Bring in the Poor

¹² And he also said to the one who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or wealthy neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and repayment come to you. ¹³ But whenever you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, because they are not able to repay you. For it will be paid back to you at the resurrection of the righteous.” Luke 14:12–14

Good afternoon and welcome to the Panhandle. Well we are done with school for the summer. Now the work really begins, Vacation Bible School, Girl’s Camp, Boy’s Camp, Youth Camp and before you know it it’s time for school to start. But at least for right now there is a bit of a break.

Today’s post of Christ Jesus’ General Commands was a tough one. “Bring in the Poor,” what did Christ Jesus mean by this. As I worked on this I didn’t find much written about these verses.

What I did find was that this Command of Christ Jesus is a call for hospitality. So what is hospitality? It is the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Arnold H. Glasow (famous businessman) once said, “Some folks make you feel at home. Others make you wish you were.” So come on in, sit down and let’s look at God’s Word.

The reason Christ Jesus made this statement was because He knew that the host of the party He was attending had invited his guests for two reasons: (1) to pay them back because they had invited him to past feasts, or (2) to put them under his debt so that they would invite him to future feasts. Their so called “hospitality” was not an expression of love and grace but rather an evidence of pride and selfishness. The host was “buying” recognition.

In Christ Jesus' day, it was not considered proper to ask poor people and handicapped people to public banquets. The women were not invited either. This led Christ Jesus to tell us how we should conduct ourselves, not only in our church gatherings, but also at our tables and in our personal lives.

We see in many cases, that a person’s pride can be their undoing. Christ Jesus teaches here in these verses, that true works of brotherly love done without any kind of fanfare are better than works done strictly for show show. Christ Jesus never taught that acts of generosity should be done expecting a reward, but that the act it’s self was the reward. We should do good to those in need because of our love for Christ Jesus.¹

Our motive for sharing must be the praise of God and not the applause of men, the eternal reward in heaven and not the temporary recognition on earth. On the day of judgment, many who today are first in the eyes of men will be last in God’s eyes, and many who are last in the eyes of men will be first in the eyes of God (Luke 13:30).²

Our modern world is very competitive, and it is easy for God’s people to become more concerned about profit and loss than they are about sacrifice and service. “What will I get out of it?” may have easily become life’s most important question these days. We must strive to maintain the unselfish attitude that Christ Jesus had and share what we have with others.³ Why do we do this? Just because, because it's the right thing to do.

Thanks for dropping by, I pray that our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus watch care over you and yours.

Biblesurfer

1Matthew Henry Concise Bible Commentary

2 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 229–230). Victor Books.

3 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 229–230). Victor Books.