For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.
Jesus spoke these words at the Bethany supper to defend Mary's costly anointing of Him against Judas's complaint that the ointment should have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor. Her gift was fitting and timely because He would soon be taken away by death and burial while the poor would always remain to be helped. Judas did not truly care for the poor but spoke from covetousness and theft, and Christ's rebuke exposed his greed and hardened him toward betraying his Lord for silver. Poverty was never to leave the world because God in wise providence appointed continuing differences in condition to test character, call out sympathy and love, and make the poor Christ's representatives to whom giving is giving to Him. Their abiding presence therefore lays a continuing obligation on every believer and church to relieve need by practical help while putting Christ and His cause first.
Setting and Occasion
The words were spoken at a supper six days before the Passover at the house of Lazarus in Bethany, where Jesus had stopped for rest and refreshment on His way from Jericho to Jerusalem to attend the feast. The supper was made by Simon of Bethany to honor Jesus, with Jesus seated at the table between Simon, who had been cured of leprosy, and Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead, while Martha served and Mary listened to Jesus. It belonged to His last visit to Bethany, hosted by Simon after his healing, and it drew many Jews who watched Jesus amid growing excitement about His mission. They were spoken on one occasion just before His betrayal and death.
Jesus accepted this loving hospitality and honor from friends at the supper held in His honor. He used the occasion to teach and to show His generous, social character, giving those present an opportunity to know Him, though critics condemned His conduct as worldly conformity.
Mary's Anointing Justified
Jesus defended Mary's costly anointing because the poor would always remain with the disciples while He Himself would not remain long with them in person and would soon be taken from them. His words distinguished her gift as fitting at that moment from ordinary care for the poor, which would still have continuing opportunity afterward. Her act was kept for the day of His burial, a prophetic anticipation of and preparation for His approaching death and burial, rather than something to be condemned in favor of giving the ointment's value to the poor.
Its record would be repeated to the ends of the earth and told throughout the world. She will be associated with Him and with the gospel throughout all time, her deed standing as a demonstration of love for Christ in which free and undefiled religion is knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Her generous gift came from love and gratitude because Jesus had forgiven her many sins and had raised her much-loved brother Lazarus from the dead, so that nothing was too dear to bestow on Jesus.
Those who have received salvation's gift do not calculate its value as Judas did, but love for Christ makes even their richest gifts seem unworthy. The anointing was a good work and a timely act of love for Jesus before His death and burial, not wasteful spending. Christ is to be honored through the consecration of our best resources, and such honoring of Him did not deny the duty to care for the poor.
Judas Exposed and Hardened
The saying belongs to the moment when Mary poured precious ointment and spikenard upon Jesus and Judas objected, calling it great waste and unnecessary waste that could have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor. In that objection he turned the Gospel principle of mercy to the poor into an excuse for covetousness, using concern for the poor as a plea against honoring Jesus. His protest arose in the feast scene where his covetousness became evident and was exposed.
He did not care for the poor but spoke from a close, selfish, covetous disposition that loved money. He was a thief who took for his own use and benefit money entrusted to his care to be given to the poor, exacted to the last penny for every little essential thing he did, and had not been attentive to the comforts and wants of Jesus. His covetousness and theft had corrupted his judgment and conscience, so he used concern about money as a pretext for dishonesty and often referred to the poor to excuse his covetousness. He counted a liberal offering to Jesus extravagant, prizing his Lord only enough to sell Him for a few pieces of silver, while Mary's generous gift stood as a cutting rebuke to his disposition.
The words about the poor were a more direct reproof of Judas than he had received before, rebuking and exposing the avarice and greed that had long been controlling him. Judas was vexed and annoyed by that reproof of his covetous spirit and resented it when Jesus rebuked the condemnation of the woman. His provocation opened a door through which Satan entered to control his thoughts, while avarice poisoned the life-current of his spirituality. That implied rebuke helped lead him to yield to the tempter, and he chose revenge and sold his Lord for a few pieces of silver.
The episode exposes covetousness and selfishness as Satan's snare, showing that some who profess to be waiting for their Lord are like Judas, controlled by Satan and not knowing it. God cannot approve the least degree of covetousness or selfishness but abhors the prayers and exhortations of those who indulge them. Yet in rebuking Judas Christ corrected him without forsaking him, but kept working with him still until his character could be more thoroughly developed, as He also did after rebuking Peter and John. So one who has committed errors should not be dropped or set aside but encouraged, received, and set to work where best fitted.
