How to Handle Panhandlers

00:00:00.000 | Chasten from Savannah, Georgia asks, "Pastor John, should we as Christians give

00:00:09.720 | to people begging on the street?" Well that question is not foreign to me. I

00:00:15.520 | have wrestled with it for 33 years because that's how long I've lived in

00:00:21.520 | this neighborhood. When I lived out in New Brighton, I virtually never faced

00:00:26.040 | that. For the last 33 years, I have faced it almost every day, just to give the

00:00:31.880 | listener a taste of where I live. Today, today, I was driving over, no, I was

00:00:38.800 | walking over and a man with his little cardboard sheet saying he needs work or

00:00:45.440 | needs money was standing at the corner of the exit ramp of, onto 11th Avenue and

00:00:51.040 | the street where I live. So I deal with that person, those people, most

00:00:56.440 | often right there, walking by them rather than driving by them. So yeah, it's real

00:01:03.440 | and here's my, here's the answer and it's where I am right now, it's what I think

00:01:07.800 | is biblical. My answer, should you give to those who ask, say knocking at your

00:01:13.400 | door or asking on the street, and my answer is usually yes. Usually the

00:01:22.160 | default should be yes, and here's my reason. Selfishness is so dominant in my

00:01:30.760 | heart, I am reflexively hard toward this person. He makes me mad. I want to say get

00:01:39.960 | a job. I'm not even interested in his story, I'm not interested in his

00:01:43.880 | condition. My reflex is anger, my reflex is get a life, and I think that's a

00:01:49.840 | sinful reflex. I do not think that's godly for me to respond that way, I think

00:01:55.240 | that's the old nature creeping up in me, and I think that's the reason Jesus said

00:02:01.680 | the radical things he did to me in Matthew 5. You have heard that it was said,

00:02:07.480 | "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," but I say to you, don't resist the one

00:02:12.240 | who's evil. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to the other. You can

00:02:17.440 | imagine how hard that is. I hate to be slapped on the cheek, and Jesus says turn

00:02:22.000 | the other cheek, because he knows that would be a miracle, that would be a

00:02:25.180 | miracle in me if I turned the other cheek and had some sense of compassion

00:02:29.680 | for this person. And then he adds, "If anyone would sue you, take your tunic, let

00:02:34.480 | him have your cloak," so we know we're being ripped off. A lot of people say, "Yeah,

00:02:38.120 | but he's ripping me off." Well of course you're being ripped off, you know it. In

00:02:41.240 | this text you know it. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him too. Give

00:02:46.640 | to the one who begs from you, do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

00:02:50.760 | Now I've got to have some really good reasons to go against that text, so my

00:02:56.160 | first answer is default response, generosity. Be ripped off. Risk being

00:03:03.400 | ripped off rather than being shrewd enough to say, "I didn't get ripped off." I

00:03:08.400 | have never slept well reminding myself how shrewd I was not being ripped off. I

00:03:14.280 | have often slept well thinking, "Okay, I probably got taken advantage of, but my

00:03:19.880 | heart was good today. My heart was right today." Now having said that, I know a lot

00:03:25.860 | of veteran urban people are getting on my case right now, having said that, I want

00:03:30.280 | to say I don't think that's an absolute. I don't think giving to the one who asks

00:03:36.600 | is the only way Jesus means for us to love people. So here are a few other

00:03:42.320 | principles. Love does no harm. Romans 13, 10. Love does no wrong to a neighbor,

00:03:50.120 | doesn't harm a neighbor, therefore love fulfills the law. So you do have to ask,

00:03:54.040 | "Am I harming him?" Love aims to do good. You shall love your neighbor and hate

00:04:01.080 | your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute

00:04:05.760 | you. That means pray for their good, doesn't pray for their harm, and so you

00:04:10.080 | want this person's good, and you don't want to just feed their bad habits, and

00:04:15.720 | that's the argument that's usually used for why you shouldn't give to them. And

00:04:20.640 | then love has real compassion. The parable of the good

00:04:25.960 | Samaritan, it closes with what? Who proved to be neighbor to this man? And

00:04:32.400 | the answer is the one who showed compassion, and Jesus said, "Go do that. Go

00:04:36.840 | be compassionate." There are ways to measure your love rather than just

00:04:43.120 | giving. Whatever you would that others would do to you, do so to them, and would

00:04:48.040 | you want others to just feed your bad habits? So here's what happens. I

00:04:54.280 | have a person who's there, and if I don't have time to do anything else, I think I

00:04:58.480 | should just give. If I have time to do more, I want to have a conversation.

00:05:03.480 | I want to say, "You know, I have found in this neighborhood that just giving money

00:05:08.040 | really doesn't help people. People are not helped. I want to help you. What do

00:05:12.600 | you really need?" "Oh, I need a bus trip to get over to St. Paul to see my mom." I said,

00:05:17.840 | "Well, look, I'll take you." "No, I don't want you to take me." That's a huge

00:05:24.560 | commitment to say, "I'll take you. Get in the car." I mean, I have gotten in the car

00:05:28.520 | at 10 o'clock at night and driven people over to North Minneapolis, and I

00:05:34.400 | know that they tell me to let them out, and it's nowhere. It's just nowhere, and I

00:05:40.000 | know I've been taken advantage of because they were trying in the car to

00:05:43.280 | get what they wanted all the way along, but when I get home, I sleep well. Instead

00:05:49.480 | of saying, "You idiot! It's 10 o'clock at night. Why are you knocking on my door?

00:05:53.120 | Get out of here. Come back in the morning." I go back up, and I think, "Well, what was

00:05:56.920 | that?" That wasn't--that was pure flesh. That was pure flesh to respond like that.

00:06:03.600 | So, I suppose the short answer is default, give, then do more, and in some cases

00:06:12.560 | say, "No money, but I'll take and get you the food you need. I'll get you the

00:06:17.360 | diapers you need. I'll get you where you need to go, but I don't think it's wise

00:06:21.680 | for me to give you money." It always humbles and convicts me to hear of the

00:06:25.800 | ways that you care for the homeless in your neighborhood. Pastor John, thank you,

00:06:28.520 | and thank you for listening to this podcast. Please email your questions to

00:06:31.120 | us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. At DesiringGod.org, you'll find

00:06:35.040 | thousands of other free resources from John Piper. I'm your host, Tony Ranke.

00:06:37.880 | Thanks for listening.

00:06:40.640 | (SILENCE)

How to Handle Panhandlers

Chapters