Quotable

Augustine:  "Give those things to the poor which you cannot keep—that you may receive those things which you cannot lose."John Chrysostom:  "It is the poor man who holds out his hand, but it is God Himself who receives whatever you give to the poor."John Calvin:  “Today the poor get nothing more of alms than if they were  cast into the sea. Therefore, the church is mocked with a false diaconate . . . there is nothing of the care of the poor, nothing of that whole function which the deacons once performed.”“…it has come to pass, that most men give their alms contemptously.  Such depravity ought not to have been tolerable even among the pagans; of Christians something even more is required than to show a cheerful countenance and to render their duties pleasing with friendly words.  First, they must put themselves in the place of him who they see in need of their assistance, and pity his ill fortune as if they themselves experienced and bore it, so that they may be impelled by a feel of mercy and humaneness to go to his aid just as their own…”“Christ has shown us in the parable of the Samaritan that the term ‘neighbor’ includes even the most remote person (Luke 10.36), [and therefore] we are not expected to limit the precept of love to those in close relationships.”“Each man will so consider with himself that in all his greatness he is a debtor to his neighbors, and that he ought in exercising kindness towards them to set no other limit than the end of his resources; these as widely as they are extended ought to have their limits set according to the rule of love.”“Yet the great part of people are most unworthy to be helped if they be judged by their own merit.  But here Scripture helps in the best way when it teaches that we are not to consider that men merit of themselves but to look upon the image of God in all men, to which we owe all honor and love…Therefore, whatever man you meet who needs your aid, you have no reason to refuse to help him.  Say, ‘He is a stranger’; but the Lord has given him a mark that ought to be familiar to you, by virtue of the fact that he forbids you to despise your own flesh.  Say, he is contemptible and worthless, but the Lord shows him to be one to whom he has deigned to give the beauty of his image.  Say that you owe nothing for any service of his; but God, as it were, has put him in his own place in order that you may recognize toward him the many and great benefits with which God has bound you to himself.  Say that he does not deserve even your least effort for his sake; but the image of God, which recommends him to you, is worthy of your giving of yourself and all your possessions.  Now if he has not only deserved no good at your hand, but has also provoked you by unjust acts and curses, not even this is just reason why you should cease to embrace him in love and to perform the duties of love on his behalf. (Mt.6:14,18:35,Luke 17:3) You will say he has deserved something far different of me. Yet what has the Lord deserved?  While he bids you forgive this man for all sins he has committed against you, he would truly have them charged against himself. Assuredly there is but one way in which to achieve what is not merely difficult but utterly against human nature, to love those who hate us, to repay their evil deeds with benefits, to return blessings for reproaches.  It is that we remember not to consider men’s evil intention but to look upon the image of God in them, which cancels and effaces their transgressions, and with its beauty and dignity allures us to love and embrace them.”Martin Luther:  “A man who will not help or support others unless he can do so without affecting his safety or property will never help his neighbor”John Owen:  “Whoever readeth the Word of God with any attention or understanding, and withal considers the various disposal of the conditions of mankind, of Christians, of believers in this world, according to the sovereign pleasure of His holy wise Providence, cannot but [discern?], that among all the external duties which are required of us in this world, there is none more necessary, none more useful, none wherein the glory of God is more concerned, than the due and abundant exercise of the fruits of charity towards it proper objects.”Richard Baxter:  “God can relieve the poor, and do good to other men without us, but it is our honor to be made his stewards, and his great mercy to us, to receive that honor, yea, to have a willing heart though we want a purse.”Thomas Watson:  “Do you have money to feed your lust and pride—and nothing to relieve the poor members of Christ? Let us admit this excuse to be real, that you have no such estate—yet you may do something wherein you may express your mercy to the poor. You may sympathize with them, pray for them, or speak a word of comfort to them. Isaiah 40:2 says, "Speak comfortably to Jerusalem." If you can give them no gold—you may speak a word in season which may be as apples of gold in pictures of silver. You may be helpful to the poor by stirring up others who do have estates, to relieve them. If a man is hungry, the wind will not fill him—but it can blow the sails of the mill and make it grind corn for the use of man. Just so, though you have no estate yourself to help those in need, you may stir up others to help them. You may blow the sails of their affections, causing them to show mercy—and so may help your brother by a proxy.”“Unmercifulness is the sin of the heathen. While you put off the affections of charity, you put off the badge of Christianity.”“When you are distributing to the poor, it is as if you were praying, as if you were worshiping God. There are two sorts of sacrifices: expiatory sacrifices (the sacrifice of Christ's blood); and thank offerings (the sacrifice of alms). This, said holy Greenham, is more acceptable to God than any other sacrifice. Acts 10:4: "The angel said to Cornelius, 'Your acts of charity have come up as a memorial offering before God." The backs of the poor are the altar on which this sacrifice is to be offered up!”Jonathan Edwards:  “Many make an objection against doing good to others, saying ‘If I do, they will never thank me for it; and for my kindness, they will return abuse and injury:’ and thus they are ready to excuse themselves from the exercise of kindness, especially to those who have shown themselves ungrateful. But such persons do not sufficiently look at Christ; and they shew either their want of acquaintance with the rules of Christianity, or their unwillingness to cherish its spirit.”“To be much in deeds of charity is the way to have spiritual discoveries.  If we would seek spiritual discoveries in a right way we must not only abound in the duties of the first table, we must also spend a great deal of time in the duty of prayer, crying earnestly to God for the discoveries we need and the desire though that be a great duty that must be attended, we must also abound in the 2^nd table duties and particularly in the deeds of charity and the works of love.”[Tim Keller speaking on Edwards]“Another text Edwards looks to more than once is Gal 6:1–10, especially verse 2, which enjoins us to "bear one another's burdens."What are these burdens? Paul has in view, at least partially, material and financial burdens, because Gal 6:10 tells us to "do good to all men, especially the household of faith." Edwards (rightly, according to modern exegetes) understands "doing good" as including the giving of practical aid to people who need food, shelter, and financial help. Most commentators understand "burden-bearing" to be comprehensive. We share love and emotional strength with those who are sinking under sorrow; we share money and possessions with those who are in economic distress. But what does Paul mean when he says that burden-bearing "fulfills the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2)? Edwards calls this "the rules of the gospel." Richard Longenecker agrees, calling this "prescriptive principles stemming from the heart of the gospel." As Phil Ryken points out, the ultimate act of burden-bearing was substitutionary atonement in which Jesus bore the infinite burden of our guilt and sin. Again we see Paul reasoning that anyone who understands the gospel will share money and possessions with those with less of the world's goods.  And if it is the gospel that is moving us to help the poor, Edwards reasons, our giving and involvement with the poor will be significant, remarkable, and sacrificial. Those who give to the poor out of a desire to comply with a moral prescription will always do the minimum. If we give to the poor simply because "God says so," the next question will be "How much do we have to give so that we aren't out of compliance?" That question and attitude shows that this is not gospel-shaped giving. In the last part of his discourse, Edwards answers the objection "You say I should help the poor, but I'm afraid I have nothing to spare. I can't do it." Edwards responds, In many cases, we may, by the rules of the gospel, be obliged to give to others, when we cannot do it without suffering ourselves . . . else how is that rule of bearing one another's burdens fulfilled? If we never be obliged to relieve others' burdens, but when we can do it without burdening ourselves, then how do we bear our neighbor's burdens, when we bear no burdens at all?