Eternal duties towards the poor.

David Brattston's earlier article was entitled "Avarice and Greed. " It appeared in March (pp. 39-40) and covered the views of prominent Christian writers in the early Church. He now reflects on the flip side of these two vices, namely the Christian's duty towards the poor.--Editor

Christians have a serious obligation to respect and provide for the poor and needy. This is not just the idea of the modern-day Catholic Church but was an essential teaching of Christianity in its first two centuries, at a time before it was divided into present-day denominations, a time when most Christians today believe that the Holy Spirit was still guiding the Church. This obligation is no less binding now that Catholics and other Christians are in the majority and can influence governments. (Editor: The author's [Protestant] interpretation that the Holy Spirit guided the "Church" only for a couple of centuries and then departed, is not to be believed. The Church Founded by Christ is the Catholic Church of today. The obligation to provide for the poor has been an essential belief of the Catholics throughout the ages.)

The first generations of Christians, those referred to in this article, were much closer in time, geography and culture to the Lord Jesus than we are in 21st-century Canada. They also wrote down many of His sayings and teachings that are not in the New Testament, which means that a study of their writings should lead us to a fuller knowledge of both the content and the spirit of the precepts relating to how He wants us to regard the poor and poverty. The unity in their teaching by a wide a variety of Christian writers in a great diversity of geographical locations indicates that their beliefs and practices regarding the poor stemmed from a common earlier source, and that source could only have been Jesus or His apostles.

How not to treat the poor

Of course, many passages in the Bible encourage private help to the needy, giving on a one-to-one basis, without public involvement. However, the New Testament itself and the earliest tradition as recorded by the first generations of Christians show that there were and are much wider duties which permeate(d) the lives of Christians in their public and private capacities.

Starting with the negative side, with what Christians were forbidden to do, early Christian literature is full of statements about how not to treat the poor. The New Testament itself rhetorically asks "if anyone has this world's good and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?" (1)

At least three other early Christian writings condemn turning away a person in want: one writing was a first- or second-century Syrian or Palestinian church manual, (2) another was the related Letter of Barnabas of about the same era, (3) and the third was by Tertullian, a Church Father who lived around A.D. 200 in what is now Tunisia. (4) In the same vein as the Scripture quoted above, the church father Origen in Palestine sometime between A.D. 238 and 244 chastised those who have money yet similarly shut their hearts. (5)

Nobody ought to oppress the poor, according to The Shepherd of Hermas, (6) a book written in the City of Rome in the early- or mid-second century by a Christian whom some scholars believe to be a brother of Pope Plus I. Agreeing with him in this were Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons in France writing in the A.D. 180s, (7) and an early third-century manual for clergy and laity. (8) Origen also said that we should not despise or abase the poor, (9) or shame their faces. (10) It was (and is) forbidden to view economic marginality as a due punishment, say for laziness: the church father Clement of Alexandria, who flourished in Egypt as the dean of Christianity's foremost educational institution in the A.D. 190s, wrote that "those who have paid the penalty of protracted penury should not suffer a life-long punishment." (11)

Positive duties

Christian authors in the first two centuries of the church spoke also of positive duties, especially by the wealthy, to help the poor; these included Hermas, (12) Origen, (13) 1 Clement (a first-century letter believed by some to have been written by Pope Clement I), (14) and Justin Martyr (an educated and well-travelled scholar who suffered as a martyr around A.D. 165). (15) In addition, the New Testament Letter of James also says there is a duty to give the necessities of life to the needy. (16) The Letter to Diognetus. which may have been written by a tutor of a Roman Emperor who lived from A.D. 121 to 180, commended those who give to the needy what they have received from God. (17)

There were subsidiary duties, affirmative ones, to help the economically marginalized, instead of waiting for the poor to come round asking for a handout, and a duty to raise funds for them. Clement of Alexandria (18) and his successor Origen (19) commanded Christians to actively seek out those in need who ought to be benefited by their gifts and compassion. The elder church father also taught that when deciding whether to give to a poor person but in doubt about whether s/he is deserving, we should give anyway on the chance that the person might be in real need. (20) Tertullian held it to be a law of God to give even to the poor man who does not ask. (21)

The other subsidiary duty involved Christians who were in adequate circumstances but nevertheless possessed no surplus to spare for the less fortunate. In such a case, four ancient Christian writers exhorted the marginally better off to fast, i.e. go without food themselves, so that they would have something to contribute to the more unfortunate. These writings were Hermas, (22) the aforesaid third-century church manual, (23) the Apology of Aristides (a Christian philosopher at Athens around A.D. 125), (24) and the Sentences of Sextus (a Greco-Roman collection of sayings for the Christian life, dating from the second century.) (25) In terms of welfare states in Christian countries, such fasting would be equivalent to all taxpayers paying a little extra to ensure that the poor have enough to eat.

