Worse Than An Infidel? #38

The Jews had a saying that went like this: "...As a man is bound to provide for his wife, so he is bound to provide for his sons and daughters, the little ones, until they are six years old; and from thenceforward he gives them food till they are grown up, according to the order of the wise men; if he will not, they reprove him, and make him ashamed, and oblige him; yea, if he will not, they publish him in the congregation, and say such an one is cruel, and will not provide for his children; and lo, he is worse than an unclean fowl, which feeds her young.'' (Maimon. Hilchot Ishot, c. 12. sect. 14.) This teaching was inferred from the foundation of the Decalogue, which commanded honor within the context of a family. The explicit command was for the children to honor their parents, but the implicit obligation followed that the parent must obviously care for the affairs of their children and house. This immutable principle of financial stewardship and family fitness applied to all the faithful and obedient Hebrew people who lived righteous before the law of God. This included Mary and Joseph, as stewards of the Christ child, but also later extended to each of the married disciples of Jesus, who, despite being in full-time ministry with Him, had lawful obligations to their own wives and children. The principle obviously extended itself upon Jesus Christ, personally, as the head of His ministry. Therefore, from a strictly Biblical sense of poverty being the result of personal sin, Jesus COULD NOT have been living in true poverty as the result of His personal failure(s) to diligently obey the Law of God in His work ethic, nor could have Mary and Joseph, nor could any of the disciples who followed Christ under the strictest sense of how Scripture defines abject poverty. Along this same vein of thinking, the Great Apostle declared: "But those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers." (See 1 Timothy 5:8.) The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary states: "Worse than an infidel—because even an infidel (or unbeliever) is taught by nature to provide for his own relatives, and generally recognizes the duty; the Christian who does not so, is worse (Mt 5:46, 47). He has less excuse with his greater light than the infidel who may break the laws of nature. This truth regarding the concept of abject poverty and one's duty to one's own relate to so much more than mere financial stewardship (but certainly include it) and must be understood even if it requires the modern Christian to repudiate popularly held sacred cows concerning the alleged "poverty" of Mary and Joseph, the "poverty" of Jesus Christ, or the "poverty" of His twelve disciples. When did Jesus TRULY become "poor" and why? Is it true that Jesus was so poor he was "a homeless man" as so many have claimed? Pastor Gordon continues to show the evidences of Scripture to the contrary, and by doing so, provides a basis for the modern Christian to come to faith on something more reliable than the traditions of men. God has commanded for man to take dominion of the earth and subdue it. This requires man to overcome the sins that cause his own poverty. Jesus became poor on the cross and defeated poverty by His resurrection!