A caller to a national Christian radio network was relating how God had convicted and blessed her through an experience of passing out practical gifts to homeless people in her city. It impressed upon her that if God cared about such people who were the least deserving, He must also care a lot about her.

“Least deserving.” Had I heard her correctly? Those words sounded benign as they came from a sweet-voiced saint, but the concept appalled me. Did she misspeak and really mean that these were people who had the least means, or that they were lowest in the eyes of the world? Or was she exposing an attitude that she was among the more deserving, granting gifts to those who were the least deserving?

When Jesus talked about “the least of these” (Matt. 25:40), He clearly wasn’t talking about the relative value of a person. And the Apostle Paul ministered to a lot of people who were down and out, yet he was so convicted by his ugly rebellion against God that he called himself the chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).

I’ve grown sensitive to this issue after studying more about urban ministry, with which my congregation is directly involved, prompted in part by the location of our building. One new Reformed book talks about how we can carry an arrogant atttitude when we reach out to those who have great physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.

I chafed at this characterization at first, but then I thought about some of the subtle thoughts I’ve had when talking to people in such circumstances. At times I have to admit that I felt I was bestowing something good on them as though I were the giver of the gift rather than the clay pot (2 Cor. 4:7) that God was using to carry the gift to that person. I’ve also convinced myself that I understand their problems and solutions better than they do. At times I probably do understand better, but at other times I’ve presumed far too much.

Evidence of arrogance might be easier to notice when you are the recipient of the ministry rather than the channel of it.

What is needed, then, is a lot of humility. That is a theme of the book I alluded to earlier, which is called When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself (Moody). It’s written by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert of the Chalmers Center, which is connected with Covenant College. I don’t see eye to eye with the authors on everything, but their words have humbled me and have caused me to ponder many things I hadn’t thought deeply enough about. We all fall into Paul’s category as the chief of sinners, and so the gift we carry is some very good news that we know about firsthand. It’s good to see Reformed Presbyterians among those who are seeking to humbly carry the good news to the poor, as we read about in this month’s articles on Sudan, Haiti, and urban Atlanta.