Galatians 2:10. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
The Apostles didn’t add anything to Paul’s gospel (v. 11), but they did ask him to “remember the poor” of Jerusalem and Judea. A terrible famine was raging in Judea at this time, and the Apostles were asking Paul to seek help from the Gentile churches for the Jewish saints. This was something that Paul was eager to do.
But what makes “remembering the poor” different from the works of the law that Paul was objecting to—such as laws concerning food, circumcision, purity rites, and holy days? Helping the poor is an Old Testament law, isn’t it? It is in the Torah too, right?
Deuteronomy 15:7–8. If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.
So why isn’t helping the needy also a “work of the law” that should be condemned?
The truth is that we can make any good work into a “work of the law,” can’t we? We can try to earn our righteousness—our favor with God—through any number of good deeds. This is a matter of the heart, and God sees the heart.
The question is always one of faith: Is the good work being done from faith in what Christ has already accomplished, or is it being done in order to earn something from Christ? Again, this is a matter of the heart. Are you helping the poor because you believe that Christ helped you when you were poor and needy, or are you helping them because you feel the need to prove yourself to God?
Beyond this, unlike practices such as circumcision, eating kosher, or keeping the Sabbath, helping the poor transcends any single culture. Helping the poor is not a “Jewish thing”; it is a human thing. It doesn’t make you more Jewish—it makes you more human. Gentiles helping Jews only serves to break down walls and restore unity to mankind, which is the very thing Christ did when he died for all the poor and powerless.
2 Corinthians 8:9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
You: When you have helped the poor, what has been your heart’s posture?
You in Christ: What does our need for union with Christ say about our own spiritual poverty?
Christ in you: How does Christ in you want to remember the poor today?
Prayer: Father, all You have ever done for me has been an act of the rich (You) helping the poor (me). Help me seek to help others in need by your grace. Amen.
