How can wanting to help the poor be a sin?
Are you mad/insane/<favorite anger/jab word>?
It's hard to think that wanting to help the poor less fortunate ones is a sin.
Obvious sins are - we all know them - murder,lying,stealing,fornication etc
Not wanting to alleviate poverty!!
C'mon man.
But it can be a sin.
First, doling out money - no matter how large it be - to the poor wont alleviate poverty! In a matter of time, most-i dare say- of the people who receive such amounts will be back to square one! Where the were. And they'll be angrier,bitterer and more hateful against <anybody> they can lay their blames on.

In a world of poverty why should people be buying 100m$ yatches and private jets etc.
What should a person be doing with more than one car! (implying very nice car).
etc.
We've heard it all before, preaching against accumulation of abundance!!

Money is the root of all evil!? right.

What more does a man need? A house a car a wife and money to train his children.

Whatever amount of money you make on earth,you'll die and leave it all.

There's an outcry against wealth abundance etc.

In many ways, from the pulpit and everywhere, those with abundance and often harrassed and accused and made to feel guilty and vile for having so much wealth.
And so, so many feel like , if they're very well off and their neighbour isnt, they should some how feel uncomfortable for having so much while others have so little!
The wealthy are bombarded with barbed arrows to live under a cloud of shame and guilt for being so well off.
In many ways, many want to enforce a culture of redistribution - of abundance to the less fortunate!!.

With such an entrenched atmosphere,people with money and abundance subtely bowing to the gospel that too much is a road to sin, and hell, live with a sense of guilt for wanting something very lavish or expensive.
Like a gold plated car when many children are starving to death in uganda or wherever!
Yes, you can have a car,a nice one,but not one too damn expensive.
A gold plated car! Are you insane!
A yatch! A private jet- man you must be dreaming.
See ... the underlying philosophy is that above a certain level of abundance you are simply worshipping money.
There's the other side of road though,we are all well to familiar with it- where crass fleshly materialism has crept into christiandom and christianity is just for sale.
Day light robbery and merchandising takes place instead of spirit filled fellowshipping.
But there's a pious commendable approach which is gentile and saintly on the outside but not from God.

some of the traits are:

An ungodly yolk:
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The bearer is saddled with an ungodly yolk of discomfort.
It couldav started with concern at the plight of the poor in society.
The concern led to dissatisfaction and dis-ease. Then an attempt to address it. then meditating about it etc- soon, ones mind is filled with
this unwholesome thoughts of the poor and their plight.
You loss your carefree spirit and laughter. You brood internally. etc
Heard someone say "I weep for the plightof the poor in society".
Unknowingly and with the cheering of the religious community, you take on a yoke that depresses your spirit!!
You've sailed into dangerous waters!!
Some have turned atheists under this yolks-they begin to accuse God. If God is as good and kind as the bible says, Why doesnt He do something to alleviate the suffering in the world!!-- heard that rant before!
It all began with a yolk , from a godly noble heart of concern. It started well.
God's yolk,the task He wants His children to undertake,isnt depressing and sadding and spiritually dampening.
His yolk can lead one to sorrow and cry over sad events but not to break the spirit and put out its light.
Any other yolk and - you're in dangerous territories.

A foreboding air of guilt
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Being rich and living in poor neighbourhoods or being in contact by the poor can leave on vulnerable to being assailled by arrows that induce guilt and sadness.
You are wearing a rolex when your pastor has no watch?
You are changing cars when ...
etc.
The accusations never cease.
In time, the well off dread being in such fellowship or do penance by trying to assuage the dissapproving eye of their less well off fellows.
They may begin to scale down on their desires, from years of being exposed to such barbs.
Why buy such expensive stuff? Why not buy some cheaper one and give the excess to the poor? Sounds noble enough.
But a hounding guilt isnt from God.
The bible clearly pinpoints who the accusser of the brethren is. Accusing them one hand and attacking them on the other!

