For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Pamela Graves
I am surprised no one has mentioned "entertaining angels unaware".
Jim Stapleton
This is my belief, we as Christian's should give as we are moved by the Holy Spirit. It isn't our place to judge yeah or nah. But to listen and act as we are inspired to from a position of Love.
Christine rains
I try to give when I can because we have so many blessings that we should share to bless the less fortunate.Do not question their intentions. That's God's job.
Danny Hickman
There are people who claim to be Christian who are compassionate; there are others who are not. The non-compassionate ones see a person "asking alms" (that's the way the Bible writers describe begging) and they shut there hearts. It looks to them as if a con job is in the making.
So they imagine that the person asking for help is too lazy to work. Paul's words to the Thessalonian church pops conveniently into their head and they have a patented excuse to deny the person the help they CLEARLY need.
The story that pops into my mind when I read the answers and comments to this loaded question (probably put here to expose the people who fall into the "hypocrite Christians" trap), is the one about blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10). The crowd heard him crying out to Jesus for help and tried to get him to quiet down. THIS MAN WAS BLIND!! Didn’t matter!! Maybe they thought it was a trick or a con...
The reason we're told that the crowd tried to deny him the help he was BEGGING FOR, is to expose the same hard-hearted-ness that we see in a few of these comments.
The disciples saw a man born blind and their first thought was, 'Who sinned that he is in this condition?' (John 10) the Blame Game; another symptom of the non-compassionate Christian.
Do you think street beggars are worse sinners than all others in [your] city, [you] included? (taken from Luke 13, the Galileans Pilate slaughtered). Jesus explained the reason for indiscriminate suffering: WE ALL are in need of REPENTANCE.