If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
The verse pictures a fellow believer who lacks adequate clothing and the food needed each day, a real and urgent bodily want of hunger and cold. It belongs to an example continued in the next verse, where such a person is told to be warmed and filled or to depart in peace without being given what the body needs. Offering only kind words, good wishes or comfort while withholding necessities profits nothing and is useless and empty, proving that profession of faith without works is dead, being alone, and cannot save. Genuine faith is founded on the promises and provisions of Scripture, works by love with obedience and is made perfect by works, bearing fruit in self-denying practical service, tenderness of heart and putting away selfishness. Those entrusted with goods as stewards are therefore to notice distress and relieve it with regular, sacrificial, tangible care, seeking out needs without waiting to be asked, for God has given enough to meet need and caring for the needy is caring for Jesus.
Meaning of the Need
The verse pictures a brother or sister, a fellow believer, who lacks clothing and the food needed each day. That lack is a real bodily need calling for practical help, not merely concern or kind words wishing the person well. To offer only words while withholding the necessities the body needs accomplishes nothing and is useless and empty.
To be naked and destitute of daily food means a real, urgent lack of adequate clothing and the food needed each day. It includes want, degradation, affliction, hunger and cold, and the bondage of want for the necessaries of life. Those in this condition, including faithful sufferers little known to churches or ministers, are to be sought out and relieved, for God has special care for them and has entrusted enough resources to meet their wants. Leaving fellow beings suffering in such need while spending freely on selfish pleasures or costly fashion is unfaithful stewardship that insults God, brings reproach upon Him, and lets neglected portions of His vineyard cry against the neglect.
The verse belongs to an example continued in the next verse, where the needy person is told to be warmed and filled or to depart in peace without being given what the body needs. Seeing a brother or sister in this state and only saying such words profits nothing. Sincere sympathy and love must be shown through practical help that supplies food and clothing for temporal needs, so that the poor do not suffer when help is available and can also understand the goodness of salvation.
Faith Without Works
To say be warmed and filled, to offer good wishes, comfort, or direction to go onward, while withholding clothing and daily food from a brother or sister who lacks them, profits nothing and is useless and empty. A real bodily lack calls for practical help, not mere words wishing well, and generous and sacrificial action is required to meet the need and advance the saving of souls. Tenderness of heart must be cultivated and selfishness and covetousness put away in every calling and position, or divine displeasure rests upon the withholder. The work and cause of God can never excuse close selfish dealing, sharp transactions, taking advantage of one pressed by circumstances, or planning to buy land or property for less than its value even when the gain is offered to the cause, for gain brought into the treasury through selfish transaction will not be accepted. Every act connected with that work must bear divine inspection in honesty and equity toward every person, because the price of the blood of the only begotten Son has been paid for every person.
The illustration proves that faith without works is dead, being alone, and that saying one has faith or making profession of faith without works cannot save. Faith that is not genuine is known when a fellow believer lacking clothing and daily food receives only kind words instead of necessities, for living faith is shown through practical care for others. Such claim to favor without complying with the conditions upon which mercy is granted is presumption, not faith, for genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of Scripture. Genuine faith works with works and by works is made perfect, as Abraham was justified by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar, so that a person is justified by works and not by faith only, and holiness is not attained by instantaneous belief alone with no further effort and with release from keeping the commandments.
Works testify to the sincerity of faith and determine the character revealed by the life, for sincere sympathy and love must be shown through practical help rather than kind words and good wishes alone. Good works are the fruit of faith and sure evidence of passing from death to life, because love for fellow believers produces zeal to do good, though this does not require identical paths since God works on each mind and each is to serve as a worker. Genuine faith produces loving outward works that reveal inward piety and Christlikeness, and true repentance produces good works so that words, behavior, and character show conformity to the divine will rather than profession alone. Faith alone is not enough and works alone are not enough, but united they accomplish much.
Nature of Genuine Faith
Genuine faith rests on the promises and provisions of Scripture and acts together with obedience, and by such works it is made complete. It is not presumption that claims heaven's favor while refusing the conditions on which mercy is offered, nor is it momentary belief alone that leaves a person released from keeping the commandments. Holiness cannot exist alongside deliberate disobedience to God's law. Abraham was justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar, proving that a person is justified by works and not by faith only.
