Commentaries:
The righteous person not only sees the need, but he also thinks about it and works to solve the difficulty. However, notice the contrast here. A wicked person, lacking that missing dimension of God's love, cannot even comprehend the process. He does not know why it is necessary. He cannot figure it out why it even matters.
He lacks the ingredient—the missing dimension of God's love—to see that there is any difference between thinking about the poors' plight or not. It is as simple as that. He reckons that it is good enough just to throw money at the problem or offer a stopgap measure. The righteous, though, considers the cause of the poor; he thinks it all the way through.
The dividing point in this particular verse between the righteous and the wicked is the thought process—what goes on inside their heads.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
'If I Have Not Charity'
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