Accountability Mixed with Grace

A few days before Christmas one year, I delivered children's gifts to a family who had requested help. These families, I was told, were unable to provide gifts for their children. I did not know the children but purchased age and gender appropriate gifts and wrapped in bright paper.

I placed the gifts under the tree with the many other gifts already there. Although I did not know this families circumstances; I did walk away with the feeling that a lack of Christmas presents was not their problem.

I was recently told of a woman who converted a spare bedroom into a large pantry that included a freezer filled with turkeys. The room served as a clandestine convenience store for her neighbors. She patiently waited in food pantry lines to restock her shelves. “You can't steal what's free,” she probably reasoned.

Stories like these can be discouraging. We want to help those in need but we don't want to facilitate abuse. We want to empower rather than enable.

Familiarity is one factor that limits abuse. The Bible tells us that the early church would support members in need. Familiarity made this easier. There were no strangers in the early church. If a person lied, they were easily caught.

When churches help their own (as we see in the book of Acts), the results both honor God and lead to spiritual fulfillment. Sadly, churches can wind up enabling people in their deceit in a rush to bring help.

The Bible teaches us three important principles:

1. People ought to work for their food.
2. There will always be poor.
3. We identify with Jesus when we serve the poor

We must use discernment to determine when and how to act. Discernment allows us to mix grace with accountability; a formula that leads to spiritual success for both the helper and the person receiving aid.

Do You Want To Get Well?

Offering help is complicated. Jesus once encountered a paralytic by the pool at Bethesda (John 5:1-15). He had been in this condition for 38 years but no one would take him into the healing waters. Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

Is this an insensitive question to ask this poor man? It may have addressed some other questions people had but would not voice.
“Why doesn’t he crawl?”
“Why didn’t his friends help him?”
“Where is his family?”

Jesus’ question cut to the very center of the man’s heart and exposed the motives that lay deep within. He had relied upon others to make his way in life. He would no longer have an excuse for the condition of his life. Healing would mean he would need to work and assume responsibilities.

Questions bring clarity and help us to understand the real need. Jesus asked many questions.
“Who do you say that I am?”
“Why do you call me good?”
"Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
“Do you want to get well?”

Jesus often involved the person in the process of healing. He told a blind man to wash in the pool of Siloam (JN 9:7) and ten lepers to go the priest (LK 17:11-19). It seems to me that an individual seeking help needs to work harder than those who are offering help. Otherwise, wouldn’t our “help” actually be enabling. Jesus the told this man, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

Another wrinkle is added when Jesus tells the man, “See, you are well. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

Jesus is reminding us that crisis situations tend to have a spiritual dimension. To another paralytic Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven,” before healing him (MT 9:6).

A person seeking help has opened up a door for ministry. The church, both gathered and scattered, is a source of blessing to everyone who is in need. We must be good stewards not just of the resources provided to us by God through His people but, also, of the opportunity to have a life-changing impact on a person’s life through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Offering help is complicated but asking questions, empowering the person to help themselves, and being mindful of the person’s spiritual condition can lead to a blessed outcome.