Bible Stories

God meant mankind to live in a garden, sin has sent him to the slums. The gospel is the power of God to save us from sin, therefore from poverty as well. Jesus often interpreted his ministry as ‘bringing good news to the poor’.

There are three major ways in which sin produces poverty.

• Sin separates people from the true God. But because humanity cannot live without God, we invent false gods. Often people worship creation rather than the creator. Societies that worship creation lose that ability to subdue and manage it which is essential for economic prosperity.
• Sin sets brother against brother. People begin to exploit each other. In previous generations, for example, it was direct exploitation through colonialism which created large-scale poverty. Today it is indirect exploitation, through unjust trade terms, which perpetuates the poverty of the poorer countries.
• Sin ultimately blinds people to the truth about their own nature. We forget that because we are made in the image of a creator, we can find fulfilment only when we engage in creative and productive work. Laziness, as the book of Proverbs tells us, means poverty. There are many other factors — geographical, historical, cultural, moral and ideological — which contribute to poverty or affluence. But generally the societies where poverty has been the norm for centuries are those which have not had the biblical attitudes towards God, the created order, man and work.

Even though poverty is thus the direct consequence of sin, it is not necessarily the result of the sin of the particular person who is poor. Just as a person can cause much harm to a woman and her children by killing their husband and father, so also can a man or a society make another man or society poor.

God’s love for the poor

As well as flowing from human sin, poverty can be God’s judgement on societies which turn their back on him. And yet the Bible makes it abundantly clear that the poor are also the object of God’s special love. Jesus said, ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God‘. God, as Jesus described him, has a soft spot for the poor, because they are helpless victims of forces over which they have little control:

• External forces—such as powerful oppressors or natural calamities (many of which, such as floods caused by deforestation, may be the result of the thoughtlessness and greed of their own ancestors).
• Internal attitudes — such as fear, fatalism and laziness, developing over generations and robbing individuals and societies of the initiative, confidence and thrift which are necessary for economic enterprise.

Abject poverty in the final analysis is the powerlessness of individuals or societies to help themselves. They need a saviour.

The whole Bible witnesses to God’s love for the poor and his willingness to save them. But this is an especially strong feature of Jesus‘ teaching. The prodigal son needs to return to his father when he starves. The father who feeds all the birds of the sky and clothes all the lilies of the fields is able and willing to meet all the poor person’s material needs, if he will only seek God’s kingdom and righteousness. To those who were looking for bread, Jesus said that if they really wanted a permanent solution to their hunger, they ought to seek him, the true ‘bread of life’.

One of Christ’s major antidotes to poverty was to create the church. Poverty in part is a product of unjust economic relationships, whereas the church is a community dedicated to promoting just and caring relationships. The New Testament churches met the needs of the poor and worked to eradicate poverty from among their members, not as an occasional programme but as part of their normal routine.

Just as the church cannot lightly tolerate sin among its members, so also it cannot tolerate poverty within itself. And just as Christians spearhead the battle against sin in the world, so must they spearhead the battle against poverty. For we follow the one who became poor, so that the poor may become rich. And we look forward to the day when Christ will return and eliminate sin with all its consequences— poverty included.

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