Justice for the Poor: The Dignity of the Poor – The Kingdom Curriculum XVIII (4)

Justice for the Poor: The Dignity of the Poor

“When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you.” Deuteronomy 24:10-13

Just because someone becomes poor doesn’t mean he stops being an image-bearer of God. The fifth commandment, which calls on us to honor our parents, also, by extension, requires that we extend dignity and honor to all people, including the poor. Exodus 22:21-24 warns us that God stands ready to come to the aid of any in need who are treated with scorn or contempt by others.

We can understand the rationale behind this. In the divine economy, poverty is regarded as a temporary condition. There will always be poor people who will require the neighborly care of the believing community; however, except for a very few cases, the poor must not remain content with their situation. Instead, they must strive, as stewards of God’s gifts and members of a larger community, to return to full and productive status in the community, that they, too, may be able to contribute to the needs of others.

This is an outlook on life and self that must be preserved and nurtured, or it can become tainted with sinful ideas concerning self-worth, future prospects, and so forth. In our text, the man who makes a loan to a poor person may indeed take his cloak as a pledge of repayment. But he may not keep that cloak when the poor man needs it, thus treating him like an animal and not a neighbor. Nor may he simply barge into the poor man’s home to demand his pledge, but must wait patiently without until the poor man gathers it up and brings it out to him.

There are many ways to honor the poor and thus work to keep them from falling into a fatalistic mindset concerning their condition. We must remind the poor that they are loved by God, have received gifts and a stewardship from Him, and, because they are our neighbors, have a duty to us, even as we do to them, to return to a status of productivity and good stewardship by every available means. We must pray with and for the poor as we serve them, and help them to envision the better realization of their inherent dignity as image-bearers of God and, where applicable, members of the household of the saints.

A man may be poor, but he does not cease being an image-bearer of God. We must render to him, therefore, all the dignity and respect which is his due.

Reading and meditating on the Law of God is every believer’s duty and privilege (Ps. 1). Order your copy of The Law of God, a compendium of the commandments and precepts of God’s Law, by going to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.