Why Poverty Remains
Poverty was never to leave the world, and the poor will always be present among men. In wise providence God did not purpose equality of social ranks or an equal share of temporal blessings and worldly possessions for all. To place all on an equality in worldly possessions would be the greatest misfortune to mankind.
Continuing differences in circumstances remain because the diversity of condition between rich and poor proves and develops character. Witnessing suffering and need tests and proves men and brings them into positions to develop Christian character. The poor are placed among us to call out Christian sympathy and love and to keep benevolent affections in exercise. God has purposely ordained need for human cooperation to prove men and reveal true character, honoring them as co-workers with Him, and He is not dependent on man's gold or silver to support His cause.
Both poor and rich are redeemed by Christ and are the purchase of His blood. Yet among His professed followers the poor in most cases serve Him with singleness of purpose and single-minded devotion. The rich may fasten their affections on earthly treasures and forget Christ, for the cares of this life and greed for riches eclipse the glory of the eternal world.
Christ places the poor in our midst as His representatives and identifies Himself with suffering humanity, making their necessities His own. Giving to them is giving to Him. Kindness and practical help, comfort, encouragement, and love given to poor and suffering people are accepted by Christ as if done to Him, and their needs are to be relieved with compassion.
Ongoing Call to Help
The poor are always present and remain continually among people and believers as God's legacy and heritage to them, and as part of the gospel Christ preached by words and works. God allows poor people to be in the borders of every church and to remain among believers continually, so that all may find something to do for Christ and none need feel or say there is no place to labor for Him. As long as hungry people need food, naked people need clothing, and perishing souls need the bread of life, there is work to do. That work includes a most solemn obligation, so far as lies in human power, to do for millions of perishing souls bound in ignorance and sin who have never heard Christ's love what would be desired if conditions were reversed.
The distressed, downtrodden, discouraged, hungry, suffering, naked, and poor are the proper objects of giving, and giving gifts to those who already have abundance is not God's plan. Money, capabilities, influence, grace, and capital of means are talents entrusted by God to men to be His agents and faithful stewards, to be improved by constant use to relieve need, elevate sufferers, reshape character, and represent His character. Faithful stewardship in this work determines destiny in the future life. True riches are not houses and land but riches that endure to eternal life, secured by taking close views of God's Word and eternity, believing and acting the gospel as doers of the Word, and acting a Christlike part in society without neglecting the duties of this life.
Christians cannot pass the poor by or offer only words of concern without practical steps to provide for their needs. They must provide food and clothing, and those blessed with abundance must see in a poor fellow man a needy brother and must help and encourage him so he has evidence that God has not forgotten him, that the Lord has him in mind and has given to a brother the means to supply his needs. They must also encourage him to help himself by providing ways for him to do so. Kindness and practical help, comfort, encouragement, and love given to the poor and suffering are accepted by Christ as if done to Him, and this duty calls for overcoming selfishness.
This places personal responsibility on the members of every church to care for their own poor, afflicted, and sick and to bear their own burdens, a responsibility not to be laid upon others. Toward those within their own borders believers are to show the same love and sympathy Christ would show were He in their place, and this care disciplines them to work in Christ's lines. The continuing presence of the poor calls for ongoing care and does not excuse neglect, for Christ was poor and knew deprivation, so helping people in need is part of the work to be done while there is time. It forbids doing as Judas did by neglecting poor families while driving sharp bargains for self and counting the value of one's own time and seeking gain, for he was a thief who did not care for the poor but took money for his own benefit, exacting to the last penny for every little essential thing he did.
The verse sets the spirit in which all work for God is to be done as service to the poor, so that every comfort, every gracious gift, and every coin spent needlessly calls for help to the poor and naked. Caring for the poor must not take precedence over honoring Christ and advancing His cause, for Mary's anointing was a good work and not wasteful spending, since Christ is to be honored through the consecration of our best resources. Faithful stewardship can provide for both the poor and God's cause, with the cause of Christ coming first. This truth is applied as a reason to establish wholesome, cheerful hospitals and health homes for the sick and poor without building them expensively, and to overcome selfishness in relieving the needs of others, even helping a poor, sick woman despite reluctance to accept payment.
