I desire that you remember the poor

You might know a thing or two about the apostle Paul and the amazing transformation Jesus did to his life. For those that don’t, here is the story in a nutshell.

 Paul was a jew called Saul of Tarsus, who persecuted Christians. Then one day something extraordinary happened, he had a shock of blinding light. That light was Jesus who came to his path to ask a simple question: Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me (Acts:9:4)

 Then a series of things happened, and he accepts Christ as His Savior. Now he is known as the Apostle Paul, a man of God who preached, evangelized, wrote a big portion of the New Testament, and like most of the early church was martyred. (Please don’t settle for my very condensed story of Paul, check it out for yourself in the Word of God, Acts 9).

14 years later, Paul went back to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus. In this trip, the three pillars of the Christian church: James, Cephas, and John approved the work they had been doing for the Lord. They saw the grace of God toward Paul to preach the gospel to the *Gentiles– the nonjews. Nevertheless, they did have a request.

“They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.” Gal. 2:16

 Interesting, that of all the things they could have mentioned they only said REMEMBER THE POOR...

Hmm, this calls out for a short historical and social context lesson.

In that time in history, many people left their homes to know about Christ. When they accepted Him as Savior they never came back home and to deal with this very increasing boom of Christians; the early church did something amazing; they came together as one body and shared all their resources (Acts 2:45; 4:32-27). In spite of their efforts, there were many Christians who barely had anything. To these James, John and Cephas were referring, to the poor brothers and sisters in Christ that didn’t have enough.  It was important that their need was met. End of historical/social lesson: ) 

Isn’t it interesting that they reminded Paul of something that seems like common sense, to help out our brothers and sisters in Christs?!  Sadly common sense is not so common anymore because we forget:

• To provide for the poor
• To love others expecting nothing in return
• To help out those in economic crisis, like job loss.
• To help our brothers in missions or ministry.

Not only do we forget the poor in the economy, we forget the poor in heart and Spirit. We forget to feed those that are downhearted, discouraged, broken and weak in our Christian community. Jesus came to heal and bind up wounds,“He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.” psalm 147:3.

Then why is it, that we are failing to mimic Jesus’s actions?

Paul, Barnabas, and Titus needed a reminder, “Remember the poor,” and so do we. We have a tendency to satisfy our needs before the needs of others and to preach of Jesus love, without putting it in action.

 Let us be a community of followers of Christ that LOVES  in word and in deed.

 Application:

• Pray for the Lord to open your eyes and heart to see the needs of the people in your Christian community.
• Commit to helping a family in your church community that is in need.
• Sponsor a ministry or a missionary, doesn’t matter if it’s $5 a month or $50
• Love selflessly like Christ

 Lord, Thank you for the example you have given us selfless love. You gave it all for us, even Your Son on a cross to pay for our sins. Help us, Lord to be selfless and to love as you love us day by day. Open our eyes to see the needs around us, and forgive us for the many times we could have done something for others, but we failed to do so. Light a fire of love among your people.  In your name, I pray. Amen