Category Archives: Poverty

Was Jesus destitute?

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It is often assumed (especially around Christmas-time – cue smelly stable) that Jesus was born and raised in poverty, and that his ministry focussed very much on the economically disadvantaged.

Ian Paul draws our attention to this homily:

‘This Christmas why not ask the gift to love the poor more deeply, with an abiding and deep affection? For poverty and neediness are an intrinsic aspect of the Infancy narratives. The first Christmas was anything but charming or sentimental.

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Reading While Black – 4

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Chapter four is subtitled: ‘The Bible and the Pursuit of Justice.’

The burden of this chapter

‘is to outline the ways in which the Gospel of Luke contains a vision for the just society transformed by the advent of God that speaks to the hearts of Black Christians.’

Luke was a Gentile Christian.  As such, his very place in the Christian community would have been a matter of some controversy at first.

Luke’s Gospel reflects the resolution of this early controversy by heralding the fulfilment of God’s age-old plan to create an international, multi-ethnic people for his own glory.…

What the Bible teaches about material possessions

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Towards the end of his thorough survey of biblical teaching on money and possessions, Craig Blomberg draws the following conclusions:-

1.  Material possessions are a good gift from God meant for his people to enjoy

God created a good world, desires that all have at least some property, and blessed Israel with material possessions in response to their obedience.  Job, Abraham, David and Solomon demonstrate that riches and godliness can co-exist, if sometimes precariously.  Wisdom literature teaches that wholesome work is rewarded materially. …

Recent Christian thinking on wealth and poverty

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Historically, Christians have often distinguished themselves from their surrounding cultures by championing the cause of the poor.

Since the Second World War, Western countries have experienced very considerable economic growth and corresponding affluence.  At the same time, the general population of the world has expanded hugely, leading to an alarming increase in poverty.

Christian thinking and action has not always kept pace with these global changes.

One response to these trends began in the late 1960s with liberation theology. …

Three approaches to poverty

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1. The rational approach. Of the world’s nearly 6 billion inhabitants, ¼ live in severe poverty. An estimated 1.3 billion people survive on less than the equivalent of $1 per day. Nearly a billion are illiterate. About 840 million go hungry or face food insecurity.

a) We take for granted our access to clean tapped water. But in the developing world only 68% of the population have access to safe drinking water; in the leaste developed countries this drops to 38%.…

Options for rich Christians

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John Stott outlines three options for rich Christians.

Become poor

It might be supposed that 2 Cor 8:9 teaches this. Consider also:-

(a) The example of Jesus. He was born into a poor home. He had no home and few possessions. ‘He taught from a borrowed boat, rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey, spent his last evening in a borrowed room, and was buried in a borrowed tomb. He and his disicples shared a common purse, and depended for their support on a group of women who sometimes accompanied them.…