Poverty and the great commission

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Poverty and the Great Commission- what do they have in common? I’m really not sure, however, it seems to me that in fulfilling the GC issues of poverty are going to come up. They have in my own heart and mind as I have wrestled with the comments of others and the Scriptural Mandate to love my brother (and sister).

When you get down to it, poverty is a spiritual issue. No, not in the bible-berating – “get‘em saved and their lives will be changed” sense.

I’m talking about the life transforming, heart-changing spiritual issue that allows me to take the covers off my head and experience life as those around me experience it. To see life as others experience it – not through my own privileged perspective - and to rejoice with those who rejoice and grieve with those who grieve on a daily basis.

Discipleship is living in community, in common, with one another. Allowing others to see and experience my life on a daily basis and experiencing their life – as equals, co-heirs to the throne (if they are believers), recognizing that God has equipped me to be a blessing and the church to be a blessing to the world around us – saved or unsaved – minus the Messiah complex.

As a result, whether addressing very real physical deficits, or issues related to existing social structures which perpetuate poverty, poverty becomes less about assigning blame and more about life with the blinders removed. Seeing each other and our shared experiences from multiple perspectives – then responding, in love, to issues of poverty as Christ would.

Making disciples is based in relationship – my relationship with God and my relationship with man. As I model love and humility borne from God’s love for me, hopefully I am allowing others to get a glimpse of something desirable.

I am not always sure how someone can desire what I have. Then again, (to paraphrase Max Lucado) it really is not about me in the first place.

-Rick Rutter, Outreach Ministries