The Gospel and Poverty

Platt's chapter on poverty is very helpful and challenging. I really appreciated his honesty as he shared about his own journey thinking through life decisions from a gospel standpoint. Platt points out that it will be increasingly countercultural for Christians to work diligently, live simply, give sacrificially, help constructively, and invest eternally. There's so much good in this chapter but I want to share something that has particularly stayed with me since I read it- a quote from Mere Christianity. C.S.Lewis has this to say on how much we ought to give:

I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditure excludes them.