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From the Free Church of Scotland:

Ministry to the poor

The fifth mark is concern for the poor. I have left it to the last, not because I believe it is necessarily the most important, but because it is the most neglected. In both the First and Second Books of Discipline the idea is linked very closely to the work of deacons, whose `office and power is to receive and to distribute the haill ecclesiastical gudes unto them to whom they are appoyntit.’2 In the First Book of Discipline, John Knox made specific provision for a ministry to the poor. `Every several kirk,' he stipulated, `must provide for the poor within itself; for fearful and horrible it is, that the poor, whom not only God the Father in his law, but Christ Jesus in his Evangel, and the Holy Spirit speaking by Saint Paul, hath so earnestly commended to our care, are universally so contemned and despised.' In Melville's arrangements, one quarter of the kirk's revenue was to be 'bestow it upon the puir members of the faithful, and on hospitals'.

Such provision was simply a reflection of what marked the church from the beginning. We know from Acts 6, for example, that at a very early point in her history the church organised formal provision for the poor. We also know that when Paul went to discuss his Gentile mission with the apostles in Jerusalem they said to him, `Your gospel is OK; but remember the poor': the very thing, he said, he was eager to do (Galatians 2:10). Later, we see Paul himself (and how remarkable it is!) giving time and energy to organising collections to relieve the poverty of the saints in Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8:1‑9:15).

Just, then, as a church is not a church if it does not evangelise, so a church is not a church if it has no concern for the poor. Every single congregation should have some formal provision of this kind, reaching out to the need in its own community. Tokenism is not enough. There is real need in the society around us. I am not going to give detailed formulations. I am simply laying down that the poor must be on both our consciences and our agendas and that the church must be organised, not only to evangelise, not only to worship, not only to administer the sacraments, but also to help those who are in need.

Of course, under a Welfare State that can be complicated. The very fact of such a Welfare State existing at all is often an excuse for doing nothing. But the theology is crystal clear and the Liberationists are absolutely correct: God has a bias towards the poor. Our responsibility is never merely to evangelise. We have to go about, like Jesus, doing good (Acts 10:38). That includes responding to people's temporal and material needs.

Matt.25:34-40 NASB

34"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

35'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;

36naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?

38'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?

39'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

40"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

Matt.25:41-46 NASB

41"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

42for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;

43I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'

44"Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?'

45"Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'

46"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

From City on a Hill by Philip Ryken:

But even the United States of America, there are many homeless who need a good meal and a safe place to sleep. One out of five American children lives below the poverty line. This is an age of immigration, with people moving to this country from all over the world. There is a tremedous need for them to receive education and other practical assistance. Then there is America's rapidly growing prison population, with nearly two million inmates locked behind bars. The needs have never been greater than in these post-Christian times.

There are many reasons that the church should get involved in meeting these needs. There is the simple fact that God has commanded us to have compassion on the needy. Then there is the strategic importance of showing mercy to reach the next generation. Many young people want to make a difference in the world. Unless they see the church demonstrating mercy and compassion in practical ways, they will not listen to our message - nor should they. But a church that is committed to outreach offers them a place to belong, and, eventually, a place to serve. The church should also show mercy because it confirms the truth of God's Word. The Bible is sufficient to bring salvation. However, when the Word of truth is accompanied by a work of mercy, the powerful, living demonstration of Christ's love has the effect of turning up the volume on the gospel.

Those are all good reasons to show mercy, but Jesus pointed to something else. He gave the purest and truest motive for mercy. He said, "Do it for Me." The righteous do not perform charity in order to get to heaven. No, what makes their service supremely valuable is that they offer it for Jesus' sake. Love for the poor and the needy expresses true love for Christ.

Why would anyone love Christ so much? It is because He first showed His love to us. One of the striking things about acts of charity is that they are all things that Jesus has done and continues to do for His sheep. The mercy we give is the mercy we have been given.

We are hungry and thirst. In our spiritual famine, Jesus comes to us and says, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry." In our thirst for spiritual refreshment, He says, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." There was a time when we were estranged from God by our sin. The Bible says, "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death. Through the cross of Christ, God has shown us the hospitality of His grace, turning us from strangers into friends.

At the end of history, when the entire human race gathers before God's throne, Jesus will say to His friends, "Come into My kingdom. I know you belong because you showed me mercy." They will be astonished to hear this, and so they will ask, "When did we show You mercy?" Jesus will say, "When you did it for them, you were doing it for Me." Then perhaps we will be able to say, "Jesus, the only reason we did it for them was because You did it for us first."

Every Christian and ever church should be active in some form of mercy ministry. Mercy always begins at home, so our first priority is to meet the needs of our own Family-meaning both our natural family and our spiritual family, which is the church. The Bible teaches that our strongest obligation is to care for those who are closest to us: "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse then an unbeliever" The same principle holds true for teh church: "As we have oportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers"

Finally, we must care for our surrounding community. Although this is not the primary focus of Matthew 25, it is an obvious extension of its principles. "As a priority, we should give to needy Christians both intensively and extensively, until their need is gone. But we must also give generously to nonbelievers as part of our witness to the world... In other words, the ministry of mercy is not only an expression of fellowship of the church, but also an expression of the mission of the church.

In the same way that Jesus reached out to us, we must reach out to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner. This means reaching out to international students, unwed mothers, homosexuals, people with AIDS, the ederly, inner city children, the jobless, the homeless, the seperated and divorced, single parents, the disabled, and the imprisoned. In each of these and many other areas of human need, church members should be on the lookout for people who could use some help, and then under the direction of their pastors, elders, and deacons, organize themselves for effective ministry. This is what mercy requires: both the identification of a need and a personal commitment to meet that need in the compassion of Christ.