Such faith imitates a self-denying life and proves love by practical works, thereby revealing inward piety and likeness to Christ. Mere belief in Jesus, His crucifixion and resurrection is not enough if it does not move to action, for a high profession without faithful service to those in need is an empty Christian name rather than living faith. True conversion and repentance appear in practical conduct and faithful service, in obedience to God whatever the cost, in overcoming selfishness, in the renewal of the new birth with Jesus alone as the object of faith, hope and love, and in bringing words, behavior and character into conformity with the divine will. All believers can share in this ministry, though none can teach what has not been experienced.
Genuine faith cultivates tenderness of heart and puts away selfishness and covetousness in every calling and position, or divine displeasure rests upon the neglectful. It also puts away discord, selfishness and strife, and caring for those lacking basic necessities by using talents in every possible way for the good of others is the measure of true manhood and womanhood. Ministering like angels of mercy to the wants of others brings close alliance with God and expresses the nature of Christianity to make happy families and a happy society.
Faith is tested in the judgment by what love has done for the needy, for in the day of final judgment every person is judged according to deeds done in the body. Then the use of every talent is scrutinized, including capital lent from Heaven and whether it returns with increase, powers of hand, heart and brain improved to God's glory and the world's blessing, time, pen, voice, money and influence, what was done for Christ in the poor, the afflicted, the orphan and the widow, and what was done with the light and truth of God's word given to make wise unto salvation. Future happiness depends on this active obedience in deed, when nothing remains but the character formed and the law of God, and all are seen to be either righteous or unrighteous. Mere profession of faith has no value, for only love shown by works is counted genuine, love alone makes any act valuable in Heaven's sight, and whatever is done from love, however small it appears to men, is accepted and rewarded by God.
Stewardship and Accountability
Those to whom God has entrusted His goods as stewards are responsible to notice the distress of fellow beings left in the bondage of want and degradation for the necessaries of life and to relieve it. Indifference that leaves them suffering for lack of clothing and daily food insults God and brings reproach upon Him, while the neglected barren portions of the Lord's vineyard cry to God against the neglect. God has entrusted enough resources to meet the real needs of those lacking food and clothing, so to spend freely on selfish pleasures while giving the needy little care or sympathy is unfaithful stewardship. The wealthy who fail to relieve suffering and the oppressed misuse what belongs to God, whereas sharing with the poor makes wealth valuable in His sight and makes the giver rich in good works.
Keeping back the means that ought to go to brethren doing God-appointed work in the hard Southern field, especially Nashville, and turning those means into other channels hinders instead of helps and is what God calls robbery. God is displeased with that withholding work and will judge for it, so immediate reformation is required. That reformation means ceasing to act as critics tearing to pieces the work given to brethren, and reading the Word to purpose and doing what it instructs by supplying material needs instead of leaving brethren empty. The verse forbids making the work and cause of God an excuse for close selfish dealing, sharp transactions, taking advantage of a person pressed by circumstances, or planning to buy land or property for less than its value even when the gain is offered to the cause. Gain brought into the treasury through selfish transaction God will not accept, for every act connected with His work must bear divine inspection with honesty and equity toward every person, because the price of the blood of the only begotten Son has been paid for every person. Believers must therefore cultivate tenderness of heart and put away selfishness and covetousness in every calling and position, or displeasure will rest upon them.
Professing to keep the commandments and dwelling much on obedience while failing to work righteousness walks against the law. True faith works by love and purifies the soul and returns to the paths of righteousness when warned, while those without that working faith refuse to heed warnings. The verse belongs to God's health reform prescription and great remedy for diseases of body and soul, as practical teaching on principles of righteousness to be brought into daily life and character building day by day. Received with grace in large measure it brings prosperity, brings heaven near, makes a place where angels delight to come, brings happiness of spirit, causes one to see salvation, and makes one a tower of strength leading to triumph at last with the overcomers. The chapter containing the verse is to be read and practiced in daily life as a call to live out the truth through the work God gives.
Practical Care for Needy
The verse calls for generous and sacrificial action that meets bodily lack with real clothing and daily food, because comforting words without supplying what the body needs are useless and faith without such works is dead. That care is to be tangible and regular, given without waiting for the poor to ask, by seeking out needs as Job did and providing from one's own means to help save souls. It extends especially to faithful sufferers in want and affliction who are little known to churches or ministers, for whom God has special care, and the church is to act as God's helping hand in finding and relieving them. To care for them is to care for Jesus himself, who identifies himself with suffering people.
