Dear Sweet Mommas, It's been awhile since I had a blog post. I don't have one now but I do have Diane Flemming's Bible verse selection. Diane participated in the EEN Book Club. It has been a wonderful experience. I hope you will consider joining us for one. One week during our small group time the question was what verses do you use when discussing Christian witness and creation care. This is what Diane shared with us. - Beth
You asked last week about some of the Bible verses I use to support my environmental positions. I looked up an email I had sent to a friend some time ago. She is a conservative and a Christian. She couldn't understand my position so I put some thought into it and wrote this to her. I thought it would be faster for me to send this to you to answer your question of me. I believe this is the relevant part of that email. Hope you don't mind my doing this the easy way and recycling a previous write-up.
Helping the poor and downtrodden
Prov 19:17 Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.
Prov 21:13 If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.
Matt 5:42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
Prov 31:8-9 Speak up...for the rights of all who are destitute...defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Ps 41:1 Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble.
Isa 58:10 If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.
Matt 25:34-46 Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 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 me." Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothed you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' ....
Welcoming strangers (immigrants, refugees)
Heb 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Lev 19:33-34 When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Respecting women (and everyone else)
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.
Jas 2:3 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
Matt 5:43-48 'You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven......
Environment
We were given a mandate to care for God's creation as stewards
Gen 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (this is stewardship)
Deut 10:14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heaven, the earth and everything in it.
Ps 24:1 The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.
1 Cor 4:2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.
Ps 50:11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.
Money matters
1 Cor 5:11 You must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater, or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler.
1 Tim 6:17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth.
Rom 13:6 This is ...why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants.
Our witness as Christians:
John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Based on my observations and my interpretation of these and other verses I have formed the following opinions. Many people who are anti-abortion are not truly pro-life. They forget about the child after it is born. If they were truly pro-life they would fight for clean water to drink and clean air to breathe, for access to adequate health care, for equal pay, for protection against stereotyping, etc. Environmental stewardship is not only part of a pro-life philosophy, but also an obligation to all Christians. We don't own this world, but we sure have abused it and everything that lives on it. We will answer to God for how we have treated His world.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
