Editorial May 29, 1971 Issue

Giving to the Poor

Carl J. Welz

If you have a million dollars and decide to give it to the poor, what is the best way to give it? Pick out a million of the world's poor and give each one a dollar, and they will be able to buy food for a few meals. Then the money will be gone. But invest the million dollars in a business that will produce needed goods for the poor, and at the same time will provide work for many who would not otherwise have work, and the giving begins to take on a semblance of wisdom. If the goods that are produced for the poor are such as to enable them to find the means to sustain themselves and their families, the wisdom in the giving becomes even more evident.

Sometimes when a church undertakes a building project, the complaint is heard, "Why not forgo this project in this time of need and give the money to the poor?" The question is a good one. It makes us think through our project to see whether it is an investment in Christian giving or whether it is self-indulgence. Will the effect of this new building project be an increasing flow to those in need of things most essential to their well-being, or will it be simply a place of greater ease and self-satisfaction for members at times of worship?

Christ Jesus gave the spirit or purpose of his mission when he quoted from the book of the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."^{Luke 4:18, 19;} From any practical standpoint these represent the needs of mankind: an understanding of the truth of being to give men courage and hope, comfort to those who are despondent or discouraged, deliverance from bondage to sin or disease, healing to those who cannot see or who do not see what God is to man and what man is to God, freedom to those who are bruised by prejudice or selfishness, an understanding of the immediacy of God's perfect love. These are necessities money can buy very little of, but the Christ, Truth, can supply them all.