Practical help means supplying food and clothing and money for necessities, including bread, meals, garments, and help with medical care when worthy poor and sick members cannot afford it. It includes clothing the very poor who receive no help from the world and caring for poor and destitute people in the church. When help is available the resolve must be to provide rather than let them suffer, so that they can also understand the goodness of salvation. Indifference to such distress is forbidden, and selfish withholding that lets fellow believers suffer is condemned.
Spending on useless or extravagant clothing withholds help from the naked, and serving needless costly food neglects the hungry. Money spent on costly fashion ought instead to feed and clothe those suffering hunger and cold, with simplicity and economy in dress and the use of means and time to do good. Relieving physical need follows Christ's example, and unselfish care is a practical demonstration of the gospel. Clothing the naked and feeding the hungry can itself be a powerful witness, awakening gratitude and opening hearts to the message of salvation, so deeds of sympathy must accompany words that touch the heart as object-lessons of far more value than mere precepts.
When those embracing the truth have pressing necessities, merely speaking kind wishes without taking steps to provide makes the work largely a failure and has a bad influence upon it. Deeds of sympathy joined to words are required, including clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and establishing small schools with tender sympathetic teachers where old and young are taught the Word in the simplest manner. The naked and hungry person also pictures souls needing help, so true faith must act by going into all parts of the world to spread truth and lead men and women to Christ, doing all possible to help the work, putting away superficial excuses and delay. That work is done together with God and with angels sent to minister to heirs of salvation, for when professed believers fail many more souls remain unsaved; those who join it faithfully, free from selfish plans, personal advantage, and discord-sowing, have God's approval and partnership, while those with the wrong spirit and hindering influence do not.
Applied to a blind, poor and sick brother trying to support himself, the principle requires encouraging and helping him rather than distressing him or obstructing his efforts. The church is guilty when it allows him to be wronged and must do what it can to make the wrong right. Neglecting or distressing the poor, even while claiming to advance the cause, fails to serve others as required. Following Christ's pattern by ministering like angels of mercy to the wants of others brings close alliance with God, expresses the nature of Christianity to make happy families and happy society, and puts away discord, selfishness and strife in everyone possessing the true Spirit.
The verse pictures a fellow believer who lacks adequate clothing and the food needed each day, a real and urgent bodily want of hunger and cold. It belongs to an example continued in the next verse, where such a person is told to be warmed and filled or to depart in peace without being given what the body needs. Offering only kind words, good wishes or comfort while withholding necessities profits nothing and is useless and empty, proving that profession of faith without works is dead, being alone, and cannot save. Genuine faith is founded on the promises and provisions of Scripture, works by love with obedience and is made perfect by works, bearing fruit in self-denying practical service, tenderness of heart and putting away selfishness. Those entrusted with goods as stewards are therefore to notice distress and relieve it with regular, sacrificial, tangible care, seeking out needs without waiting to be asked, for God has given enough to meet need and caring for the needy is caring for Jesus.
Meaning of the Need
The verse pictures a brother or sister, a fellow believer, who lacks clothing and the food needed each day. That lack is a real bodily need calling for practical help, not merely concern or kind words wishing the person well. To offer only words while withholding the necessities the body needs accomplishes nothing and is useless and empty.
To be naked and destitute of daily food means a real, urgent lack of adequate clothing and the food needed each day. It includes want, degradation, affliction, hunger and cold, and the bondage of want for the necessaries of life. Those in this condition, including faithful sufferers little known to churches or ministers, are to be sought out and relieved, for God has special care for them and has entrusted enough resources to meet their wants. Leaving fellow beings suffering in such need while spending freely on selfish pleasures or costly fashion is unfaithful stewardship that insults God, brings reproach upon Him, and lets neglected portions of His vineyard cry against the neglect.
The verse belongs to an example continued in the next verse, where the needy person is told to be warmed and filled or to depart in peace without being given what the body needs. Seeing a brother or sister in this state and only saying such words profits nothing. Sincere sympathy and love must be shown through practical help that supplies food and clothing for temporal needs, so that the poor do not suffer when help is available and can also understand the goodness of salvation.
