Some Christian denominations like to focus on helping the poor. Paul did say that we should “Remember the poor” (Gal 2:10), but, there should be no doubt that his primary focus has always been on the Gospel. I believe these denominations are ashamed of the gospel and want to be a “friend of the world” (James 4:4) so they deliberately shift their focus from the gospel to helping the poor. Doing this not only undermines the gospel, but also is not what Paul meant when he said to “remember the poor”.
These people need to remember the story about the prostitute pouring perfume on Jesus’ feet: (John 12:3) Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?” Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. “For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”
“For you will always have the poor with you”. This is the operative message here for us about the poor. Fact is, most poor people DESERVE to be poor (at least in the US). Why? Because they don’t learn from their mistakes. For example, if a poor person were to suddenly get a windfall of money, what do they do with it? Unfortunately, most would use the money for a luxury item, drugs, throwing a party or trying to double the value by gambling. In the end, they end up with nothing. We all do stupid things with money, but the important thing to do is to LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKE. Many people just don’t do this, because their pride won’t let them. Therefore, they make the same mistakes over and over. People who learn from their mistakes don’t stay poor for long. This is why Jesus said “you will always have the poor”.
What Jesus was saying in context was that churches should focus on the GOSPEL, not the poor. Help the poor, yes, but PREACH THE GOSPEL. In this quote from Jesus, we see that he reminds them, “you will not always have me”, implying that he was going to the cross soon, and the focus should be on HIM and on HIM crucified. These churches err by focusing on the poor. After all, isn’t that what leftists focus on? They are saying to the leftist: “Hey, we care about the poor too!”, trying to have fellowship with them. This is ultimately a futile attempt to get leftists to attend church. We know it’s futile because these types of churches are losing members rapidly, while churches that focus on the gospel, are still going strong.
This attempt to be friends with the world by focusing on the poor is futile also because the world is an ENEMY of Jesus. From James 4:4 “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. They think they can attract people to their church by “virtue signaling” like the world does. They do not understand that this “virtue signaling” is just self righteousness. How easy is it to be like Judas and take money that is not his and give it to the poor. Judas was just virtue signaling that he thought that Mary’s actions were a waste and HE would have given the money from the sale of the perfume to the poor. This is the “righteousness” of the world, talking someone else’s money and giving SOME of it to the poor.
Oh yea….on a side note, the ideologies of the left ALL depend on this principal: taking what is not theirs, and keeping some of it, and giving what is left over to the poor. This is why they focus on the poor, so they can take, or steal by force, money that is not theirs and use the plight of the poor as the excuse, AKA virtue signaling.
