Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Proverbs 3:27
“Some may object and say, Others do not their duty. If others did their duty, the poor would be sufficiently supplied. If others did as much as we in proportion to their ability and obligation, the poor would have enough to help them out of their difficulties. Or some may say, It belongs to others more than it does to us. They have relations that ought to help them; or there are others to whom it more properly belongs than to us.
Answer. We ought to relieve those who are in need though brought to it through others’ fault. If our neighbor be poor, though others be to blame that it is so, yet that excuses us not from helping him. If it belong to others more than to us, yet if those others will neglect their duty, and our neighbor therefore remains in want, we may be obliged to relieve him.
If a man be brought into difficulties through the injustice of others, suppose by thieves or robbers, as the poor Jew whom the Samaritan relieved, yet we may be obliged to relieve him, though it be not through our fault that he is in want, but through that of other men. And whether that fault be a commission or a neglect alters not the case. As to the poor Jew that fell among thieves between Jerusalem and Jericho, it more properly belonged to those thieves who brought him into that distress to relieve him than to any other person.
Yet seeing they would not do it, others were not excused; and the Samaritan did no more than his duty relieving him as he did, though it properly belonged to others. Thus if a man have children or other relations to whom it most properly belongs to relieve him, yet if they will not do it, the obligation to relieve him falls upon others. So for the same reason we should do the more for the relief of the poor because others neglect to do their proportion or what belongs to them; and that because by the neglect of others to do their proportion they need the more, their necessity is the greater.”
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) in Christian Charity or The Duty of Charity to the Poor, Explained and Enforced (Pensacola: Chapel Library, 2022) 34-35. Download the PDF copy here.
Today marks the last day of exploring this classic work.
Edwards concludes by addressing a key objection. It seems very common to me. We excuse ourselves because others fail to act. And we learn today, that it is not a valid excuse.
Just because others do not act, does not mean we must not act within our power.
What should you do instead? Ask yourself what you have the power to do and do it. Walk in this way instead of doing nothing because you see others doing nothing. That’s the world we live in.
Few do good because they see even fewer doing good.
We can change the trajectory of our setting by acting boldly and generously. We can shape the behavior of others by doing what others are not doing.
No wonder God wants us to do good within our power as today’s Scripture notes. It’s why he put us here.
And I am thankful for a wife who desires to live this way. Today marks 34 years of marriage for us. Jenni is ministering in Rwanda this week with a team from Denver Seminary.
Appreciate your prayers for them.