Faith Without Works
To say be warmed and filled, to offer good wishes, comfort, or direction to go onward, while withholding clothing and daily food from a brother or sister who lacks them, profits nothing and is useless and empty. A real bodily lack calls for practical help, not mere words wishing well, and generous and sacrificial action is required to meet the need and advance the saving of souls. Tenderness of heart must be cultivated and selfishness and covetousness put away in every calling and position, or divine displeasure rests upon the withholder. The work and cause of God can never excuse close selfish dealing, sharp transactions, taking advantage of one pressed by circumstances, or planning to buy land or property for less than its value even when the gain is offered to the cause, for gain brought into the treasury through selfish transaction will not be accepted. Every act connected with that work must bear divine inspection in honesty and equity toward every person, because the price of the blood of the only begotten Son has been paid for every person.
The illustration proves that faith without works is dead, being alone, and that saying one has faith or making profession of faith without works cannot save. Faith that is not genuine is known when a fellow believer lacking clothing and daily food receives only kind words instead of necessities, for living faith is shown through practical care for others. Such claim to favor without complying with the conditions upon which mercy is granted is presumption, not faith, for genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of Scripture. Genuine faith works with works and by works is made perfect, as Abraham was justified by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar, so that a person is justified by works and not by faith only, and holiness is not attained by instantaneous belief alone with no further effort and with release from keeping the commandments.
Works testify to the sincerity of faith and determine the character revealed by the life, for sincere sympathy and love must be shown through practical help rather than kind words and good wishes alone. Good works are the fruit of faith and sure evidence of passing from death to life, because love for fellow believers produces zeal to do good, though this does not require identical paths since God works on each mind and each is to serve as a worker. Genuine faith produces loving outward works that reveal inward piety and Christlikeness, and true repentance produces good works so that words, behavior, and character show conformity to the divine will rather than profession alone. Faith alone is not enough and works alone are not enough, but united they accomplish much.
Nature of Genuine Faith
Genuine faith rests on the promises and provisions of Scripture and acts together with obedience, and by such works it is made complete. It is not presumption that claims heaven's favor while refusing the conditions on which mercy is offered, nor is it momentary belief alone that leaves a person released from keeping the commandments. Holiness cannot exist alongside deliberate disobedience to God's law. Abraham was justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar, proving that a person is justified by works and not by faith only.
Such faith imitates a self-denying life and proves love by practical works, thereby revealing inward piety and likeness to Christ. Mere belief in Jesus, His crucifixion and resurrection is not enough if it does not move to action, for a high profession without faithful service to those in need is an empty Christian name rather than living faith. True conversion and repentance appear in practical conduct and faithful service, in obedience to God whatever the cost, in overcoming selfishness, in the renewal of the new birth with Jesus alone as the object of faith, hope and love, and in bringing words, behavior and character into conformity with the divine will. All believers can share in this ministry, though none can teach what has not been experienced.
Genuine faith cultivates tenderness of heart and puts away selfishness and covetousness in every calling and position, or divine displeasure rests upon the neglectful. It also puts away discord, selfishness and strife, and caring for those lacking basic necessities by using talents in every possible way for the good of others is the measure of true manhood and womanhood. Ministering like angels of mercy to the wants of others brings close alliance with God and expresses the nature of Christianity to make happy families and a happy society.
Faith is tested in the judgment by what love has done for the needy, for in the day of final judgment every person is judged according to deeds done in the body. Then the use of every talent is scrutinized, including capital lent from Heaven and whether it returns with increase, powers of hand, heart and brain improved to God's glory and the world's blessing, time, pen, voice, money and influence, what was done for Christ in the poor, the afflicted, the orphan and the widow, and what was done with the light and truth of God's word given to make wise unto salvation. Future happiness depends on this active obedience in deed, when nothing remains but the character formed and the law of God, and all are seen to be either righteous or unrighteous. Mere profession of faith has no value, for only love shown by works is counted genuine, love alone makes any act valuable in Heaven's sight, and whatever is done from love, however small it appears to men, is accepted and rewarded by God.
Stewardship and Accountability
Those to whom God has entrusted His goods as stewards are responsible to notice the distress of fellow beings left in the bondage of want and degradation for the necessaries of life and to relieve it. Indifference that leaves them suffering for lack of clothing and daily food insults God and brings reproach upon Him, while the neglected barren portions of the Lord's vineyard cry to God against the neglect. God has entrusted enough resources to meet the real needs of those lacking food and clothing, so to spend freely on selfish pleasures while giving the needy little care or sympathy is unfaithful stewardship. The wealthy who fail to relieve suffering and the oppressed misuse what belongs to God, whereas sharing with the poor makes wealth valuable in His sight and makes the giver rich in good works.
