And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 1 Thessalonians 5:14
“You give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish and you give him an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime.”
Jack Nelson in Rockford Register-Republic on 11 November 1961 on Page 4, Column 4, Rockford, Illinois.
As I look at historical variations of this famous quote, I am also exploring related biblical texts. The idea of occupation surfaces in today’s post and Scripture.
Some in Thessalonica were being lazy and not working and expecting handouts. Here, the Apostle Paul would say, don’t give these people anything!
Instead our generosity must be in the form of encouraging and helping the weak. This implies giving them the hand up as we have been seeing in other passages.
Again this relates to the work of GTP as “occupation” comes into view. Helping the poor build local capacity is hard work, but it bears fruit in the long run.
Include GTP in your giving. We are praying for $37,000 for trainings and translation of materials into Arabic, Bahasa, Chinese, French, and Portuguese by 30 June 2021.