Martin Luther on the deserving and undeserving poor

      "In the second place, this '[Give to] everyone' [(Mt 5:42)] does not mean someone who has or can have enough.  There are, especially in our age, a great number of wicked scoundrels who pretend to be poor, needy beggars and deceive people; they ought to receive their 'alms' with a rope and sack from Master Hans—if only the authorities were not so lax and negligent and did not let the gallows stand idle on the streets as if on holiday.  Similarly, there are a good many loafers these days who, being active, healthy, and strong, might well work, serve, and make a living.  But they rely on Christians and pious people being glad to give.  And where there is not enough giving or people do not give adequate amounts, they supplement it by stealing—indeed, by taking things openly in yards, on the street, and even in houses.  The end of it is that I am in doubt whether there was ever such a time when stealing and taking was so common, and yet all the gallows stood all empty and, as it were, on holiday all the year round.  Here Christ commanded you to give not to these kinds of people but only to the needy in your city or around you, as Moses teaches, who are unable to work, serve, or make a living, or else do not make enough money despite their constant labor and service.  In these cases one is to give aid, gifts, and loans whether it is a friend or an enemy.  A Christian can certainly do this and will not find it too difficult, especially when those in charge restrain foreign beggars and vagabonds or strangers and loafers."

      Martin Luther, "To pastors, that they should preach against usury" (1539), trans. Matthew Carver, LW 61, Theological and polemical works, ed. Benjamin Mayes (2021), pp. 308-309.  =WA 51, pp. 383 l. 17-384 l. 3.  I was put onto this by Eberhard Jüngel, “Gewinn im Himmel und auf Erden:  theologische Bemerkungen zum Streben nach Gewinn,” Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 94, no. 4 (Dezember 1997):  541 (532-552).