^”“There is nothing seems to be more inviting as it were to the God of Love to dwell among a people than the prevailing of such a spirit and practice their abounding in deeds of Love…”John Newton:  “For the most part, we take care, first, to be well supplied, if possible, with all the necessaries, conveniences, and not a few of the elegancies of life; then to have a snug fund laid up against a rainy day, as the phrase is . . . that when we look at children and near relatives, we may say to our hearts, “Now they are well provided for.” And when we have gotten all this and more, we are perhaps content, for the love of Christ, to bestow a pittance of superfluities, a tenth or twentieth part of what we spend or hoard up for ourselves, upon the poor. But alas! What do we herein more than others? Multitudes who know nothing of the love of Christ will do thus much."Robert Murray McCheyne:  "I fear there are some [professing] Christians among you to whom Christ will not say "Come Thou Blessed…inherit the kingdom" Your haughty dwelling rises in the midst of thousands who have scarce a fire to warm themselves at, and have but little clothing to keep out the biting frost; and yet you never darkened their door. You heave a sight, perhaps at a distance, but you do not visit them. Ah! Dear friend! I am concerned for the poor but more for you. I know not what Christ will say to you in the great day…I fear there are many hearing me who may know now well that they are not Christians because they do not love to give. To give largely and liberally, not grudging at all, requires a new heart; an old heart would rather part with its life-blood than its money. Oh my friends! Enjoy your money, make the most of it; give none away, enjoy it quickly for I can tell you, you will be beggars throughout eternity."Charles Spurgeon:  “These places of worship are not built that you may sit here comfortably, and hear something that shall make you pass away your Sundays with pleasure.  A church in London which does not exist to do good in the slums, and dens, and kennels of the city, is a church that has no reason to justify its existing any longer.  A church that does not exist to reclaim heathenism, to fight with evil, to destroy error, to put down falsehood, a church that does not exist to take the side of the poor, to denounce injustice and to hold up righteousness, is a church that has not the right to be.  Not for thyself, O church, dost thou exist, any more than Christ existed for himself.  His glory was that he laid aside His glory…To rescue souls from hell and lead to God, to hope, to heaven, this is the church’s heavenly occupation.  O that the church would always feel this.” James Montgomery Boice:  “The only times in history in which the church has been really godly and really strong have been times when it was out rubbing shoulders with the poor and helping them. Revival has always borne fruit among the masses. John Wesley and George Whitefield preached in the fields to common people, not in cathedrals to the privileged. But most of us do not even know the poor. We will give contributions to help them, sometimes—if we are not asked for too much. But we are not a church of the poor. We are not even a church of the masses. We need to repent of our elitist dispositions . . . There is a city in which a suburban white Christian school got into financial trouble and the evangelical community immediately aroused itself to help out. But in the same city the struggles of an inner-city school were ignored. Young Life thrives in the suburbs. In poor areas, Young Life can barely find money to pay a skeleton crew, yet the problems of the cities are greater than those in the outlying white areas. We raise money to feed the poor in Bangladesh, so long as the campaigns do not cramp our own materialistic pursuits. But we do nothing to feed the poor on our doorsteps. We need to repent of such wickedness.”David Watson:  “…the lifestyle of most western Christians and churches has no prophetic challenge at all to the affluent society all around.  In fact it is scarcely distinguishable from it.  We have quite unconciously adopted the values and standards of the world; and as the standard of living has risen comfortably over the last thirty years, so we Christians along with our neighbors spend that much more on our cars and carpets, TV sets and washing machines, furniture and hi-fi equipment, until we regard most of these things as necessities for modern life.  Where is there any serious attempt to live on enough, to be content with food and clothing, and to give the rest away for every good work?”Thabiti Anyabwile:  “To preach the gospel and have no concern and take no action in the cause of justice is as much an abandonment of the gospel as mistaken the gospel. How can a faithful gospel preacher preach the gospel before slaves and never wince at the gross barbarity of that peculiar institution? How can a man claim to live the gospel with fellow brothers in Christ and yet uphold laws that disenfranchise, marginalize, and oppress those same brothers? They may have gospel doctrine down pat, but they don’t have gospel living at all! Having a form of godliness, they deny the power thereof.”John MacArthur:   “It’s true Christianity that moves into the world and rubs elbows and makes relationships and builds bridges to people, because that’s the definition we find biblically. Christians have always done that.I want to run by a little history for you to show you this in a very general way. When you look back on the history of social reform in our culture western culture in Europe