Giving to the poor

We had an interesting time of fellowship last night with the 'small group' that meets at my house on Friday nights. The discussion was on the atonement. However, as is often the case, we strayed off topic and had several interesting discussions about various topics.

One topic in particular that has stuck with me was concerning giving money to people on the street who beg for it. In response to that discussion I did some surfing this morning to try and find some answers to my questions about giving money to beggars.

I came across 2 interesting items:

1) A paper entitled A Biblical Theology of Poverty and Almsgiving by T. David Gordon was very interesting and informative.

2) This excerpt from a John Piper sermon found by doing a search at Desiring God:

It’s the overflow of the seminar I did on Prayer, Meditation, and Fasting a few weeks ago, as I pondered what it really means to enjoy fellowship with Jesus and anticipate meeting him face to face very shortly and giving an account of the way I have thought, for example, about giving to people who ask for money. I remember, specifically, in one of those hours asking the class: Suppose you die and you’re standing before Jesus Christ, who surrendered his body to spitting and shame and torture and death so that undeserving sinners (like you and me) might be drawn into eternal joy, and he inquires how you handled the people who asked you for money - you know, panhandlers, beggars, street people, drunks, drifters. What would you say?

(Emphasis mine)I suggested to them, and I suggest to you now, you’re not going to feel very good about saying, "I never got taken advantage of. I saw through their schemes. I developed really shrewd counter-questions that would expose them. So I hardly ever had to give anything." Do you know what I think the Lord Jesus is going to say to that - the Lord Jesus, the consummately, willingly, abused and exploited Jesus? I think he is going to say, "That was an exquisite imitation of the world. Even sinners give to those who deserve to be given to. Even sinners pride themselves on not being taken advantage of." Well this message is a spillover of some of those thoughts. (emphasis mine)