Jesus spoke these words at the Bethany supper to defend Mary's costly anointing of Him against Judas's complaint that the ointment should have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor. Her gift was fitting and timely because He would soon be taken away by death and burial while the poor would always remain to be helped. Judas did not truly care for the poor but spoke from covetousness and theft, and Christ's rebuke exposed his greed and hardened him toward betraying his Lord for silver. Poverty was never to leave the world because God in wise providence appointed continuing differences in condition to test character, call out sympathy and love, and make the poor Christ's representatives to whom giving is giving to Him. Their abiding presence therefore lays a continuing obligation on every believer and church to relieve need by practical help while putting Christ and His cause first.
Setting and Occasion
The words were spoken at a supper six days before the Passover at the house of Lazarus in Bethany, where Jesus had stopped for rest and refreshment on His way from Jericho to Jerusalem to attend the feast. The supper was made by Simon of Bethany to honor Jesus, with Jesus seated at the table between Simon, who had been cured of leprosy, and Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead, while Martha served and Mary listened to Jesus. It belonged to His last visit to Bethany, hosted by Simon after his healing, and it drew many Jews who watched Jesus amid growing excitement about His mission. They were spoken on one occasion just before His betrayal and death.
Jesus accepted this loving hospitality and honor from friends at the supper held in His honor. He used the occasion to teach and to show His generous, social character, giving those present an opportunity to know Him, though critics condemned His conduct as worldly conformity.
Mary's Anointing Justified
Jesus defended Mary's costly anointing because the poor would always remain with the disciples while He Himself would not remain long with them in person and would soon be taken from them. His words distinguished her gift as fitting at that moment from ordinary care for the poor, which would still have continuing opportunity afterward. Her act was kept for the day of His burial, a prophetic anticipation of and preparation for His approaching death and burial, rather than something to be condemned in favor of giving the ointment's value to the poor.
Its record would be repeated to the ends of the earth and told throughout the world. She will be associated with Him and with the gospel throughout all time, her deed standing as a demonstration of love for Christ in which free and undefiled religion is knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Her generous gift came from love and gratitude because Jesus had forgiven her many sins and had raised her much-loved brother Lazarus from the dead, so that nothing was too dear to bestow on Jesus.
Those who have received salvation's gift do not calculate its value as Judas did, but love for Christ makes even their richest gifts seem unworthy. The anointing was a good work and a timely act of love for Jesus before His death and burial, not wasteful spending. Christ is to be honored through the consecration of our best resources, and such honoring of Him did not deny the duty to care for the poor.
Judas Exposed and Hardened
The saying belongs to the moment when Mary poured precious ointment and spikenard upon Jesus and Judas objected, calling it great waste and unnecessary waste that could have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor. In that objection he turned the Gospel principle of mercy to the poor into an excuse for covetousness, using concern for the poor as a plea against honoring Jesus. His protest arose in the feast scene where his covetousness became evident and was exposed.
He did not care for the poor but spoke from a close, selfish, covetous disposition that loved money. He was a thief who took for his own use and benefit money entrusted to his care to be given to the poor, exacted to the last penny for every little essential thing he did, and had not been attentive to the comforts and wants of Jesus. His covetousness and theft had corrupted his judgment and conscience, so he used concern about money as a pretext for dishonesty and often referred to the poor to excuse his covetousness. He counted a liberal offering to Jesus extravagant, prizing his Lord only enough to sell Him for a few pieces of silver, while Mary's generous gift stood as a cutting rebuke to his disposition.
The words about the poor were a more direct reproof of Judas than he had received before, rebuking and exposing the avarice and greed that had long been controlling him. Judas was vexed and annoyed by that reproof of his covetous spirit and resented it when Jesus rebuked the condemnation of the woman. His provocation opened a door through which Satan entered to control his thoughts, while avarice poisoned the life-current of his spirituality. That implied rebuke helped lead him to yield to the tempter, and he chose revenge and sold his Lord for a few pieces of silver.
The episode exposes covetousness and selfishness as Satan's snare, showing that some who profess to be waiting for their Lord are like Judas, controlled by Satan and not knowing it. God cannot approve the least degree of covetousness or selfishness but abhors the prayers and exhortations of those who indulge them. Yet in rebuking Judas Christ corrected him without forsaking him, but kept working with him still until his character could be more thoroughly developed, as He also did after rebuking Peter and John. So one who has committed errors should not be dropped or set aside but encouraged, received, and set to work where best fitted.
