Causes

Why we should stop serving the poor

“Serve” is one of the most used Christian words. The word serve, servant, service or any of its derivatives is used in the Bible more than 1,100 times. It is what we are called, as Christians, to do.

By Anna Glenn, Relevant Magazine

But the truth is I don’t want to “serve” the poor anymore and neither should you.

Maybe I should clarify: I don’t want to “serve” the poor in the same ways that we as a church and society have been serving for so many years because frankly, it isn’t working and it’s not just hurting the poor, it’s hurting all of us as the Body of Christ.

Jesus did say that “the poor will always be with you” (Matthew 26:11), but that doesn’t mean what we often think it means, and it certainly isn’t an excuse for us to give up in the face of failure either. What we need to do instead is step back and re-evaluate our approaches. We need to redefine what it means “to serve,” to understand different methods of serving and when to use them. And, most importantly, we need to re-evaluate why we serve.

So what does it mean to serve the poor?

Jesus served the poor in many different ways. One of the ways he served was through charity—the giving of material things such as money, food, clothes—and he calls us to do the same (Matthew 25:35-40). Charity can be an easy, quick and tangible way of sharing Christ’s love and compassion for people who are experiencing a temporarily difficult situation. It is 100 percent necessary and part of our responsibility as the Church and in the U.S., we are pretty good at charity.

Read the full story at Relevant Magazine.

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