Biblical basis
We read throughout the Bible a connectedness between the God of love, His people and the land entrusted to their care. We find in the earliest parts of the Bible (Genesis) a partnership between man and the Godhead to create and sustain life. We read in Leviticus and Deuteronomy guidance for ways communities should live spiritually as well as in the area of wealthcreation and debt. We learn how to care for the widow, the orphan, the alien and the homeless.
The law on gleaning (Leviticus 19) speaks of feeding and resourcing the poor; the law of Jubilee (Leviticus 25; Deuteronomy 15) releases those trapped by debt into new life and always offers hope to those falling upon hard times. Throughout the books of the Prophets we read of the call to justice and the commitment to the poor, who are always the ones trampled on and trapped by politics, greed and lawlessness.
These things found amongst the religious causes Isaiah to cry out for a true fasting (Isaiah 58) - a cry from the heart of God to the hearts of men. God knows and Isaiah realises, that all humanity is abased by the suffering and brokenness of each one.
Amidst all the words and miracles of the New Testament, Jesus aligns our future with that of the lost, broken and needy. In Matthew 25 Jesus teaches on talents and how we use them. Matthew has Him immediately speaking a message, both for the time and today, of us being in judgement, not based upon our Bible knowledge, our church attendance, or our sincerity, but upon how we have responded to the needs of the homeless, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the alien and the sick.
This passage stands as a mandate for all those who seek to follow the Lord Jesus as His people.
Jesus has come, and will come again, in order to bring reconciliation between men and God and man and man, regeneration in the hearts of men to break selfishness and ungodly behaviour patterns, and reorientation in order that mankind would begin to move beyond themselves, to see what God sees, to feel what He feels, and to act as He would act.
As He gives power and resources to act, His will will indeed be done on earth now, as it will be in heaven then.
Rev. David Russell, Minister, Northchurch Baptist Church, Hertfordshire