Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:17
“Objection #10. 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 straits. 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 want 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 straits 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 (1732) Section IV.
Today’s objection brings out the classic finger pointing practice that leaves everyone not doing their part. We reason that we have done enough and that others need to step up, so we cease our charity. And they never started.
So, when we do this we (the stoppers) lose, the non-starters lose, and the needy lose. Do you hear that? Everyone loses. And we lose because God blesses us all to be a blessing not just once but perpetually.
When we act, then He blesses, but then we often rationalize our ceasing by saying others must step up. The reality is that others should step up. But the Mother Teresa’s of this world teach us something.
They teach us that if and when we take a perpetual posture of blessing, the unthinkable can happen in terms of fruits, when we, in the words of Isaiah, “learn to do right.”
This inspires me to pivot from Jonathan Edwards to Mother Teresa after I finish Christian Charity or The Duty of Charity to the Poor, Explained and Enforced tomorrow.
So, as this Thanksgiving weekend draws to a close, and as I prepare to return to work after a weekend of rest and giving thanks, I ask God to help me to “learn to do right” perpetually rather than expect “others” to act.
I hope this insight moves you too. Not that you are not doing right. I am sure you are. I am trying as well. But the key is not to stop regardless of the situation or the internal mental objections we have explored.
There is need all around us due to everything from brokenness and stupidity. In response, we must not retire, regress, retreat, or reason our inactivity.
Let’s move forward multiply good and faithful stewards and boldly trusting God to supply. When we bless others and then graciously teach them how to live, we multiply ourselves in the process.
This place of boldly trusting is where I find myself. I learned GTP is positioned to get a $1.25 million grant (that is not a typo) in 2024 but we have to hit funding markers by 31 December 2023.
And they are large. Praying for about $250,000. But God is bigger. Let me know if you want to know more information about this and want to make an asset transfer or other complex gift to help.
Or just talk to the LORD and give as He leads here.