“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and the sojourner: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 23.22

A just society requires all members to contribute love for their neighbors, whether they are poor or wealthy. Those who will not work when they are capable of doing so should be left to the consequences of their sluggardliness (2 Thess. 3.10). It is incumbent on local community leaders to discover ways, analogous to the work of gleaning, of helping to meet the needs of local poor. These might include keeping part-time menial work available, identifying “community work” opportunities and helping to fund them, offering job counseling and training, and so forth.

The poor in any community are both the legitimate concern of the community and a source of blessing, and not a burden, to it. Because even the poor are expected to contribute to the wellbeing of their community, making sure that work opportunities are available for those who have fallen on hard times is a way of helping them to fulfill their God-given purposes and of allowing communities to practice neighbor love in truly edifying and contributing ways.

Work and service are ways poor people can fulfill the demands of neighbor-love. These also provide contexts in which those with means can practice neighbor-love toward those without.

But work is not the only option a local community can employ in helping to meet the needs of its poor.

T. M. Moore

Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and study the question for yourself.