Are We Refusing to Help?

"How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?"

1 John 3:17

The imperative to care for the poor is one of the most consistent requirements of Scripture.

Store Up Treasures in Heaven

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

Jesus of Nazareth (from Matthew 6)

A Living Sacrifice

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

The Apostle Paul, Romans 12:1

Consider the lilies...

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?"

Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 6:25-30

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind...

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect."

The Apostle Paul, Romans 12:2

"This world" is Paul's term for the cultural worldview in which we all live. This world is permeated through and through by "Sin" - not just the sins we commit, but a cosmic Actor, a force that is more powerful than humanity and opposed to God.
According to Paul, the baptized have the freedom to escape Sin's clutches and experience a life in Christ. We no longer have to live by the world's rules, following the world's values and evaluating our lives with the world's goals in mind. Instead, we can change from the inside out - experience metamorphosis - by having our minds renewed, by receiving a new worldview whose source is God.