The correlation between salvation, money, and caring for the poor
America is a nation of people of many religious beliefs. Many Americans claim to be Christians; Yet your individual lifestyle choices do not always reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus left us two commandments to follow. We are commanded to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength; and love our neighbor as ourselves. According to Jesus, if we love God we show it by obeying him. Loving our neighbor means showing compassion for those around us who are suffering. How can we affirm that we love God or our neighbor and walk alongside a homeless or hungry person and do nothing? Jesus said that everything we do for the least among us, we also do for him. Would we deny Jesus food if we saw him hungry or poor? Most of us would answer “No,” but in reality we often neglect family, friends, and strangers who are in dire need, because we care more about ourselves than others.
Some Christians ignore the suffering people in the world because their minds are only in heaven. They are waiting for Jesus to come and take their church off this earth and yet they do not understand that Jesus cannot return unless we prepare a way for him. When John the Baptist came to preach, he told the people that to regret and prepare the way for Jesus to come. He told them to become loving to each other as proof that they had changed their minds and their ways of pleasing God. When people asked what they should do; John gave them very basic instructions (Luke chapter 3). John told them: 1) He who has two tunics, give to him who has none; and do the same with your food; 2) Don’t cheat with taxes; 3) Do not rape anyone; 4) Do not falsely accuse another; and 5) Be happy with your salary. In short, John let them know that how they dealt with each other and money would determine whether they would please God. Note that the first thing John ordered was that they take care of the poor.
Once again, the Bible speaks of a rich young man; or in our day we would call it political. He asked Jesus what he needed to do to obtain eternal life. He claimed to have followed all the written commandments, but Jesus let him know that something important had been lost. Jesus told him to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. The man was distressed because he was very rich. Jesus told his disciples that it is difficult for a man who loves money to enter the Kingdom of God. This man’s treasure was in his money; but Jesus wanted me to treasure what God treasured; because where the treasure (money) of a man is, there will also be his heart. Now consider the average American who is greedy for money. Those who claim to be Christians cannot love both God and money. In reality, our nation’s financial crisis reflects the values of the people. We love money and things and we neglect the poor. If there are poor people among us, we let the government take care of them.
What we do with money is the greatest indicator of our love for God and our neighbor. It is the proof that we are like our father who gave everything he had for us. There is no greater love than when a man lays down his life (his time, money, and possessions) for another. For our sake, Jesus gave up his riches from heaven and became poor; so that we, in their poverty, may become rich; not just for our benefit, but so that we can abundantly care for the needs of others. How difficult is it to save a coat or food to show our love for others? The Bible says that if someone does not provide for his own poor, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel or an unbeliever. God forbid the day American Christianity is labeled a religion of infidels! If by our own works we have no proof that we are saved, how can we lead the rest of the nation to the Kingdom of God? How can we complain that our nation’s values are against God? that your values have led to a financial crisis if we who have the mind of Christ refuse to obey Christ? The solution is simple, when Christians repent and obey God, it will bring about a spiritual change in our nation in which more Americans will begin to care about the well-being of their neighbors. Where there is love and compassion for one another, there will also be an endless flow of the supernatural blessings and prosperity of God. When we return to love; our families and our nation will return to abundance and God will make us prosper like never before.