I really do not know what I want to ask, or how to ask it in a succinct way, so take leaway in any replies. It revolves around proper biblical understanding in ministering to the needs of those who are 'hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison'.
IMHO, these terms identify spiritual condition in relation to the gospel, more than the physical status. For instance, the blessedness of those that hunger in Luke 6:21 corresponds to the blessedness of those that hunger [and thirst] after God's righteousness in Matthew 5:6, i.e., the regenerate elect, who are made, by the Spirit to hunger after Christ's righteousness:
Blessed [are ye] that hunger now: for ye shall be filled..(Lk.6:21)
Blessed [are] they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Mt.5:6)
The same goes for the strangers, naked, sick and those in spiritual prison. These are all scriptural names of the elect, whom Christ was anointed to minister unto: The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, (Lk.4:18). The spiritual nakedness of the sensible sinners is to be covered by the robes of righteousness of Christ through the preaching of the gospel.
The church's calling is not so much ministering to physical needs (though obviously, loving one's neighbor presupposes caring for them in a practical way), but to stretch forth her hand to the spiritually poor to fill them with the Bread of the Gospel.
Otherwise, whenever professing Christendom slides into heroic actions with respect to "the meat that perisheth" (John 6:27), in the end you get idolized individuals like Mother Theresa, who can shame most of us by her ability to serve the physical needs of the untouchable outcasts and there is not much of filling with the Bread come from heaven...
Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. (Jn.6:27)
I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever(Jn.6:48-58).
