Answer:
There’s a balance needed. Christians need to be both generous and shrewd with their charitable giving. The Bible says,
2 Cor 9:9 “Godly people give generously to the poor”
But Paul also says:
2 Cor 8:20-21 “…we are anxious that no one should find fault with the way we are handling this generous gift. 21 We are careful to be honorable before the Lord, but we also want everyone else to know we are honorable.” NLT
In context, Paul was talking about an offering to be delivered to the Jerusalem church from Gentile churches hundreds of miles away. I suspect they encountered many hundreds of needy people along the way back to Jerusalem. Should they give to them because they asked? No, Paul specifically takes several others along for accountability so that they know the money goes to where it was given – to the truly needy and through a relief system the people trusted.
But it’s hard to know who is truly needy. We have something they didn’t have in Bible times. We have economic freedoms AND a gov’t sponsored safety net that both mitigate poverty in significant ways.
In places in Africa still today, where you have no economic or political freedoms, and where you are under the thumb of horrible abuse of Powers, who sometimes tax you to death or set up unjust systems or who bankrupt the economy… the average person cannot get ahead. The vast majority of people in bible times would have been living just like this. Their poverty would have nothing to do with their work ethic or character but rather their circumstances.
But in America, it’s really hard to look at a poor person and NOT think about their work ethic or character BECAUSE we have so much freedom and help here. We look at needy folks and we KNOW there are jobs to be had, or a gov’t safety net to be leaned on or SOMETHING, so how can anyone be truly needy? In comparison to the needy poor in Malawi, the bum on any American street is LADEN with opportunities.
HOWEVER, the biblical commands about the poor never have such qualifiers in them. And sometimes I think we can justify our own stinginess with the poor by asking too many questions about a particular person’s neediness (read: “worthiness”) for our gifts.
So the middle of this road, for me, is to realize that sometimes, I’m just called to meet a need presented to me, without asking too many questions about what the person will do with this, or whether I’ll see good fruit in their life out that gift. That’s me micro managing God’s money too much. At the same time, I’m not going to spend God’s money in a stupid way but an honorable way, as Paul sought to do. That means, most of the time, doing just a little research to see where best to divert money to the truly needy poor and not risk giving my limited charity to someone who may be making $200 a day on a street corner.
I don’t feel guilty about passing those people by. The only exception to this, is if I’m directly approached by a stranger, I will think twice about whether it’s right to give to them. I know many Christians have a wonderful habit of giving such a person a meal instead of cash, which ensures both that the gift isn’t abused AND creates a chance for relationship. But we always have to be shrewd. When I was in Malawi, we couldn’t give to every poor person who approached us, because if we did, we’d be horribly unfair. We can’t give 10 bucks to this kid and zero to his friend. That would do more harm than good.
So the best thing in Africa (especially with the wide spread corruption in gov’t) was to give to the poor and needy in an organized way, through church based systems that were on the ground. They (just like AC3 Seeds of Grace ministry) have systems for fair distribution of money and appropriate qualifiers for people to receive it. That’s why the church is often a far more effective tool in combating poverty. The church not only hands out AID, but it’s a fixture in the community and so is motivated to build community infrastructure and relationships to achieve long term impact. In contrast, secular efforts like BAND AID came to Ethiopia packing 300 million dollars, spilled that money all over the country, did some good, and split within 12 months. No systems are usually bought with that scattered aid, just a bunch of “fish” thrown on the ground – a mad scramble ensues, people often get hurt or even killed. And no one learns "how to fish".
The church meanwhile, works and prays to see “the Kingdom come” – to work on the ground to see the year of Jubilee come, where lasting release from the afflictions of poverty and disease and oppression take root; where we apply physical aid and the spiritual aid of the Gospel to the wounds which often drive poverty.
So being shrewd about God’s money is very appropriate, as the Master taught us to be shrewd (Luke 16:8). And above all, we must learn to be generous givers because “he who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” Prov 14:31 NIV
