Ask Your Preacher
Doctrine
Helping Others
Thursday, May 30, 2019How long does God expect for you to help someone who is doing very little to help himself? This person also puts a huge guilt trip on me… saying that he will commit suicide, be homeless, and get on drugs if I make him take care of himself. What does God expect of me? I want to do right by my Savior.
Sincerely,
Feeling Conned
Dear Feeling Conned,
The Bible says that there is a balance between helping people and enabling laziness and other sinful behavior. For example, God says that if someone won’t work, the cure is that they shouldn’t eat either (2 Thess 3:10). God commands us to not let people “mooch” off of us because that is just helping them to continue to sin.
Don’t get us wrong; God also says that it is very important that we help carry one another’s burdens in Gal 6:2. However, just three verses down in Gal 6:5, it says that everyone must also be ready to carry their own burdens. The point is this – we should ALWAYS help those who are overwhelmed by a crisis, but when someone is unwilling to help themselves… you can’t drag them to success.