As a child I remember stories of our grandmother, who lived by the railroad tracks in Minnesota. She would feed the hobos who would ride the rails looking for work.
Grandma fed them every time they stopped, but they never took food without offering to pay for it through chopping wood for the stove or other things that needed to be done.
A hobo was someone who wanted to work and would do anything asked of them to earn a plate of food.
A bumb on the other hand would not work, they were lazy and expected food without working.
An honorable man will not eat unless he has first done work to earn it.
My Grandmother's generation understood the need to give a person dignity through earning their own way and the need to keep others form being lazy by requiring work for food.
2 Thessalonians 3:10 "For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either."
There is dignity in doing for someone who is about to provide a need. There is gratefulness in the heart of one who will not receive food without giving something back in return for a kindness. It is not "payback", but gratefulness.
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