Friday, February 25, 2011

God's Heart for Social Justice (a very small sample size)

Here is a list I was able to pull together. Do you have anymore to add to the list? There definitely are more verses on this subject in the Bible. A lot more!

Are there verses that are striking to you in particular that are on this list or elsewhere in the Bible? Proverbs 3:27-28 is the most striking on this list to me right now. In other words, it is saying there that our neighbor, who is need, deserves the excess good that I have. We feel entitled to our wealth in this life, but the reality is that the very purpose that God created life was for perfect community to flourish. Nothing that belongs to us on this earth is ours and if God desires for us to have community rather then excess we must take the desire seriously! We have to long for what God longs for... as Christians we must! Our neighbor who is in need has as much right to our stuff as we do - we owe it to him because none of it ours and God's intent is for our neighbor to have it!

God does not call us out here for our money (Everything is already His). Rather He is after our joy..

Deuteronomy 14:28-29
Deuteronomy 15:7-8
Deuteronomy 16:20

Leviticus 23:22
Leviticus 25:8-55
Leviticus 35:35-38

Jeremiah 21:11-12
Jeremiah 22:3
Jeremiah 22:13-17

Ezekiel 16:49-50
Ezekiel 22:29-31

Psalms 72:2-4
Psalm 82:3

Proverbs 3:27-28

Proverbs 14:31
Proverbs 17:5
Proverbs 28:27
Proverbs 29:7
Proverbs 31:9

Isaiah 1:17
Isaiah 11:1-4
Isaiah 58:6-12

Zechariah 7:9-10

Micah 6:8

Amos 2:6-7

Amos 4:1-6
Amos 5:11-15

Amos 5:21-24

Matthew 5:3

Matthew 6:1-4 (take notice of the word 'when')
Matthew 25:31-46

Mark 12:38,40

Luke 3:14
Luke 4:18-19
Luke 10:30-37
Luke 11:38-42

Acts 4:34-35 (This is a direct quote of Deuteronomy 15:4, which was the pinnacle of the social righteousness legislation in the Old Testament)
Acts 20:35 (Paul's last word's to the Ephesian Church, you don't use your last words without saying something that is all-important to you.)

2 Corinthians 8:14

James 1:27
James 2:15-17
James 5:1-5

1 John 3:17-18

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