Paul and James: The Poor

Noted elsewhere in these discussions, Paul and James meet each other perhaps up to three times during the course of their respective careers. As Paul attests from those meetings, James has a heart for the poor great enough to call Paul also to attend to their needs. And Paul indicates his own responsive eagerness to do so. Gal. 2:9-10.

James: Visiting the poor

James uses two distinct terms speaking of the poor: one term relates to those desperately poor, beggarly, depending on the mercies of others. He highlights, for example, the disenfranchised orphans and widows of his day as proper recipients of pure religion. Jas. 1:27.

His other term for the poor carries a meaning related to people not so desperately poor, nonetheless, to people of quite modest means. They do not depend upon charity, but their work today yields bread on the table tomorrow. Failure to receive their just wages timely causes considerable hardship. 5:4.

James speaks against discrimination of the desperately poor in the congregation. 2:2-4. These folks wear shabby clothing, they would be shunted aside in the assemblies. Within the context of the scripture, one can see easily enough that these poor people would include the orphans and widows mentioned a couple of verses earlier. 1:27.

Indeed, rather than to push them away, true religion, by God’s standard anyway, seeks out these people and attends to their needs. James indicates that God calls those professing religion “to visit” orphans and widows in their affliction. The term “visit” has the same root that in other biblical passages relates to the day of God’s visitation (1 Pt. 2:12), or to elders as overseers (visitors) of the congregation (Acts 20:28), or even to the “eldership” or “episcopacy” itself (1 Tim. 3:1). The task of church leadership, of service, is one of visiting and attending to the needs of people.

The goal of biblical visitation, consequently, is not merely to while away the time with someone, but to visit with deliberate intent: to assess need and to render appropriate aid. Visiting the orphans and widows draws the visitor to attend to these folks’ need, to help provide clothing or food or shelter. To be noted, the visit is “proactive” not just “reactive.” God’s religion, James assures us, is a visiting religion. He does not describe it as a waiting religion.

James uses this very notion in his discussion of faith and works. He asks how useful pious words may be in place of actual food or clothing for those lacking necessities of the body. 2:14-16. If people need food or clothing, they need food or clothing. No amount of spiritual sounding talk will substitute. Now, to be exegetically clear, James engages this matter to draw an analogy concerning faith and works: faith without works is as useful to salvation as fine sounding words without food are useful to fill an empty belly. 2:14, 17.

James considers the desperately poor to be especially ready for belief and love for God, so as to become heirs of the kingdom. Jas. 2:5. God has chosen them for this very thing. We may not see it a fair trade (faith instead of financial security) … but this sense of unfairness betrays a poverty of faith on our part. So to speak. God reckons two copper coins worth more than vast gold reserves (Mk. 12:43). Faith concerns reliance on what may not be seen; the desperately poor must rely wholly on the Provider they cannot see, and on his yet unseen provision.

In order to maintain respect for God, common Hebrew usage often references him indirectly. James (thoroughly Jewish) follows that custom, notably at 1:12 as he says the person enduring testing/temptation will receive the crown of life which “he promised” to those who love “him.” Now, who did the promising? Who is the “him” the tested one loves? It is never stated directly: nevertheless, it is understood that God promised, and, that they love God.

Just so, James insists people of humble means find joy in their exaltation. 1:9. He does not explicitly say what or who exalts them, yet, clearly God is the source of that uplifting. God exalts through his salvation, rendering them fit for his kingdom. He exalts through his congregation, securing them honor among the more privileged faithful. 2:1, 6, 13.

Just because people of modest means have little power in society, the privileged are not to take advantage of them. They should be paid their fair wages for the work they do (5:4). James accuses the privileged of unjustly withholding wages due the workers mowing their fields. Poetically, it is not the mowers who cry out for justice, but the fraudulently withheld wages that cry out to the ears of the Lord Sabaoth. (Yet, it is the cry of harvesters that rise to his ears.) Who is the Lord Sabaoth? It is God, of course, the God of heaven’s terrible armies.

Thus, God also exalts the poor by rendering his justice in their behalf against the powers of society.

Paul: Remembering the poor

Paul’s discussion of aid for the poor is hardly as encompassing as James’, and certainly not as prophetic. At the same time, it is unequivocal: in his mission, Paul is ready to remember the poor. Gal. 2:10. This remembrance, clearly, does not stand as an intellectual memory of poor people but is a means by which to secure help for the desperately poor.

(Parenthetically, though the Galatian letter has no mention of it, other biblical witnesses speak of occasions when Paul and his company are highly involved in securing resources for people in dire straits. Acts 11:29-30; Rom. 15:25; 1 Cor. 16:1-4; 2 Cor. 8-9; Phlm. Often and incorrectly confused with poverty, Paul also provides a corrective related to sloth (not to poverty!): 1 Ths. 5:14; 2 Ths. 3:3-12.)

Indeed, within the context of sharing in all good things with teachers of the Word, he speaks of sowing to the Spirit so as to reap eternal life. 6:6-8. If one sows to his own flesh, in contrast, he will reap rot. Paul sees teachers, that is teachers of the Word, worthy of material recompense for the spiritual teaching and benefit they provide.

As he ponders sowing, Paul calls the Galatian congregations to do “the good” for all people, whoever they may be, and especially to do the good for the household of faith. 6:9-10. “The good” has to do with the outgrowth of the fruit of the Spirit (5:22-23) in people’s lives, of course, but in this more restricted context he speaks of helping people materially, in the same manner as a student shares in all good things with the teacher.

Notably, Paul distinguishes between recipients of the good: on the one hand he speaks of doing the good to “all”, and on the other hand, he speaks of doing the good to the "household of faith." This latter group understandably are believers in Christ who have need. These are “especially” to be remembered.

But Paul recognizes a larger setting for kingdom work: even people outside the faith may benefit from the blessings God gives his people. It is noted by Paul's Lord, Jesus specifically, that God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Mt. 5:45. So why should his children do differently, if they are his children? Doing the good has to do with one’s God-reflecting character; neither does God turn his goodness off and on capriciously, nor do his children.

We find key in Paul’s mind is faith working through love, 5:6; bearing one another’s burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ, 6:2; these activities manifest the new creation. 6:15.

So, both Paul and James enjoin believers of greater means to share generously with those of more humble status. Therefore, it is good, it is mandatory in the kingdom of God to remember the poor by visiting with them honorably.