How do you define “Poor?”

 What is your attitude toward the “Poor?”

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.
Deuteronomy 15:11

The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.
Matthew 26:11

When I begin to write about something, one of the first things I do is look up the definition. I looked up the definition of “poor.” There are 16 different definitions when the word is used as an adjective like poor food, poor health, poor audience, or poor dog. You know how many definitions there are as a noun? One. That’s when we use it in the context of “the poor.”
In scripture, the poor is mentioned many times, but a couple of verses stuck out to me. In Deuteronomy 15:11 it says, “There will always be poor people in the land.” After the lady poured the expensive perfume on Jesus’ head, He settled an argument between some of the disciples about how the perfume could have been sold and the money used to help the poor. He said in Matthew 26:11, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.” This puts us into reality. We’ve always had the poor and always will. God is not more interested in those that are not poor. He sees us all equally as his creation. What He does say is that because of Christ and His sacrifice for us, we are to help the poor.
We talk about teaching people to fish in order to feed them for life instead of just giving it to them. To some extent I believe that, but in my experience with ReConstruct, this is not always reality. We work with church groups to provide free home repairs to low-income homeowners. Because of different circumstances, some people are disadvantaged to the point that they can’t be “taught to fish” or in other words be taught to repair their homes. Therefore, we give it to them.
“The poor” will always be with us. Some can be taught to help themselves but for the most part they will need us to give them help. Isn’t that really what God wants us to do? Give?