Poverty, though
not of itself a disease, may be seen as an affliction of pandemic proportions
in the human race. It is rarely something a person may consciously or purposely
choose. While it is true that an individual’s conduct may contribute to and
ultimately bring about his poverty and undoing, overall it is safe to say that
poverty is a condition experienced by a large portion of humanity, and over
which they have little or no control. It is at this level that our text makes
its exhortation to our hearts. It is a fact of human behaviour that a
difference of preference and partiality, is made towards the status (real or
perceived) of any one particular person we may meet. Poor people and rich
people exist equally all over the world and are treated differently, as if
their financial status actually gives them more or less worth as a person! We
may all rationalise that this is not correct, but in our natural response to
individuals, we all mostly fall into the same trap of attributing the quality
of our attention, interest, service to people, in line with what we perceive
their ‘status’ to be. Tests have been conducted by richer individuals,
purposely dressing down to look as paupers, to verify this inbuilt human
negligence, and see how differently they were treated by those they met. We are
very much geared to what our eyes see and what we perceive of people, and to
that degree we give them trust, attention and place. Sadly this oddity
continues to plague us as believers also. In fact to some degree we may be even
guiltier of this neglect, for another dimension is added to us when we are
Christians. There is such thing as spiritual poverty. Those who are not yet
converted are spiritually afflicted, lacking, and in need. It is true to say
that not only from a physical, financial standpoint, but also from a spiritual
one, we can lack in the kind of love required of us, to give and support our
fellow man, without regards to his status! If meeting the need of a financially
poor person means sharing our financial wealth with them, then meeting the need
of a spiritually impoverished individual, means sharing our spiritual wealth
with them! Yet it is at this level that we can fail, and despise those around
us, forgetting that without Jesus, and what He has provided for us spiritually
and physically, we would be no better than the person we are viewing! Such
despising or as the text implies, preferential treatment of others, is deemed
sin before God, something we must repent of and desist from! May the Lord help
us to never be guilty of despising the poor, but rather stretch forth a helping
hand, whether we perceive them to be needy in a socio-economic sense or in the
even more relevant spiritual sense of soul poverty.
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion
