender Savior's love. Our Lord said in his intercessory prayer, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." Thus believers are to act in the world in the name and on the behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the friends and benefactors of men.
3. Our Lord reckons a kindness shown to men for his sake, as if it were done to him. Even in the Old Testament we get a thought akin to this (Isaiah 63:9). But in the New Testament the truth is more clearly defined (cf. Acts 9:4, where it is presented to us in connection with the reverse of kindness). In Matthew 25:31 46 it is shown us more strikingly still. Christ and his people are one; and a kindness done to men, out of love to him, is done to him. Is there not a wondrous touch of nature here? Would not a mother feel a kindness shown to her son, for her sake, as if it were shown to her? If the mother were in England and the son in New Zealand, she would feel the same. And if the son were even base and unworthy, and love did cling to him for the mother's sake, she could not feel the kindness the less. And we are permitted to take this thought up into the heavenly region, and to read the amazing words, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these … ye have done it unto me."
4. Of so much importance is this kindness to the poor for Christ's sake to be reckoned by us, that we are to watch for and seize opportunities of doing "good unto all men, specially to them that are of the household of faith;" yea, so laboring, we are even to support the weak, recalling those priceless words which an apostle was mercifully led to save from the peril of unrecorded sayings, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Whenever and wherever there is presented to us a case of genuine need, there is an opportunity for honoring our Savior which we must not suffer to pass by unimproved.
5. There are New Testament warnings against the neglect of the poor, which are not only not less severe than any in the Old Testaments—they are even more so. We may arrange them in three classes, giving one specimen under each.