https://odb.org/2025/07/17/loving-jesus-most
Deuteronomy 15:1–11 (NIV): 15 At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts. 2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people because the LORD’s time for cancelling debts has been proclaimed. 3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you. 4 However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. 6 For the LORD, your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations, but none will rule over you.
7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. 8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. 9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the LORD against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. 10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then, because of this, the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. 11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.
I have always remembered Jesus’s saying, “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me” (John 12:8). Thus, it was OK to pour a pint of perfume worth a year’s wages on Jesus instead of selling it to give the proceeds to the poor. It doesn’t mean that helping the poor is not important. It’s just that honouring Jesus is more important at that point in time. The reason is God in flesh, the Immanuel is with us for a fraction of time, and He will soon sacrifice Himself for the sins of mankind.
Furthermore, as Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 15:11 above, the context is there are already provisions in the Mosaic law dealing with the poor. As the LORD will bless everyone in Israel, there should not be, in the first place, poor people. But if there are, the law provides for the year of jubilee to free them of their debts while mandating the well off to help the needy, not really expecting to be repaid. Instead, the LORD will bless those who lend for their generosity.
In applying these principles to modern times, I believe the correct approach is that it is not our responsibility to resolve societal issues. These are macro and structural issues to be managed and rectified by the government of the day that collects income tax, duties, and other taxes from the general public and corporations. In other words, these issues are just too big and are way beyond us. Even if we are billionaires, what more when we are just ordinary wage earners. That is why Jesus said you will always have the poor among you.
Having said that, it doesn’t mean that we mustn’t help the poor or needy among us. We must still help them. Deuteronomy 15 compels us to if we have the means. Yet there are times when other priorities are to be pursued as in the case of the pint of perfume for Jesus. In other words, if it is time for the church to invest in a new 88-key portable digital piano, we shouldn’t say that the money should instead be given to the poor. There are priorities that need to be pursued, and yet we should help the poor and needy in our midst at the same time, for example, by creating a fund to facilitate those in need to attend the church camp.
Ronnie's Thoughts 