The gospel and poverty

What is poverty? It can be easy to see it as strictly a material or circumstantial issue. “If these people just had enough food or water or education or healthcare,” we think, “then everything would be fine.”

It’s true that poverty limits access to these vital things, and it is important that we work to see those needs met. But there’s more to poverty than material concerns. In fact, those material concerns are symptoms of something deeper—a spiritual condition.

Our world is broken because our relationship with God is broken.

The spiritual nature of poverty

The opening chapters of the Bible show the creation of a perfect world, one God declares “very good” (Genesis 1:31). God, humanity and the rest of creation lived in perfect harmony.

It was a world in which poverty could not exist.

That is, until sin entered the world. In Genesis 3, we see the first humans choose to rebel against their Creator and destroy all that was very good about their relationship with God, each other and the world around them.

Poverty became the default setting of the world.

Where there was once harmony between God, humanity and creation, there was now discord. Where once the ground produced fruit in abundance, now even a meager existence would require struggle and toil (Genesis 3:17-19).

Because we as humans choose our own way over God’s, the world around us exhibits the symptoms of this brokenness. Whether it is violence, environmental degradation, exploitation, poverty or slavery–all suffering and injustice stems from humanity’s broken choices that lead to brokenness in the world around us.

An eternal solution to poverty

While that might seem bleak, there is good news! Jesus came to redeem all that is broken and restore our relationship with God—both for those of us living in material comfort and for those of us living in material poverty.That doesn’t mean Jesus promises life without suffering. We still live in a broken and fallen world.