In our climes with the ever-growing number of internally displaced persons, (IDPs), many have fallen prey to deceivers and spoilers; whose motives are self-serving rather than catering to the needy. For those who genuinely seek to be effective without their generosity being abused, we have the way of the Lord to resort to. 

Matthew 15:29-37 and John 6:1-14 record the two instances that the Lord moved by compassion for the multitude that came to Him fed them; and it’s out of these two that we draw lessons on how best to serve Him with the grossly disadvantaged IDPs. Three lessons are evident in these two scriptures:

1. They all came to Him (Matthew 15:30; John 6:5). The Lord would not break His own word, that people seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. When it turned out as happened in John 6:24-28 that the people came only because they had been filled, He corrected them, presenting Himself as the bread of life and did not provide physical bread! We also must not break scripture by reversing the order, thinking we must provide food etc first! The mixed multitude must be led to turn the leadership of their lives to the Good Shepherd, that way we will be prioritizing His purpose for the salvation of all men,
2. Once this priority was established, the needs were met out of the voluntary offering of the few people who were willing to share what they had, such as had understood the working of the love of God, ‘for God so loved the world that He gave His only son’. It did not matter how small or how big the offering, the creative power to make abundance out of little kicked in, and 
3. He sought out only trusted hands whose lives and integrity He knew, not just anybody, irrespective of the large number of people present. He used a distribution structure He had confidence in to demonstrate the need for accountability. This service was no place for self-enrichment, no.

Such was the Lord’s pattern for dealing with the mixed multitude that came to Him and we should do likewise.

The early New Testament church recognized a second grouping of the needy, believers who fell on hard times from persecution and all sorts of natural disasters such as drought, famine etc. For such, the norm was a collection for saints as recorded in Acts 11:27-30; Romans 15: 25-28; 1 Corinthians 16:1, 2 and Hebrews 10:32-35.

If we follow these patterns, we will minimize the deceit and treachery of the enemy that has caused much occasion for murmuring within and against the body of the Lord. Selah.


Pastor Afolabi Oladele