Over 46 million Americans...
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Over 46 million Americans live in poverty. But a poll conducted by the Center for American Progress found that 25% of us (1 in 4 Americans) say that the poor are to blame for the poverty in which they are mired. What Martin Luther once said about the social trends in his day seems to apply to us:
But now all the world seems to be learning nothing else than how to estimate values, to rake and scrape, to rob and steal by lying, deceiving, usury, overcharging, overrating, and the like; and every man treats his neighbor, not as though he were his friend, much less his brother in Christ, but as his mortal enemy, and as though he intended to snatch all things to himself and begrudge everything to others.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/1, pp. 384-385)
John Calvin pointed out that the text reminds us that "believers ought not to think their condition too hard" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVII/1, p. 176). He also sets things right about this text: "... believers are called to the possession of the kingdom of heaven, so far as relates to good works, but not because they deserved them through the righteousness of works..." (Ibid., pp. 178-179).
Calvin also adds that we never are to let people's poverty put us off about helping them: "So then, whenever we are reluctant to assist the poor, let us place before our eyes the Son of God to whom it would be base sacrilege to refuse anything" (Ibid., p. 181).
In this sense we should heed the advice of the famed French existentialist Albert Camus: "Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day." That's a good New Year's resolution.
But now all the world seems to be learning nothing else than how to estimate values, to rake and scrape, to rob and steal by lying, deceiving, usury, overcharging, overrating, and the like; and every man treats his neighbor, not as though he were his friend, much less his brother in Christ, but as his mortal enemy, and as though he intended to snatch all things to himself and begrudge everything to others.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/1, pp. 384-385)
John Calvin pointed out that the text reminds us that "believers ought not to think their condition too hard" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVII/1, p. 176). He also sets things right about this text: "... believers are called to the possession of the kingdom of heaven, so far as relates to good works, but not because they deserved them through the righteousness of works..." (Ibid., pp. 178-179).
Calvin also adds that we never are to let people's poverty put us off about helping them: "So then, whenever we are reluctant to assist the poor, let us place before our eyes the Son of God to whom it would be base sacrilege to refuse anything" (Ibid., p. 181).
In this sense we should heed the advice of the famed French existentialist Albert Camus: "Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day." That's a good New Year's resolution.