and here in America you find a great amount of that social reform is directly related to Christianity. For example, the l8th century had many of what was called evangelical awakenings. One who was greatly instrumental in those was John Wesley. And John Wesley was not just a preacher of the gospel, but he was a man concerned about people and so he denounced the evils of his day. He particularly took his whacks at slavery and he urged in addition to that the reform of prisons, the education of the masses ‑and, incidentally, that became the cry of many preachers ‑‑ in the l8th century, that there had to be education. As a result of these, by the time you got to 1776, all the way through to about 1914, tremendous social reform took place in western culture. And much of it reaped right out of the evangelistic awakenings, with John Wesley and others. There was a great awakening in America in about 1725 to about 1775, and the result of it was the building of a number of American universities, which at that time were geared to educate the masses, but were built around religious themes. Christianity was at the core.The second great awakening led to the founding of a school system for the masses in Britain, as well as the founding of hundreds of colleges and schools in America. There was even a revival among Christians, I should say ‑‑ in Napoleon’s day, and out of that revival in Napoleon’s day cane a man by the name of Wilberforce and Wilberforce was one of the engineers of the abolition of the slave trade in Africa. And the result of his work, which was the result of the work of an evangelistic awakening, was that the slaves in the British Empire were freed in 1834 and in the United States, they were freed in 1863. There were certain isolated Christians who had a tremendous impact on society, such as Elizabeth Frye. Elizabeth Frye promoted successful prison reform. There was a man by the name of Fliedner, who was a Christian in Germany, who built hopes for ex‑prisoners in order to help give them a halfway house to get them back into society. He built hospitals for the sick, spawned insane asylums, that is, homes for people who were insane, that had some character to them and some quality to them, so that they weren’t just holes or hovels where people were thrown until they died. He advocated orphanages for the children, and one of the people trained by Fliedner, trained in one of the schools, was a lady by the name of Florence Nightingale, who became the mother of modern nursing.  There was the seventh earl of Shaftsbury in England, a man by the name of Anthony Ashley Cooper. He describes himself in one of his writings as an evangelical of the evangelicals. In modern terms, he’d be a fighting fundie. He promoted legislation to cut the hours of factory labor in half, to prohibit the use of women working in coal mines, and of children in factories and farm gangs, and he promoted legislation to transfer retarded people from prisons to places where they would be treated as patients. Agencies cam out of these great awakenings ‑ these great Christian awakenings ‑‑ such as the YMCA, the Young Men’s Christian Association, the Salvation Army, and many others.  William Carey, a famous missionary to India, secured the abolition of widow burning, which was practiced in India, and child sacrifice. I always remember when I was a boy my dad telling about the natives in the land of India, who believed in the great god of the Ganges River, who would take one of their children and throw the baby when he was alive into the river and watch it drawn as a sacrifice to the god. William Carey went a long way to stop things like that. In Africa, many missionaries flooding the country, following in the lead of Livingston, discouraged polygamy, fought the slave trade, built schools, and built hospitals. J. C. Wenger says this: “Christianity burst into a corrupt world with a brilliantly new moral radiance. The moral level of society was dismal at the time of the New Testament, and sin prevailed in many form, and into this discouraged world came Christ and his Spirit transformed disciples, filled with holy joy, motivated by a love which the pagans could not grasp, and proclaiming good news, the message that God has provided a Savior. These Christians lived in tiny communities knit together in the power of the Holy Spirit, little colonies of heaven. They thought of themselves as pilgrims and their way to the celestial city, but they were very much concerned to manifest the love of Christ in all human relationships. These early Christians insisted on bringing all of life under the lordship of Christ.” And Wenger says it is men and women of this kind of moral purity who build into society a strong sense of integrity. Life was cheap in the pre-Christian world ‑‑ murder, war, abortion, infant exposure ‑‑ people died in great numbers without anyone being very troubled in conscience.  The early Christians brought a new concern into society at this very point.”