19 Bible Verses About Helping Others in Need

Leviticus 19:9-10

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.”

Reflection: In Leviticus 19 this harvest law comes just before commands not to steal, lie or oppress a neighbour. The farmer does not hand anything over; he leaves the edges of the field and the fallen grapes for the poor and the sojourner to gather themselves. Leviticus 23:22 repeats the law, and the Book of Ruth shows it at work: Ruth the Moabite gleans “in the field after the reapers” of Boaz (Ruth 2:3).

Deuteronomy 15:11

“For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’”

Reflection: The verse closes a law about the seventh year, when debts between Israelites were released. Verse 9 warns against refusing a loan because “the year of release is near,” and verse 8 tells the lender to “lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.” Verse 4 had said “there will be no poor among you,” on condition that Israel obeyed (verse 5); verse 11 expects that the poor will remain and makes open-handedness the standing command.

Isaiah 58:6-7

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”

Reflection: The people complain that they have fasted and God has not noticed (verse 3). God answers that on their fast days they oppress their workers and quarrel, and he names the fast he wants: freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless poor and clothing the naked. The phrase “not to hide yourself from your own flesh” treats the person in need as kin. Verse 10 adds the promise: “if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness.”

Proverbs 14:31

“Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.”

Reflection: The proverb ties the poor man to God as his Maker. Oppressing him insults the one who made him, and generosity to the needy honours God. Proverbs 17:5 makes the same link with mocking the poor.

Proverbs 19:17

“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.”

Reflection: Generosity to the poor is described as a loan to the Lord, and the Lord is the one who repays. The giver is not told to expect anything back from the person helped.

Proverbs 21:13

“Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.”

Reflection: The proverb turns the poor man’s cry back on the one who ignores it: the person who refuses to hear will himself call out and not be answered. It does not say who fails to answer him, which leaves room for both God and other people.

Proverbs 31:8-9

“Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

Reflection: These are the words King Lemuel’s mother taught him. She warns him against drink, which would make rulers “forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted” (verse 5), and then tells him to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. The help asked of a king is judgment: defending the rights of the poor in court.

Luke 3:11

“And he answered them, ‘Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.’”

Reflection: The crowds coming to John for baptism ask, “What then shall we do?” His first answer is to share: a second tunic and spare food go to the person who has none. Tax collectors and soldiers then ask the same question and get answers about their own work: collect no more than authorised, extort no one, be content with wages.

Matthew 5:42

“Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.”

Reflection: The command closes a paragraph of the Sermon on the Mount that begins with “An eye for an eye” and goes on to turning the other cheek, giving up a cloak as well as a tunic, and going a second mile. Giving to the one who begs and not refusing the one who borrows belong to the same teaching about not standing on one’s rights.

Matthew 6:3-4

“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Reflection: Jesus assumes his hearers will give to the needy and addresses how. He tells them to “sound no trumpet” when they give, as the hypocrites do “in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others” (verse 2); those hypocrites have received their reward. Giving that even the giver’s left hand does not know about is seen by the Father, who “will reward you.”

Luke 10:33-34

“But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.”

Reflection: A lawyer, wanting to justify himself, asks Jesus “who is my neighbor?” In the parable a priest and a Levite see the wounded man and pass by on the other side; the Samaritan binds his wounds, carries him to an inn and the next day leaves two denarii with the innkeeper, promising to repay anything more spent. Jesus ends by asking which of the three “proved to be a neighbor,” and tells the lawyer, “You go, and do likewise.”

Matthew 25:35-40

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

Reflection: In the scene of the Son of Man judging the nations, the King names six needs: hunger, thirst, being a stranger, nakedness, sickness and prison. Both groups are surprised, the righteous because they did not know they were serving him and the others because they did not know they were neglecting him. The King calls those who were helped “the least of these my brothers”; elsewhere in Matthew, Jesus calls his disciples his brothers (Matthew 12:49-50; 28:10).

Acts 20:35

“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Reflection: Paul is speaking to the elders of the church at Ephesus, whom he called to meet him at Miletus. Just before, he reminds them that his own hands supplied his needs and those of his companions (verse 34). Working hard in order to help the weak is the example he leaves, and he backs it with a saying of Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Romans 12:13

“Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”

Reflection: The command comes in a list that begins “Let love be genuine” (verse 9). “The saints” are fellow believers, and later in the letter Paul is on his way to Jerusalem with a contribution from Macedonia and Achaia “for the poor among the saints” (Romans 15:25-26).

Galatians 6:2

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Reflection: The verse follows the instruction to restore gently a believer “caught in any transgression” and to keep watch on oneself (verse 1). Three verses later Paul writes that “each will have to bear his own load” (verse 5): Christians carry weights for one another, and each still answers for his own work.

1 Thessalonians 5:14

“And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.”

Reflection: Paul names three kinds of people in the church and gives each a different response: the idle are admonished, the fainthearted encouraged, the weak helped. Patience is asked toward all of them.

Hebrews 13:16

“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

Reflection: The verse before speaks of “a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (verse 15). Doing good and sharing possessions are named as sacrifices too, and the writer says God is pleased with them. The same chapter asks for hospitality to strangers and remembrance of prisoners (verses 2-3).

James 2:14-17

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Reflection: James pictures a brother or sister without clothes or food who is sent away with “Go in peace, be warmed and filled” and nothing else. He compares faith without works to those empty words: it is dead. Earlier in the chapter he rebukes a congregation that seats the rich man well and tells the poor man to stand (James 2:1-6).

1 John 3:17-18

“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Reflection: The verse before defines love by Christ laying down his life for us, and says believers “ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” John then brings it down to possessions, asking how God’s love can abide in someone who has goods, sees a brother in need and closes his heart against him.