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Social Justice
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eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew
25:31-46
.
Happy are those who consider the poor; the Lord delivers them
in the day of trouble.
Psalm 41:1
.
Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of
the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver
them from the hand of the wicked.
Psalm 82:3, 4
.
Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who
are kind to the needy honor him.
Proverbs 14:31
.
Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and will be repaid
in full.
Proverbs 19:17
.
In
Matthew 25
Jesus identifies Himself with His suffering people.
Jesus is hungry and thirsty. Jesus is the stranger. Jesus needs clothes.
Jesus is sick. Jesus is in prison. When you are enjoying a wide
variety of delicious food, Jesus is famishing in farm worker housing
not far from you.
Jesus says, “When you closed your door in My face, while your
beautifully decorated rooms were unoccupied, I had no place to lay
My head. When your closets were filled with trendy and expensive
outfits, purchased with money that could have helped the needy,
I had no comfortable clothes. When you were enjoying health, I
was sick. While you roamed free, misfortune cast Me into prison,
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disillusioned Me and stigmatized Me, depriving Me of freedom and
hope.”
What solidarity Jesus expresses between Himself and His suf-
fering children! He makes their case His own. Their misery is His
misery. Take note, selfish Christian: Each neglect of the needy poor,
the homeless, the fatherless, the prisoner, is neglect of Jesus
When you doled out the small pittance of bread to the starving
poor, when you gave those flimsy garments to shield them from the
biting frost, did you remember that you were giving to the Lord of
glory? “All the days of your life I was near you in the person of these
afflicted ones, but you did not seek Me. You would not consider
friendship with Me. I know you not.
The poor have as much right to a place in God’s world as have
the wealthy. The principles from the book of Leviticus are given by
our merciful Creator to lessen suffering, to bring hope and sunshine
into the lives of the destitute and oppressed.
