Should we help someone who does not deserve it?
This is my personal experience. I know a person who used to take lift in my bike always when he sees me. He is healthy enough to walk and his office is just opposite to the bus stop. Yet, he always wants to be in ease and calls me whenever I go past him in my motorcycle. Quite often, I feel uncomfortable while taking him in my motorcycle, because of the seating space. I was OK when he called me for the first time and second, but started feeling annoyed when he started making it regular. Sometimes, I wish I would deny him for a lift. Proverbs 3:27 says "....to whom it is due" contrary to my case. I feel he is taking advantage of me.
Proverbs 3:27
ESV - 27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
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Asked August 08 2014
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Arun Kumar
For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Leo Flood
Yes, he is taking advantage of the situation, but there is a reason. We need to dig deeper into why people do the things that they do. Ask the question; "Why do you always take advantage of my providing you a ride each time you see me?" do not be surprise of the answer. You make be the friend that that person needs; you may find out that they need someone to talk with; they may even be attracted to you for a relationship. Ask! If you can help this individual then continue to do so even if they may seem to be taking advantage; your reward is in the New Kingdom.
Bren Stewart
I have a similar experience that has been going for 13 years. I have a friend who I discovered looking at child porn...I reported him to the police...he was charged....was in jail for 6 months waiting for his sentencing...he was sentenced: time served....
I do not agree with what he has done. I need to make that clear.
As a Christian, I believe that I have a duty, of sorts, to continue to be his friend.
Everyone [Christian pastors as well] is badgering me to get as far away from him as possible because these kind of 'people' cannot be healed or changed. Yet, I thought that Jesus is teaching us that nothing is impossible with God.
Further, in Mathew 25: 31-46 He challenges us as to vs.45 "The King will reply, I tell you whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me."
Could it not be possible, as Leo P Flood suggests, that God has brought these 'people' into our life in order for us to learn something about ourselves that we are not seeing, that need some adjustments so that we are walking in the same footsteps as our Lord? Is it not possible that these 'people' need us to find Jesus to heal them in His power as opposed to the worldly notion that they are hopeless and should be abandoned?
I think St. Paul reminds us that we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God.... yet He Jesus died for all of us....including my friend.
Last but not least, I worry about who am I to judge my friend? My task for God is to forgive.