Nor were the homeless to be forgotten. Alluding to Isaiah 58:7, Irenaeus wrote "Deal thy bread to the hungry willingly, and lead into thy house the roofless stranger." (26) This was concurred in by Theophilus, bishop of Antioch in Syria, in the third quarter of the second century, in almost identical words. (27)

One homily by Origen stated that it was also a Christian duty to rebuke people who abase the poor. (28) In another, he preached that a person who has greater resources should carry the burden of the poorer, and that "abundance should relieve poverty." (29)

The above were written before there were publicly-funded social safety nets, regular payments to the poor, or Christian influence on governments; in fact, even before Christianity was legal. Today the attitude and practice of governments are much changed, although in recent years we have been falling into the danger of erosion of both Christian influence on secular rulers and of the social safety net itself. Nevertheless, as the oldest surviving Christian sermon outside the New Testament exhorted, we should heed and listen to the Church's teaching not only while we are being admonished in church but also when we go home and live our daily lives. (30) Part of these lives is the influence we Canadian Christians enjoy in governments, if only in voting. We can contact our Members of Parliament and provincial and municipal legislators (most of whom are at least nominally Christian) and threaten them with the loss of our votes if they do not implement or continue a regime that takes due regard of Christian teachings about the poor as witnessed by the undivided church of its first two centuries.

If letters, protests, and telephone calls do not immediately work, we can pray. Indeed, we should pray before beginning any endeavour on behalf of the less fortunate. In the New Testament, 1 Timothy 2: if urges that "supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions." Justin Martyr in the City of Rome wrote that it was a Christian practice to pray that secular rulers possess sound judgment and that if government officials did not regard Christian teachings they would be punished later by God. (31) This obligation of Christians was also mentioned by Theophilus in Syria, (32) Tertullian in Tunisia, (33) by Origen in Egypt and Palestine, (34) and by Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John in very early second-century Turkey. (35) If this does not work, we should contact our legislators and--in the words of Origen--rebuke those who abase the poor. (36)

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Endnotes:

(1) 1 John 3:17. Scripture quotations in this article are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952 and 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission dated July 21, 1993.

(2) Didache 4.8 and 5.2;

(3) Barnabas 20.2.

(4) Tertullian, Against Marcion 4.16. These last three writers were probably alluding to Tobit 4:7 and Sirach 4:4 in the Old Testament.

(5) Origen, Homilies on Exodus 7.6;

(6) Shepherd of Hermas Mandate 8.10.

(7) Irenaeus, Against Heresies 4.17.3.

(8) Didascalia 18;

(9) Origen Homilies on Jeremiah 7.3.2; Homilies on Psalm 36 3.4.

(10) Origen, Commentary on Romans 8.10.4.

(11) Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.18 trans. W. Wilson ANF 2.366. Except for Origen's Commentary on Romans, quotations from the church fathers are from The Ante-Nicene Fathers; Translations of The Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. American reprint ed. by A. Cleveland Coxe (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885-96; reprinted Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1985). Herein abbreviated to "ANF."

(12) Shepherd of Hermas Similitude 27; Mandate 8.10; Vision 3.9.4.

(13) Origen, Commentary on Romans 10.6.3.

(14) 1 Clement 38.2.

(15) Justin Martyr, 1 Apology 67.2;

(16) James 2:15f;

(17) Letter to Diognetus 10.6.

(18) Clement of Alexandria, Quis Dives Salvetur 31.

(19) Origen, Commentary on Romans 6.4.2.

(20) Clement of Alexandria, Quis Dives Salvetur 33.

(21) Tertullian, Against Marcion 4.16;

(22) Shepherd of Hermas Similitude 5.3.7.

(23) Didascalia 19;

(24) Aristides, Apology 15;

(25) Sentences of Sextus 267.

(26) Irenaeus, Against Heresies 4.17.3 trans. W. H. Rambaut ANF 1.483.

(27) Theophilus, To Autolycus 3.12;

(28) Origen, Homilies on Psalm 36 3.4.

(29) Origen, Commentary on Romans 10.6.3 trans. Thomas P. Scheck Origen: Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Books 6-10 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2002) Fathers of the Church series vol. 104 p. 264. Copyright 2002 Catholic University of America Press;

(30) 2 Clement 17.3;

(31) Justin Martyr, 1 Apology 17.

(32) Theophilus, To Autolycus 3.14;

(33) Tertullian, Apologeticum 30;

(34) Origen, Leter to Friends in Alexandria; Against Celsus 8.69-8.75;

(35) Polycarp, Letter to Friends in Alexandria 12.3.

(36) Origen, Homilies on Psalm 36 3.4.

David W.T. Brattson is a Christian freelance writer living in Lunenburg, NS.