The ubiquitous presence of the poor is the subject of much church work today. They are everywhere, but this is nothing new. Jesus made the assertion 2000 years ago, and things haven’t changed much since then. Where has the church been all these years? Why hasn’t poverty been stamped out by now? Have the teachings of Christ been inadequate or the ability of His followers been lacking?

The fact of poverty’s existence today testifies to the truth of Jesus’ statement. This could be taken as the wise observation of a Jewish prophet who looks back on 1500 years of Jewish existence as the people of God and sees that no measurable gain had been made in relieving the daily hardships of the  poor. Jesus was more than a social reformer, as the Biblical context of this statement shows. Feeding and clothing the poor is secondary to honoring Christ. Yet, the poor still continue on.

We live in a fallen, broken world. I once spent a year, once a month, helping a poor couple with their finances, setting up a budget and teaching them financial principles, only to have them disregard it when the tax return arrived.  They used the money to replace their TV with a bigger, newer one—and this despite the fact that their car was in poor repair. The poor you will always have. This doesn’t mean we should not help people, but we need to recognize that our efforts cannot be predicated upon the expectation that we will eliminate poverty. We continue to reach out and help, and not get discouraged, because we already know from the lips of Jesus that the poor will always be with us… but we help them out anyway.

But the poor can include those whose poverty involves things other than lack of finances. Some people are poor in social skills, intelligence, common sense, mental health, emotional balance or life skills. Some have a poverty of wholesome, healthy upbringing. Some have a poverty of health. Poverty comes in many different forms. And the poor you will always have.

It is easy to become discouraged in our efforts to help the poor, the problems seem never ending, our meager help gets lost in the vortex of the overwhelming needs. What’s the use when poverty of our spirit sets in, and we lose the drive to serve others. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  So, we buoy up our spirit as we put God and His kingdom first. We have to, for the poor we will always have with us.