Let’s begin with your last question first, since it is the easiest to answer. Christ would have us to treat beggars the same way that He would have us to treat everyone else; namely, the same way that we want to be treated. Remember the Golden Rule: “And as you would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31). In His Sermon on the Mount, Christ taught that treating people the same way that we want to be treated is all it takes to fulfill “the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12).
Now, does this mean that we are obligated to give to every beggar we encounter. No, not at all. For instance, the prodigal son may have never come to himself and returned to the Father if he had found begging profitable (Luke 15:11-24). It was the fact that “no one gave to him” that led to his destitution and repentance. Unlike the prodigal son, many prodigal souls in the world today are being kept up in their sin and kept from the pig pen by well-meaning parents, churches, charities and government programs.
Sometimes the best way to help someone is to not help them; otherwise, they may never have to face the consequences of their actions, which alone causes them to come to their senses and to Christ, the world’s only Savior. Since we would always want others to do what is best for us, this tough love is in no way a violation of Christ’s Golden Rule.
Since the Mosaic Law made ample provision for the poor in Israel, begging was not a common practice among the Old Testament Hebrews. There is not even a term in biblical Hebrew to denote a professional beggar. By the time of Christ, however, begging had become a common practice. Jerusalem, in particularly, appears to have had no shortage of beggars. The reason for the preponderance of beggars in Jerusalem may have been twofold. First, almsgiving—giving to the poor—was seen as being especially praiseworthy and as proof of one’s righteousness (Matthew 6:1-4). Second, begging was customarily concentrated around holy places, since the poor presumed that the pious would prove more charitable than the profane.
For the most part, beggars in the New Testament appear to have been genuine paupers whose destitution was caused by circumstances beyond their control, such as physical handicaps or infirmities. Far from condemning the needy for being reduced to begging, Jesus paused to perform miracles on their behalf (Mark 10:46-52; John 9:10-11). He also contrasted a righteous beggar named Lazarus with an uncharitable rich man (Luke 16:19-31). According to Jesus, when the “beggar died” he “was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom,” but when the rich man died, he “lifted up his eyes” in hell, “being in torment.”
Like their Lord, Peter and John also worked a miracle on behalf of a beggar when they healed the crippled man at the temple gate called Beautiful (Acts 3:1-10). Furthermore, the New Testament church followed our Lord’s perfect example of attending to the needy by putting a heavy premium on ministry to the poor (Acts 4:32-35; 6:1-6; 11:27-30; Romans 15:25-27; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4).
Now, this is not to say that the New Testament church had a bleeding-heart benevolence ministry that doled out handouts to every bum that came along. First, the church’s benevolence ministry was in house; it was only intended for its own. Second, not every member qualified for assistance, only those who were truly needy, such as “widows indeed”—respected, faithful, elderly, Christian women who had no family to support them (1 Timothy 5:3-10). Third, each Christian was responsible for caring for their own families. Any Christian who failed to do so was to be put out of the church for denying the faith and being “worse than an infidel” (1 Timothy 5:8). Finally, as Paul admonished the Thessalonians, any believer who refused to work shouldn’t eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
Unfortunately, many modern-day beggars are more like the “sluggard” described in Proverbs 20:4 than the beggars who populated 1st century Jerusalem. They are men and women of sound minds and bodies who just happen to believe that work is a four letter word. The only thing that keeps them form laboring for a living is laziness, which the Bible definitely condemns as a sin (Proverbs 6:6, 9-11; 10:4-5, 26; 12:24; 13:4; 15:19; 18:9; 19:15, 24; 20:4, 13; 21:25-26; 23:21; 24:30-31, 33-34; 26:14-16; Ecclesiastes 4:5; 10:18; Isaiah 56:10; Ezekiel 16:49; Matthew 20:6-7; 25:26-27; Romans 12:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11; 1 Timothy 5:13; Hebrews 6:10).
