Why Should I Care?

During the past month, about 320,000 Alabamians went to bed hungry because they did not have enough food to eat. That is the implication of the most recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) — Household Food Security in the United States, 2009 — released in late November.

The report said 6.8 percent of Alabama households — the largest percentage of any state in the nation — lived with “very low food security” on average from 2007 to 2009. That is a polite way of saying people do not have enough to eat.

The report added that about 700,000 Alabamians live with “food insecurity,” which means they do not get enough nutrition and calories to sustain health. Fifteen percent of all Alabama households fall into this category — up from 13.3 percent in last year’s report. More than one out of every seven state residents lives with food insecurity. That puts Alabama seventh in the nation in this category.

Reports from state agencies show the number of people receiving food assistance at an all-time high — 855,732 in October. Medicaid participation in Alabama has grown almost 20 percent in the last three years, and other indicators of poverty are rising, too.

What is happening in our state is happening across the nation. Families suffering from food insecurity at least some time during 2009 stand at 14.7 percent in the United States — the highest level since the USDA began tracking these figures.

Worldwide the picture is worse. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, about a billion people in the world live with hunger. The 30-year decline in the percentage of people living with hunger in the developing world turned upward about 2005 and has now climbed back near the level in 1990, when 20 percent of the world’s population lived with hunger.

Some people respond to the plight of the poor and hungry by asking, “Why should I care?” or “What is that to me?” Such questions come from not only those who believe in “survival of the fittest” and see vulnerable human beings as those left behind in the human chain of evolution but also Christians who quote Jesus’ words “the poor will be with you always” (Matt. 26:11) as proof of the futility of helping hurting people.

These Christians usually ignore the parallel passage in Mark 14:7 in which Jesus adds “and you can help them anytime.” Neither do they reference Deuteronomy 15:11 in which God instructs, “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in the land.”

The expectation was that followers of Christ, like the Jews before them, would care for the poor and needy. The goal of this “openhanded” care was set forth in Deuteronomy 15:4 in which God said, “There should be no poor among you.”

The Bible is unmistakably clear. Proverbs 29:7 says, “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.” The Old Testament shows God promoting a system that called for the community to help meet the needs of the poor: a day of rest for the slave and alien (Ex. 23:10–12), gleaning of fields by the poor (Lev. 19:9–10), Sabbath year cancellation of debts (Deut. 15:1–18), Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:8–55), daily care of the poor (Deut 14:28–29).

The king was instructed to “vindicate the afflicted … help the poor and crush the oppressor” (Ps. 72:4). The prophet Ezekiel counseled the princes of Israel to practice justice and righteousness (Ezek. 45:9). Amos, the prophet from Tekoa, condemned Judah because society developed systems that cheated and abused the poor and powerless.

Jesus used this same principle in the famous story recorded in Matthew 25:31–46. Jesus invited into His everlasting Kingdom those who had fed the hungry, cared for the homeless, clothed the naked, nursed the sick and remembered the prisoner. The ungodly were cast out precisely because they had not done these things.

The story is not a lesson about how to be saved. It does not teach a works theology. The story is an illustration of the evidence of salvation. Those who evidenced concern for the “least of these,” as Jesus said, demonstrated the Spirit of the Lord in their lives and actions. The second group did not.

Near the end of his life, the apostle John wrote about the same principle. In 1 John 3:17–18, he wrote, “If anyone has material possession and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with action.”

Both Jesus’ story and John’s admonition are best understood as illustrating the Old Testament principle that “the righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.”

Baptist commitment to the Bible as the sole authority for faith and practice helps one understand why Jesus valued the ethics of justice for the poor. It began at creation. The written Word of God bears witness to the fact that the Living Word (Jesus Christ) was the agent of all creation. Colossians 1:16 declares, “For by Him, all things were created.” Verse 17 adds, “In Him, all things hold together.” Jesus is the source of all life, and in Him, all things consist and hold together.

And in each human being, Jesus placed the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Christ has a connection to every human heart as Creator and Sustainer. He offers Himself as Redeemer for each human being as well. That is why the gospel must be shared with every human being.

And the connection of Christ with each human heart is so vital that our Lord could say to His disciples, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:40). Service done to any human being is service done to Him.

It is not guilt that motivates the Christian to care for the poor and hungry. It is not even human compassion. The believer preaches good news to the poor, proclaims freedom to the captive and announces healing for the blind and release to the oppressed because he or she has the love of God in his or her heart and those who love God care about the needs of the poor.

That is why every Christian should care about poor, hungry and hurting people.