Why Poverty Remains
Poverty was never to leave the world, and the poor will always be present among men. In wise providence God did not purpose equality of social ranks or an equal share of temporal blessings and worldly possessions for all. To place all on an equality in worldly possessions would be the greatest misfortune to mankind.
Continuing differences in circumstances remain because the diversity of condition between rich and poor proves and develops character. Witnessing suffering and need tests and proves men and brings them into positions to develop Christian character. The poor are placed among us to call out Christian sympathy and love and to keep benevolent affections in exercise. God has purposely ordained need for human cooperation to prove men and reveal true character, honoring them as co-workers with Him, and He is not dependent on man's gold or silver to support His cause.
Both poor and rich are redeemed by Christ and are the purchase of His blood. Yet among His professed followers the poor in most cases serve Him with singleness of purpose and single-minded devotion. The rich may fasten their affections on earthly treasures and forget Christ, for the cares of this life and greed for riches eclipse the glory of the eternal world.
Christ places the poor in our midst as His representatives and identifies Himself with suffering humanity, making their necessities His own. Giving to them is giving to Him. Kindness and practical help, comfort, encouragement, and love given to poor and suffering people are accepted by Christ as if done to Him, and their needs are to be relieved with compassion.
Ongoing Call to Help
The poor are always present and remain continually among people and believers as God's legacy and heritage to them, and as part of the gospel Christ preached by words and works. God allows poor people to be in the borders of every church and to remain among believers continually, so that all may find something to do for Christ and none need feel or say there is no place to labor for Him. As long as hungry people need food, naked people need clothing, and perishing souls need the bread of life, there is work to do. That work includes a most solemn obligation, so far as lies in human power, to do for millions of perishing souls bound in ignorance and sin who have never heard Christ's love what would be desired if conditions were reversed.
The distressed, downtrodden, discouraged, hungry, suffering, naked, and poor are the proper objects of giving, and giving gifts to those who already have abundance is not God's plan. Money, capabilities, influence, grace, and capital of means are talents entrusted by God to men to be His agents and faithful stewards, to be improved by constant use to relieve need, elevate sufferers, reshape character, and represent His character. Faithful stewardship in this work determines destiny in the future life. True riches are not houses and land but riches that endure to eternal life, secured by taking close views of God's Word and eternity, believing and acting the gospel as doers of the Word, and acting a Christlike part in society without neglecting the duties of this life.
Christians cannot pass the poor by or offer only words of concern without practical steps to provide for their needs. They must provide food and clothing, and those blessed with abundance must see in a poor fellow man a needy brother and must help and encourage him so he has evidence that God has not forgotten him, that the Lord has him in mind and has given to a brother the means to supply his needs. They must also encourage him to help himself by providing ways for him to do so. Kindness and practical help, comfort, encouragement, and love given to the poor and suffering are accepted by Christ as if done to Him, and this duty calls for overcoming selfishness.
This places personal responsibility on the members of every church to care for their own poor, afflicted, and sick and to bear their own burdens, a responsibility not to be laid upon others. Toward those within their own borders believers are to show the same love and sympathy Christ would show were He in their place, and this care disciplines them to work in Christ's lines. The continuing presence of the poor calls for ongoing care and does not excuse neglect, for Christ was poor and knew deprivation, so helping people in need is part of the work to be done while there is time. It forbids doing as Judas did by neglecting poor families while driving sharp bargains for self and counting the value of one's own time and seeking gain, for he was a thief who did not care for the poor but took money for his own benefit, exacting to the last penny for every little essential thing he did.
The verse sets the spirit in which all work for God is to be done as service to the poor, so that every comfort, every gracious gift, and every coin spent needlessly calls for help to the poor and naked. Caring for the poor must not take precedence over honoring Christ and advancing His cause, for Mary's anointing was a good work and not wasteful spending, since Christ is to be honored through the consecration of our best resources. Faithful stewardship can provide for both the poor and God's cause, with the cause of Christ coming first. This truth is applied as a reason to establish wholesome, cheerful hospitals and health homes for the sick and poor without building them expensively, and to overcome selfishness in relieving the needs of others, even helping a poor, sick woman despite reluctance to accept payment.