Keeping back the means that ought to go to brethren doing God-appointed work in the hard Southern field, especially Nashville, and turning those means into other channels hinders instead of helps and is what God calls robbery. God is displeased with that withholding work and will judge for it, so immediate reformation is required. That reformation means ceasing to act as critics tearing to pieces the work given to brethren, and reading the Word to purpose and doing what it instructs by supplying material needs instead of leaving brethren empty. The verse forbids making the work and cause of God an excuse for close selfish dealing, sharp transactions, taking advantage of a person pressed by circumstances, or planning to buy land or property for less than its value even when the gain is offered to the cause. Gain brought into the treasury through selfish transaction God will not accept, for every act connected with His work must bear divine inspection with honesty and equity toward every person, because the price of the blood of the only begotten Son has been paid for every person. Believers must therefore cultivate tenderness of heart and put away selfishness and covetousness in every calling and position, or displeasure will rest upon them.
Professing to keep the commandments and dwelling much on obedience while failing to work righteousness walks against the law. True faith works by love and purifies the soul and returns to the paths of righteousness when warned, while those without that working faith refuse to heed warnings. The verse belongs to God's health reform prescription and great remedy for diseases of body and soul, as practical teaching on principles of righteousness to be brought into daily life and character building day by day. Received with grace in large measure it brings prosperity, brings heaven near, makes a place where angels delight to come, brings happiness of spirit, causes one to see salvation, and makes one a tower of strength leading to triumph at last with the overcomers. The chapter containing the verse is to be read and practiced in daily life as a call to live out the truth through the work God gives.
Practical Care for Needy
The verse calls for generous and sacrificial action that meets bodily lack with real clothing and daily food, because comforting words without supplying what the body needs are useless and faith without such works is dead. That care is to be tangible and regular, given without waiting for the poor to ask, by seeking out needs as Job did and providing from one's own means to help save souls. It extends especially to faithful sufferers in want and affliction who are little known to churches or ministers, for whom God has special care, and the church is to act as God's helping hand in finding and relieving them. To care for them is to care for Jesus himself, who identifies himself with suffering people.
Practical help means supplying food and clothing and money for necessities, including bread, meals, garments, and help with medical care when worthy poor and sick members cannot afford it. It includes clothing the very poor who receive no help from the world and caring for poor and destitute people in the church. When help is available the resolve must be to provide rather than let them suffer, so that they can also understand the goodness of salvation. Indifference to such distress is forbidden, and selfish withholding that lets fellow believers suffer is condemned.
Spending on useless or extravagant clothing withholds help from the naked, and serving needless costly food neglects the hungry. Money spent on costly fashion ought instead to feed and clothe those suffering hunger and cold, with simplicity and economy in dress and the use of means and time to do good. Relieving physical need follows Christ's example, and unselfish care is a practical demonstration of the gospel. Clothing the naked and feeding the hungry can itself be a powerful witness, awakening gratitude and opening hearts to the message of salvation, so deeds of sympathy must accompany words that touch the heart as object-lessons of far more value than mere precepts.
When those embracing the truth have pressing necessities, merely speaking kind wishes without taking steps to provide makes the work largely a failure and has a bad influence upon it. Deeds of sympathy joined to words are required, including clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and establishing small schools with tender sympathetic teachers where old and young are taught the Word in the simplest manner. The naked and hungry person also pictures souls needing help, so true faith must act by going into all parts of the world to spread truth and lead men and women to Christ, doing all possible to help the work, putting away superficial excuses and delay. That work is done together with God and with angels sent to minister to heirs of salvation, for when professed believers fail many more souls remain unsaved; those who join it faithfully, free from selfish plans, personal advantage, and discord-sowing, have God's approval and partnership, while those with the wrong spirit and hindering influence do not.
Applied to a blind, poor and sick brother trying to support himself, the principle requires encouraging and helping him rather than distressing him or obstructing his efforts. The church is guilty when it allows him to be wronged and must do what it can to make the wrong right. Neglecting or distressing the poor, even while claiming to advance the cause, fails to serve others as required. Following Christ's pattern by ministering like angels of mercy to the wants of others brings close alliance with God, expresses the nature of Christianity to make happy families and happy society, and puts away discord, selfishness and strife in everyone possessing the true Spirit.