Should Christians Help Their Fellow Man?

Tom: This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment. We’re in the Book of Acts 11, and Dave, the Lord willing, we will probably finish Acts 11 today, although we’ve been know to camp on a verse for a while, so let’s see what happens. 

“And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea: Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.” There we are, the end of Acts 11.

Dave: Tom, it kind of fits in with what we were just talking about, because…

Tom: Tell people how organized we are, Dave. Do we really know what we’re doing? In other words, folks, if you think there’s a grand plan for all of our different segments and so on, I wish there were sometimes, but there’s not. We just go with what the Lord brings. People send in articles, and we say, “Hey, this looks like a good one,” and we do it.

Dave: And that letter you told me just came in.

Tom: Yeah, it did. I just read it yesterday.

Dave: Well, it’s interesting. “Every man according to his ability determined to send relief unto the brethren,” and nothing about anyone, you know, persuading them. This was an individual choice.

Tom: Mm-hmm. I don’t see any seed-faith implied in any of this.

Dave: No, you can’t find that in the Bible. And in case people don’t know what seed-faith is, that was a revelation that Oral Roberts supposedly got many years ago, and all of the positive confession people have been following it since. You sow a seed, and it will produce, you know, and you will be able to reap it a hundredfold. “The seed that you sow is money into my ministry,” says Roberts, “and then you will really reap a blessing and you will start miracles flowing.” 

I mean, I have letters from him, you know: “The seed-faith, that will start the miracles flowing in your life.” You probably remember one letter: “He’s been up all night praying for me. God has shown him 33 blessings he wants to give to me…” Wow, that’s flattering! This man of God praying all night for me, and God revealing things to him. But of course, that same letter the computer sent it out to hundreds of thousands of other people, put their names in it, as well, each one, and the same 33 blessings. So he got several hundred thousand people who get a letter and they think that Oral Roberts, this man of God, has been up all night praying for them. 

Tom, I won’t apologize for saying the man is a liar. He did not pray all night for me or for anybody else; and God did not reveal 33 blessings, you know, that He would give; and of course the key to receiving these blessings: Send in your seed-faith offering! I could explain so many scams that Oral Roberts, Richard Roberts, have put out, along with many others. And yet, Tom, how do they continue to honor these people? You know, 900-foot Jesus talks to him for seven hours. He’s either lying, or he was hallucinating, or it was a demon—there really was some 900-foot tall thing. 

But anyway, getting off the subject here. But these people didn’t need some seed-faith promise.

Tom: No gimmicks.

Dave: No saying, “Well, let’s take it. Instead of giving it to your children, give it to the apostles and the elders and so forth, the people in Jerusalem.”

Let me read it again: “Every man according to his ability….” And, Tom, that reminds me: How many times have we heard someone on TBN, for example, or some so-called Christian radio or TV show, and, “Even if you don’t have the money, charge it to your credit card! God will repay you.” That’s not what they’re doing here. “According to their ability, they determined in their hearts,” nobody is twisting their arm, “and they gave willingly as the Lord guided them.” It’s rather interesting…

Tom: Dave, I just remembered, last week when we were at a church speaking, remember the pastor said, when he was asking for an offering to support the conference and so on, he said, “Now, we don’t want any grumpy money. You give joyfully to the Lord. Don’t give us any grumpy money,” which is true!

Dave: Yeah, that was good. Anyway, “In these days,” v. 27 begins—well, what are these days? Well, there’s been a persecution. The disciples have been scattered, and of course they’re not hiding out, they’re preaching; we saw that last week. The Gentiles are believing, and they have been called Christians now—the first mention of this word in the Bible—and now there comes a famine. 

Now, there are still some believers, followers of Christ, followers of “the way,” they are called, back in Jerusalem. And apparently Jerusalem was going to be more hard-hit, or at least a very difficult place for believers, followers of Christ, to make a living, because of the prejudice against them. And so now these believers are sending some support back to them. That would be from Antioch—this is where the disciples were first called Christians. This is where, remember, Barnabas has seen great blessing, and he doesn’t try to be the hero and keep it all to himself and take credit for it; he calls for Saul, Saul of Tarsus, who is becoming Paul the apostle. And so it is Saul and Barnabas—interesting that he is still called Saul—Saul and Barnabas, who are chosen by the elders at Antioch to take this money back to Jerusalem. It was a perilous journey in those days, all kinds of brigands and robbers along the way. So we get an example here. 

You know, the church should be the primary agency, let’s say—wrong word—but for caring for Christians. We are supposed to love one another, care for one another, and meet one another’s needs, and we see that happening here. They didn’t have Social Security, they didn’t have social programs, and the church took care of them. 

And furthermore, going back to that question we had before, you are supposed to care for your own. And so Paul, when he writes to Timothy, says, “Widows, they’re widows indeed if they don’t have children or grandchildren [or whatever] who could care for them, then the church will support them.” But the church is not going to encourage people in not facing their own responsibilities. And if they have family, that family should take care of this elderly widow. Don’t push that off on the church; you have a personal responsibility. Then if that is not sufficient, then it goes to the church.

Tom: Dave, that’s so important, because we have seen over the years not only the church in terms of a social gospel, social action, try to do this to the world, yet the church has responsibility and accountability. In other words, they can for other believers, say, “Hey, this is what the Word of God says. You need to do it this way or that way.” But we don’t have that kind of say over the world.

Dave: Tom, you raise a very good point, and we may get some letters from people who disagree with us. We’re not saying that Christians shouldn’t do good to all. The Bible does say, “Do good to all.” And this was one of the major efforts behind the missionary movement, because you get off in a place in a third world where people are suffering, you want to meet their need, and you contact the church back home: “Please, we need a hospital over here. We need to help these people. Send us some grain so we can show them how to plant it, and we want to give them medical attention, etc., and we want to give them some food. They need the help.” 

But this scripture lets us know you’re primary obligation is to the brothers and sisters in Christ. So we don’t read anything here…Tom, it’s interesting you raise that point: it doesn’t say they sent for the needs of the brethren plus the other people that were suffering. There must have been a lot of people who needed something, but we don’t have unlimited funds. We are first of all going to support those who are believers in Jesus, but that’s not people of “faith.” People of faith… “Oh, Buddhists, oh, they’re people of faith. Oh, Muslims, oh, they’re people of faith. Yeah, and Hindus, and…well, we’re all people of faith. We’ll all work together.” No, this is false. There’s one faith, Paul says very clearly in Ephesians 4: One faith, one Lord, one baptism, you know. So people of faith are only those who follow the true faith of Jesus Christ. And yet President Bush and—well, we had the Moral Majority, we had Pat Robinson’s organization…

Tom: Christian Right.

Dave: …people of faith, and they had Mormons and Catholics and everybody else in there. That’s not biblical. They have a false faith, and we don’t want to join with them in some social program and lead them thereby to imagine that their faith is the true faith that will lead to heaven, when in fact it will take them in the other direction.