1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian Work - Cultivating The Garden | Page 9

This is direct aid to meet physical / material / social needs. The Good Samaritan
provides physical protection, emergency medical treatment, and a rent subsidy for
the man he finds beaten and half-dead in the street (Luke 10 v 29 – 37).
Relief includes helping at temporary shelters or food pantries or clothing closets for
the homeless, providing medical services or crisis counselling, and so on.
Development
This is more about what is needed to bring a person or community to selfsufficiency. In the Old Testament, when a slave’s debt was erased and he was
released, God directed that his former master send him out with grain, tools, and
resources for a new, self-sufficient economic life (Deuteronomy15 v 12 – 14).
Development includes, for example, providing education, job creation and training,
housing development and home ownership, and so on in a community.
Reform
This is about changing social conditions and structures that aggravate or cause
poverty and dependency. Job tells us that he not only clothed the naked, but he
“broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth” (Job 29 v
17). The prophets denounced unfair wages (Jeremiah 22 v 13), corruptbusiness
practices (Amos 8 v 6), legal systems weighted in favour of the rich and influential
(Deuteronomy 24 v 17; Leviticus 19 v 15), and a system of lending capital that
gouges the person of modest means (Exodus 22 v 25–27).
Reform includes, for example,working for a particular community to receive better
police protection, fairerbanking practices, better laws, and so on.
Challenge Point:
Answer the following questions to help you think through these points:
- Who is your neighbour? Make a list of some people or groups that are in need
around you.
- How do you typically view these people or groups? What emotions come to mind?
- How does your view differ from God’s view?
- How can you be a neighbour to them? Be practical.