Most of the reluctance to give is in western cultural contexts where the poor are usually the drugged or mentally insane.

In the Third World there is legitmate poverty based on social class or lack of work or handicaps. When the price of rice rises and your neighbors make less than 2 USD per day, then this verse really haunts one.

I actually taped this verse up on my wall because, as a Westerner, my heart gets a little angry at times (sinfully so) when we are always mobbed when neighbors get sick, etc. We had a dengue outbreak and many sick people came to us Also Mr. So-and-so gets into a bad motorcycle wreck and so they come to us. Rice prices rise and they come too.

We try to give unless the more loving thing to do would be NOT to give. That is our principle that seems to cover almost every situation. Loving one's neighbor means refusing to help them sometimes, but not always.

If we are running low of stuff to give, then we prioritize based on means and relationships and ask the person needing help, "Have you went to your family first... why did you come here first...what is our relationship..." and often send people to ask from their families first. Often their is a distant relative or near relative that culturally possesses a greater obligation than we do. We also try to give in cultural-appropriate ways in this way.

We also prioritize believers first. Our two most effective and faithful women evangelists were adopted into our team after we checked on their work and found that they were literally down to their last bowl of rice and had no more food at all and no money to purchase anymore (and yet they were caring for two handicapped children that their neighbors left them...the same neighbors they mobbed their house and threw rocks through their windows for trying to "Christianize" their village).

We also prioritize those "in our way" and sometimes - due to lack of resources - do not go out of our way to search for needy people. For instance, people with polio or missing limbs gather on the sides of the street in the cities here and if I pass them I can give them a cultural-appropriate amount (i.e. give them what the localy generous person would give them). Since these beggers are ALL OVER, I feel no compulsion to cross over to the other side of the street and give to each and every one, just the one closest to me, concluding that providence arranged the circumstances of our meeting.

In cases of severe medical need, we ask no questions and we seek them out and are willing to travel far to help.

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone