{"id":417,"date":"2014-10-08T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=417"},"modified":"2014-09-30T04:19:15","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T04:19:15","slug":"matthew-61-4-giving-to-the-needy-inductive-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/10\/matthew-61-4-giving-to-the-needy-inductive-studies.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 6:1-4; Giving to the Needy (Inductive Studies)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen you give to the needy…\u201d Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount. This simple introductory phrase is striking both for its assumption and its audience.<\/p>\n

The audience first: We must remember that at the time Jesus sat down to deliver this teaching, he was speaking to two groups of people. Closest to him were a gathering of unnamed disciples, which undoubtedly included Peter, James, John, and Andrew, and may have included up to 72 others (see Matthew 10:1-4 and Luke 10:1-24). Ringing these disciples and listening in on Jesus\u2019 teaching were \u201clarge crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan\u201d (see Matthew 4:25 and 7:28). Knowing what we know of the demographics of Jesus\u2019 disciples and the population of Israel at the time of Jesus, we can say with near certainty that these two groups of people represented pretty much every economic and social strata of the time: rich and poor, working class and unemployed, Jew, gentile and Samaritan, sick and healthy, young and old.<\/p>\n

Second: With that enormously diverse audience in mind, it\u2019s important to acknowledge Jesus\u2019 assumptive obligation for everyone in the \u201clarge crowd\u201d who heard his words:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen<\/em> you give to the needy\u2026\u201d (italics mine).<\/p>\n

Note that Jesus didn’t say \u201cIf you give\u201d or \u201cIf you are rich enough to give\u201d or \u201cWhen you are not in need yourself and so you give\u2026\u201d or even a hypothetical \u201cSuppose someday that you give to the needy\u2026\u201d He said \u201cWhen<\/em> you give.\u201d His expectation was that every one of his hearers, regardless of economic or social status, was already engaged in the practice of regularly giving to the poor. (This expectation was also displayed in Luke\u2019s gospel when Jesus commended a poverty-stricken widow for giving two minuscule coins; see Luke 21:1-4.)<\/p>\n

Giving to the needy then, by Jesus\u2019 standards, doesn’t appear to be a voluntary task. Nor does it seem to be a responsibility of only the wealthy. Nor an occasional option for when we feel we have surplus resources. The expectation here is obvious:<\/p>\n

Christ\u2019s followers are givers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For them, giving is not out of the ordinary, not a special occasion. It is, instead, a normal, mundane part of life, expressed by constant preparation for new opportunities to give. Thus, those who follow Jesus are expected to be constantly ready to give to the needy, in big or small ways, as God provides.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n

About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n

About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen you give to the needy…\u201d Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount. This simple introductory phrase is striking both for its assumption and its audience. The audience first: We must remember that at the time Jesus sat down to deliver this teaching, he was speaking to two groups of people. Closest to him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,2],"tags":[175,16,111],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inductivestudies","category-matthew","tag-giving","tag-jesus","tag-sermon-on-the-mount"],"yoast_head":"\nMatthew 6:1-4; Giving to the Needy (Inductive Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/10\/matthew-61-4-giving-to-the-needy-inductive-studies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 6:1-4; Giving to the Needy (Inductive Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cWhen you give to the needy…\u201d Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount. 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