a feeling of responsibility
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Feeling responsible for making the necessary changes to make things better for the less fortunate is another yolk that could be from deceptive religious thinking.
God is the only one with the might and power to make a change and help all of humanity.
He never gave this responsibility to man!!
When man sees the problems besetting fellow man and tries by his own power to do something about it- he could be
trying to act in the office of God!
It looks all good and nice and kind and applaudable on the surface but it might be underneath very ungodly!!
Man doing things without God's help never comes out as right as it should be. CAse in point, adam discovered he was naked, so he made a covering for himself- with fig leaves!! it worked.
But there was a better way.
There's a bible verse that says,except the Lord builds the house,they labour in vain,that build it-they do build it. They do complete it but it is still vain labour in the eyes of God.
The insidiousness of this approach is that the more success one finds - by his power outside God-the more one begins to wonder whether he/she even needs God for anything. Does God even exists? See! I got so much success in career,marraige,education etc - without HIM!!
This is the subtle trick in everything. Going off God!

A sense of pride
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A smug sense of pride accompanying one's good deeds.
The pride makes on usurp the glory that should go to God only.

At the core of these subtle errors is a wrong philosophy and theology- that man can solve all man's problems totally.
It's hard to counter such thinking, they were many diseases that killed many people centuries ago that are no history thanks to science.
So with the same human persistence and successes that saw us through we'll march on and deal with our current problems-poverty etc.

A proper perspective on this issue is that

1) God created the material world for man's well being.
Man is part body,which is material.
We need things-houses,cars,etc and not the cheapest. Not the worse and not the averages.
The bible says, Solomon was not as well dressed as the lilies in the field! Solomon was robed in royal apparel. How much more luxurious could one get!
So a philosophy or theology that puts down the fine things of life and condemns them is unscriptural.

2) Only God can handle the problems of the whole world and for every man.
When the isrealites were in the wilderness, God fed an entire nation,and watered them,without breaking a sweat!!
Think of it? How many litres of water would a nation consume! And in the wilderness!!
If you took a nation thru the sahara desert and the water ran out what would happen? The leader could be lynched when the mob panicks! Did you bring them out there to die of thirst! Are you crazy? You dey mad?
They'll stone you to death!
Some will commit suicide in despair as they see no where out!!
But God handled them all.
Only God can handle the poverty situation all over the world.
Man has a part to play though.
So if one has a lot,is a billionaire etc enjoy your wealth-you are not the saviour of the world! God is.
Letting that burden rest on ur spirit will crush it!!
God is big, mighty and strong. He never slumbers nor sleeps- Why? So that He can listen to and attend to the cry of His children - at any time of the day! Think of it? A being who neither slumbers or sleeps!!! Never!
He's never weary or tired!
Created the world in less than a week and didnt break a sweat!! Only He can handle the worlds problems.

3) God doesnt want us to be sad or depressed or weighed down.
This doesnt mean that God doesnt want us to be concerned and show love and work to alleviate suffering wherever we find it or He leads us to.
Many bible verses attest to the contrary.
e.g The bible says,bear one another's burden.
Dont tell your fellow brother/sister who is hungry and in need of cloths to go and be filled without doing something to help.
But inspite of the calamities in the world, God doesnt want us to lose our joy and peace!. In the gospels ,many times, you read of Jesus reinforcing the disciples with words like Be of good cheer, peace be with you etc.
God doesnt want you to lose it. That peace and joy from God should always be an enveloping buffer around your heart keeping out all the depression and contaminating infections from the world around us. with its avalanche of depressing dark news!
God wants all our cares and concerns to be cast off and unto Him.
Anything inducing the contrary isnt from God.

4) Worry is a sin.
Worry is a sin. And it chokes out the word of God in our hearts leading to spiritual stuntedness.
The parable of the sower illustrates this.
Oh! but it's so pious to care about the plight of the poor and meditate on them and not sleep a wink because of them! You're dying spiritually when you do such!!

5) Poverty is more mental than material.
A lot of poverty is induced by poor though patterns.
Hard work and mortar attacks with the truth is needed to destroy and pull down strong holds of wrong thinking before progress can be made.
Giving money to people with the wrong mindset will only make them run those wrong minds on the resources they acquire leading to the same old result. But this time,not only wont it work,it will trigger more inflation

Thought provoking