Why giving to the poor is actually giving to God

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives us valuable instructions about giving to the poor and the needy (Matthew 6:1-4).

But did you know that the roots of his teaching come from two proverbs buried deep in the Old Testament scriptures? These two biblical nuggets reveal something deeply interesting about the real recipient of our generosity and the reward that we receive.

What Jesus says about generosity

"Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." – Matthew 6:1–4 (NIV)

In the passage above Jesus talks about generous acts of giving to the poor and needy. To be honest this probably was not all that novel at the time. It was pretty standard fare in Jewish culture to give money away, and most other cultures also had generosity as a value of sorts. However, like much of Jesus’ teaching, to the one who listens more will be given (Luke (8:18).

The word Jesus uses to describe ‘give to the needy’ comes from the Greek word ‘eleos’, which means to show mercy or to show concern or compassion, but specifically to show mercy or concern with concrete acts of generosity and kindness.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus also talks about prayer and fasting, two things which are aimed towards God. They do not directly affect other people, though some might do it to be seen by others; instead they are primarily done for God to see. So, Jesus bringing in the act of giving to the poor into this triplet of spiritual disciplines makes the act of giving to the poor stick out, because who is the real audience? Is this a way of doing right by God or doing right by other people? Or maybe those two are tied together, and the way you give to people in need is the way you do right by God.

That’s where the Old Testament roots of Jesus’ thinking kicks in.

Biblical foundations for giving to the poor

Firstly there is Proverbs 14:31, which is a classic expression of the mindset Jesus is talking about: ‘Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honours God.’

In other words, how you relate to the poor is directly associated with how you relate to God. They are inextricably linked. The proverb is probably intentionally ambiguous in its language when it talks about showing ‘contempt for their Maker’ (emphasis the author’s own). Is it the oppressor’s Maker or the poor’s Maker? It’s likely both and making the reader do the thinking on this is really important. It underlines that the one who oppresses the poor and the poor themselves have the very same Maker.

If you grew up in a culture saturated in Christian values, you probably already take this attitude for granted. The secularised version is called human rights, but in biblical terms we are talking about being made in the image of God. At the time Jesus was talking this was revolutionary stuff and might still be today, although from a slightly different angle.

The important thing to note is that God identifies himself intimately with the poor. Essentially how you treat the poor is how you treat God. It's that equation which is unique to the Jewish and Christian traditions as a way of framing how you relate to the poor. The image of God invested in all humans makes any point of contact between two people an interaction with the divine.

If that does not make you think twice about how you give to the poor, there's another proverb a few chapters later which riffs on a very similar theme. Proverbs 19:17 reads: ‘Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.’

Here we see that God will repay the one who gives to the poor. It’s very close to the language that Jesus uses for his Sermon on the Mount, and it seems highly likely that Jesus had this proverb in mind when he talks about how we should give to the needy and what we should expect in return.

To put it in other words, somebody who shows generosity to the poor is essentially giving the money to the Lord. That should completely reframe our charitable giving. When we give to those less fortunate than ourselves, we are showing direct generosity to God. That is an interesting, provocative concept and something we should include when talking with others about our generosity.

Generosity is an act of trust in God

This is where the rubber hits the road in terms of giving our money away. Our recent Generosity Report offered an insight into this view, showing that only half of people trust their church and only a third trust Christian charities to spend well the money donated to them.

If we realise that giving is an act of trust in God and that he will reward us, then we might stop asking questions about the validity of our gifts, or whether charities helping the poor will use our money well. The Lord identifying himself with the most poor and vulnerable people in our communities probably should be enough of a reason to take stock of our view.

In the old Greek Septuagint translation of Proverb 19:17, the word covering the phrase ‘kind to the poor’ is the same root Greek word that Jesus uses: ‘eleos’. Jesus is expressing the long-held view of God’s people – that when there's somebody in my community who's in need, how I relate to them is essentially a demonstration of how I relate to God.

Powerful stuff.

That line of thought right there was so radical in the life of the Church that it formed the seedbed for many of the organisations that we take for granted today, like hospitals, orphanages and even schools and foodbanks. All of these Christian contributions to Western civilisation are based off this value: that doing righteousness, doing right by God, is directly connected to how you relate to the poor and the vulnerable in your own community.

That’s why giving to the poor is actually giving to God, and he will reward you.

More on the Generosity Report

If you're interested in learning more, dive into the full report to explore the rich data and inspiring stories of generosity within the Christian community.

READ THE REPORT