A just society takes responsibility for its own poor.

“For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’” Deuteronomy 15.11

The goal of society and, thus, of public policy, is to pursue and maintain justice. Justice, as we have seen, is not defined in terms of material wealth, but of love for God and neighbors. It is not the goal of society to ensure equal material prosperity, but equal justice for all its members.

This being the case, and the ideal of material equality being unattainable at any rate, every society must expect that there will be a certain amount of inequality of income and wealth among its members. This is not inherently evil, although it can be, if justice is compromised. A society can be just and still contain inequalities of wealth. The fact that such inequalities will exist, however, must not be allowed to breed complacency or indifference toward the problem of poverty.

No society can be just where inequality of justice is the norm. Members of a just society, therefore, will take care to ensure that neighbor-love is extended to all members, according to their situation and need. Justice entails certain specific obligations on the part of the rest of society toward those who are unable to meet their most basic needs.

“For you always have the poor with you,” Jesus explained, thus affirming the teaching of God’s Law (Mk. 14.7). It will not be a goal of a just society to eliminate poverty. To undertake such a mission is to deny the authority of God’s Word and the teaching of Jesus Christ. However, no society is just in which indifference toward or neglect of the poor is considered acceptable. The poor in any society are the neighbors of all members of the society, and all the members of any society thus are responsible to “open wide” their hands to meet the needs of the poor.

Let us take it as a matter of public policy, therefore, to discover the Biblical teaching concerning the poor and to adopt policies that will enable us to fulfill the responsibilities of neighbor-love toward them.

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