As I reflect on the third chapter of Acts, the topic of what it means to help people in need comes to mind. There are many places in the Bible where we are called to meet the basic needs for those struggling in life, but in this passage about a lame beggar, Peter and John do so much more than this. What does this mean for us?

The Passage

The passage in question is as follows:

1 Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.2 A certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask gifts for the needy of those who entered into the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive gifts for the needy. 4 Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with John, said, “Look at us.” 5 He listened to them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” 7 He took him by the right hand and raised him up. Immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength. 8 Leaping up, he stood and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God. 9 All the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 They recognized him, that it was he who used to sit begging for gifts for the needy at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Acts 3:1-10 (WEB)

In this passage, we see a lame beggar who has been unable to walk since he was born. Every day, he has people who were willing to bring him to a main city gate to beg from people going into the temple courts. Anyone who was lame or blind was not permitted to go any farther than the gate.

As Peter and John enter the gate, this man asks them for money. While they do not have money to give him, they do have something much better, so they offer it: complete healing! The man is so ecstatic that the first thing he does is enter the temple and praises God!

This gift was so much better than money. While sometimes money is the appropriate gift, other times there are gifts better than money. My question is how to discern when gifts of money and practical needs are most appropriate and when other gifts are better.

Short-Term Gifts

While many people have taken the stance of refusing to give money to people begging on the street due to fears that it will go to drugs or alcohol, does this really align with what the Bible says? This passage about Jesus’ parable of the sheep and goats should tell us a lot.

31 “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, 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 food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. 36 I was naked 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, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? 38 When did we see you as a stranger and take 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 them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

44 “Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’

45 “Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 25:31-46 (WEB)

This passage seems to tell us that if we see someone with immediate short-term needs, we should do our best to help the person. Since both the Son of Man and the King in this passage refer to Jesus, each time we help someone, we are helping Jesus. Each time we don’t help, we are turning out back on Jesus.

Of course, this is over-simplified and it is impossible the help every person that we see. I still remember visiting India for the first time. I was on a business trip, staying in a very nice hotel, and I had a personal driver to take me wherever I might need to go. While I was in the hotel, there were people standing in the hallway, bowing at me as I passed. When I returned to my room, my bags were unpacked and all of my makeup was arranged neatly in the bathroom. It was over the top creepy.

Then when I left the building, the poverty was so overwhelming that I felt helpless. As I rode to the office, I saw women and children using pickaxes to break up rocks in a quarry. Then I saw women doing laundry in the river, kids bathing in the river, and people fetching drinking water from the river. There were dilapidated buildings, people living in tents, and so much more. As I was standing next to a restaurant, waiting for my driver to pick me up, people would come up to me and stroke my feet, a sign of humbly asking for money. It was impossible to meet the needs of everyone I saw. And if I did help someone, I would be swarmed by even more people begging for money.

As a more encouraging example, I do remember one boy in particular. I was trying to cross the street to get to a market and was having trouble with all of the chaos: cars, motorcycles, pedestrians, cows, chickens, dogs; none of them following American rules of traffic patterns. This boy helped me across the street, then gave me a tour of the market, keeping swarms of beggars from overwhelming me. I had a combination of relief and disappointment in myself that I didn’t want to deal with the problem. As I rejoined my driver, he sold me some very cheap bracelets. I gave him much more than they were worth and was delighted to help him. But this was just a bandaid for this boy’s problems.

Heading back into the office, I wouldn’t even be allowed to open the refrigerator to get my own drink. I felt like a terrible person and it took me quite a while to recover from the experience.

While we can and should help people in difficult situations meet their most basic needs, sometimes it is simply impossible to do it all. Peter summarizes the problem well, “Silver or gold I do not have.” While there are few of us who can also claim this, it is also true that no matter how much money we give, there will still be more money needed. If we give every penny that we have, it will not necessarily fix the long-term problem, there will still be plenty more people with short-term problems, and our money will be exhausted, leaving us unable to help anyone.

Long-Term Gifts

So, how do we help people when giving money is not the best option? In addition to countless examples in the Bible, a Chinese philosopher may give us some clues:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Lao Tzu

There is a difference between short-term needs and long-term needs. A fish will meet the short-term needs, but learning to fish will meet the long-term needs. It would be very easy to impoverish ourselves in order to fix quite a few short-term problems, but is this really the right thing to do? My belief is that as we help people, we can and should use limited amounts of money to meet short-term needs, but then we should figure out how to use our time, energy, and maybe more finances to meet the underlying long-term need.

In the case of the lame beggar, his short-term need was lack of money, but his long term need was to have strong muscles and joints. Peter and John were not able to meet the short-term need, but they could meet the long-term need. Which is better?

As we look at poverty and other problems around us, we should try to evaluate each situation to help the most. Meeting short term needs could include volunteering at a food pantry or soup kitchen, giving a homeless person a sandwich, or helping a person sign up for government assistance.

Long-term solutions are typically much harder. Sure, there are the cases where providing medical treatment will allow someone to return to a fully functional life where no assistance is needed, but often the problems are much more complex.

Many homeless shelters and domestic violence centers offer residential programs that offer assistance with addiction recovery, child care, tutoring, and career guidance. The goal is to teach a person to fish. But even once people go through these programs, often times they can earn little more than minimum wage. Trying to survive as a head of household on this type of income is next to impossible. A single person may be able to scrape by, but add in a kid or two and it is quite difficult to find a way out.

Read: A Look at Stephanie Land’s book Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive

Even when the job problem is solved, there are often many other issues that provide further obstacles. A few people make it out of poverty, but more commonly, people return to toxic relationships, the comfort of an addiction of choice, or something else. This does not mean that we should give up. Helping one person is helping Jesus. Just because we experience failure after failure, it does not mean that we shouldn’t celebrate every win. The parable Jesus told of the lost sheep illustrates this point:

12 “What do you think? If a man has one hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine, go to the mountains, and seek that which has gone astray? 13 If he finds it, most certainly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Matthew 18:12-14 (WEB)

We don’t have to focus on the whole world. Sometimes we just need to focus on one or two individuals. Jesus didn’t heal whole hospitals at a time, he healed one person at a time. We should take encouragement in that.

Reflection Questions

  1. How do you view individuals who are struggling with short-term problems or long-term problems that they may not be able to solve on their own?
  2. How does Jesus see these individuals?
  3. What does the Bible have to say about helping those in need with short-term problems?
  4. What does the Bible have to say about helping those in need with long-term problems?
  5. Name a time that you have helped someone with a problem. What were the results? Is there anything that you wish you would have done differently?
  6. As you go forward in life, how can you create a balance between helping solve short-term problems and long-term problems?

Respond

As you consider the theme of helping people in need, are there any Bible verses that came to mind? If so, add a comment at the end of this post!

Related Resources

Read: Acts 3 – A Bible Study about Peter Continuing Jesus’ Ministry of Healing

Read: Acts 3:13-15 – A Memory Verse and Reflection Questions about Rejecting Jesus

Read: A Prayer for Those Suffering from Chronic Illness and Disability

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