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What Does “The Poor will Always be There” mean
People take Jesus’ words out of context to make political points
The bible verse where Jesus says “The poor will always be there” is quoted by people to make political points on both sides of the spectrum.
Context matters. What it means in context is what it means. A single bible verse by itself has no meaning because you don’t know the context.
Judas was criticizing what he saw as extravagance, and complained the money could have been used for the poor instead. True enough, but Jesus was busting his hypocrisy.
The extravagance was part of Jesus going to the cross to die. He was saying, you will always have those people and you can always help them. He was talking more about the hypocrisy of pretending to care about something when you really do not.
It is an interesting-sounding sentence, and it smacked down Judas’s accusation. It was not a comment on society or on poor people.
