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Be doers of justice

themis figurine at lawyers office

Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The Hebrew word for justice is mishpat and it has a deep meaning. Justice was ultimately anchored in God’s justice. God is the Judge. But his people were to do justice according to God’s commandments. Justice was not only about making judgement calls but was completely rooted in speaking up for the innocent and oppressed, making sure that there was social order and freedom for God’s people.

For example, King Lemuel gave an oracle in Proverbs, using the things that his mother taught him. The king said very clearly, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:8-9). There was not only a mandate to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, but God expected people to actually speak on behalf of the injustices the marginalized people felt.

To put it another way, we can either drop a plate of food on someone’s doorstep or we can feed them well and petition both God and society on their behalf. God commands the latter. This means that we need to take the necessary time to pray with people, to visit them, to get to know them, and listen to their needs. At the same time, we need to teach society to care for the needs of the poor at large. God calls us to be fierce defenders of the innocent, vulnerable, and the poor. We do this while walking humbly with the Lord.

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Feeding the poor is not optional

photo of a homeless man sleeping near a cardboard sign

The scriptures mandate that people who are blessed be generous to the poor. Since the beginning of time, God expects his people to feed and clothe the poor. James said, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘God in peace, be warmed and filed,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15-16 ESV). James goes on to say that faith without works is dead.

Jesus modeled this kind of living. He was poor himslef, yet daily provided the needs of large crowds. He cared for the sick, often healing them. He fed the hungry, sometimes by the thousands. He taught people that a little bit of faith goes a very long way. Deuteronomy says a lot about caring for the poor: “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother” Deuteronomy 15:7). Strict rules were put into place by God to ensure that poor people were fed and taken care of.

We know that in the New Testament, beggars were often ignored despite the laws that were in place to care for them. Jesus criticized people for not caring for the needy and even said that God would separate people at judgement based on their willingness to help the poor. We have ample opportunity to care for the poor in our own community. That should be the centerpiece of the church’s work and it should be a joy to care for them.

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Walking in forgiveness

word sorry beside flowers on white surface

Forgiveness is a complex command throughout the Bible. It’s complexity has more to do with human behavior than God’s guidance. Relationships are complex in life, therefore forgiveness can be complex. To understand how God expects us to view forgiveness, we need to understand the biblical view. In order to recieve forgiveness, the person who wronged someone is required to repent. If they don’t, forgivness can be withheld. John 20:23 states this clearly. Jesus said, “If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

There are basically two types of forgivness–divine forgivness where we seek forgiveness from God when we sin against Him and interpersonal forgiveness where we seek forgiveness from a person we sinned against. It is the latter that Jesus talks about when Peter asks him how many times we must forgive someone who has wronged us. Jesus said, “I do not say seven times but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22). Jesus never implied forgiving an unrepentant person. His point is that when we forgive, forgive completely.

We know this because he then gave an example of the servant who owed money to his master. The master forgave the servant because he attempted to repay him: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything” (vs. 26). That servant then went out and choked one of his servants who owed him money and threw him in jail after he offered to pay back everything. Jesus’ point is that, when someone attempts to repay what they owe, we must forgive them completely because we have been forgiven. We cannot demand repayment from someone who attempts to repay us in full.

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Bringing comfort to the hopeless

heart shaped latte art on cappuccino in sabinov

Isaiah prophesied about John the Baptist coming to prepare the way for the Lord. In its context, Isaiah was talking about bringing comfort to a tattered Jerusalem: “Comfort, comfort for my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2 ESV).

Clearly God is not pardoning sin just for the fun of it. As he prepared the way for Jesus, John’s message was one of repentance. Repentance is a central theme of the Bible, especially during Jesus’ reign on Earth. Israel had paid a dear price for their sins. They were exiled twice. Many people had fallen because of their sin. Many battles were waged against them in their own land. The Temple had been destroyed and rebuilt. War after war claimed the lives of many Israelites. Jesus came to bring hope and salvation.

There is a time for comfort, and that is exaclty what Isaiah preached. When people’s lives have been wrecked by sin, they have an opportunity to repent and to be comforted. As Christians, we have a duty to preach repentance and to comfort people who have lost much because of sin. Sin destroys. It wrecks families. It destroys life. The wages of sin is death. We know this. So we have a duty to work overtime to offer the Good News to a dying world, to offer hope. We live in a time when the harvest is ripe. We need workers to love our neighbors enough to warn them and comfort them.

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Walking in Love

brown sand love text on seashore

Jesus famously said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40 ESV). When Jesus said to love your neighbors as yourself, he was quoting from Leviticus 19:18. In order to fully understand what Jesus was saying about loving your neighbor, we need to understand the background for the text in Leviticus.

The Israelites were transitioning from a nomadic life to an agragarian life where they were producing abundant wealth. Think of people who win the lottery and go from poverty to wealth overnight. Most people pursue greed and lose everything. There is a real risk when we combine wealth with greed. It can cause complacency and even oppression. God gave a list of rules for treating their neighbors with fairness, including paying wages to workers on time and leaving grain on the edge of the fields for poor people and sojourners.

Loving your neighbor as yourself is known as “the Golden Rule.” When we love God above all else and love our neighbors by serving them and caring for the needy, the rest of the Law and Prophets will not be a burden. Loving your neighbor should not be a huge burden. If it is, we should check our heart to see what is hindering us from treating people the way that we would expect to be treated.

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Generous people prosper blessings

close up photograph of person praying in front lined candles


Proverbs 11:25 reminds us, “Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and the one who waters will himself be watered.” This powerful verse speaks to the incredible blessings that flow from a heart dedicated to blessing others by giving and serving. The previous verses say, “The desire of the righteous ends only in good, the expectation of the wicked in wrath. One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want” (vs. 23-24).

There are ample opportunities to bless other people. And our desire to do so really matters. Remember, “the desire of the righteous only ends in good.” In other words, desire to do righteousness and goodness follows. The more generous we are with our time, resources, talents, and money, the more good that is done in the world. Put another way, generosity begets generosity.

Generosity is not a burden. The Bible has lots to say about being kind and compassionate towards others. It has a lot to say about blessing others. Imagine if the heroes of the Bible were stingy with their time. What if they chose to “do their own thing” instead of following the calling that God gave them? We need to remember that following God and being generous will prosper the blessings!

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Walking the Extra Mile

woman walking on pathway under the sun

Life can be a marathon, not a sprint. We often get so caught up in our own race, focused on the finish line of our personal goals and ambitions, that we forget those struggling to even take the first step. But what if the true measure of our journey wasn’t about how fast we ran, but how often we paused to help someone else along the way? Jesus himself taught about going the extra mile, not just to fulfill a duty but to demonstrate love and compassion. In Matthew 5:41, He says, “And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” This principle of exceeding expectations echoes throughout scripture, and we see it powerfully illustrated in Matthew 25:35-40, where Jesus describes the final judgment and separates people based on their actions towards the “least of these.”

In this powerful passage, Jesus paints a vivid picture of the Kingdom of Heaven, where those who showed compassion to the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned are welcomed into eternal life. He teaches that serving others is not merely an optional act of kindness, but an essential demonstration of our faith. “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to 1 me.” (Matthew 25:35-36 ESV) These words challenge us to examine our own lives and consider how we are living out our faith in tangible ways.  

This Sunday, we’ll talk about these passages and discover how the principle of “going the extra mile” connects to serving those in need. We’ll explore practical ways to answer this call within our own community. There are unlimited ways to serve our neighbors, and God gives us the freedom to do so. It’s far better to be known as someone who goes the extra mile than to be known as someone who never moved an inch. We will exercise our gift of serving this year!