20 Bible Verses on Caring for the Poor

B oth of my parents were born in Korea where they experienced deep poverty after living through the periods of Japanese occupation, World War II and the horrific Korean War where approximately 3 million people died. South Korea was the poorest country in the world at the end of that war. 

Eventually our family emigrated to Brooklyn where I was born and grew up. We had a relatively lower middle class life until my father lost his engineering job when I was in middle school. He couldn’t find a job so he eventually gave up and went off to Bible college to become a teacher on the mission field. 

My ‘umma’ was left trying to figure out how to survive with four children and barely able to speak English. But she was used to this - surviving with very little. This is how our family survived in Korea.

We lived in survival mode for the rest of my childhood until I got my own job after college. I knew that we grew up relatively poor compared to the other families in our neighborhood who had alot more stuff than I did as a child. However, we always had food on the table.

I didn’t really understand my parent’s extreme frugality growing up. I didn’t understand my family’s history of living in deep poverty in a war torn country that had been occupied by a foreign power.

Fast forward years later, I organized my first mission team to Haiti. I went into the slums of the ravines in Port-au-Prince for the first time. I went into the tiny single room houses that had to fit 12 people in this space. It seemed physically impossible. Their ‘kitchen’ was the outside space with a small charcoal pit. The bathroom was a shared latrine pit somewhere in the neighborhood.

My wife and I stayed at our mission worker’s ministry house. It received 2 hours of electricity a day, all at around 2am at night. There was no running water. We took bucket baths like everyone else.

When I came home to my apartment in Manhattan, I flicked on the light switch in my bathroom and turned on the faucet - and I wept. I realized how much I took for granted everything we had in America.

I would never be the same after that trip. I started to understand my parents a little more after that trip.

I thought I understood ‘poverty’ and ‘caring for the poor’, but that trip launched me on a journey that I’m still traveling and still trying to understand. I thought ‘solving poverty’ would be rather simple. It turned out to be one of the most complex problems I’ve ever encountered. Building global computer systems was easy compared to this.

I started to read Scriptures with a different lens than before my first exposure to poverty outside the USA.

What was God’s heart for the poor? What’s an appropriate response to it? What about ‘When Helping Hurts’? What about creating dependencies? Is it wrong to help?

These are more difficult questions to answer than it seems. And the subject of another post for another time.

But let’s see what Scripture says in these 20 verses.

20 Bible Verses

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God's Heart for the Poor

Scriptures make it clear that God has a special, tender concern for the poor. He hears their cries and promises not to forsake them.

1

My whole being will exclaim, “Who is like you, Lord? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them.”

— Psalm 35:10

2

He [God] raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; He seats them with princes, with the princes of His people.

— Psalm 113:7-8

3

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

— Proverbs 14:31

4

The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

— Isaiah 41:17

5

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.

— Luke 6:20-21a

Commands to Care for the Poor

God takes care of the poor through the acts of mercy of His people. He consistently instructs His people to be openhanded, defend the poor and needy and to look after the orphan and the widow.

6

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

— Leviticus 19:9-10

7

Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.

— Deuteronomy 15:11

8

Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

— Proverbs 31:8-9

9

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

— James 1:27

10

If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?

— 1 John 3:17

Promises for Those Who Give

When we give to the poor we shouldn’t expect there to be any gain from it. At the same time, God does promise that He will take care of us. There’s a blessing in giving, especially to those that can not repay.

11

Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble.

— Psalm 41:1

12

Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and will be repaid in full.

— Proverbs 19:17

13

The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.

— Proverbs 22:9

14

The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.

— Proverbs 22:9

15

Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed.

— Proverbs 28:27

15

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

— Luke 6:38

Jesus and the New Testament Call

Jesus stripped Himself of His riches and glory in order to dwell among us. He wasn’t born in a rich Manhattan hospital - he was born in a stable with the animals. He wasn’t born into a rich, royal family - he was born into a working class family. He was a refugee as a child as he fled the wrath and jealousy of Herod. He understood poverty experientially.

Jesus healed the sick, welcomed the outcast, and fed the hungry. His mission wasn’t just spiritual—it was holistic. This is the very picture of what we’re doing at World Compassion Fellowship.

16

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

— Matthew 19:21

17

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

— Matthew 25:35-36

18

But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

— Luke 14:13-14

19

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

— 2 Corinthians 8:9

20

All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor — the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

— Galatians 2:10

Join Us in Serving the Poor

We believe the Church should be the hands and feet of Jesus in a hurting world. If your heart is stirred by what God’s Word says about the poor, we invite you to join us in practical compassion. Contact us to learn more about how you can help. Donate today and make a lasting impact for the Kingdom.

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