Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that?
So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead.
But when you host a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind,
and you will be blessed. Since they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
And when the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build,
with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied,
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you.
Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.
Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on his opinions.
For one person has faith to eat all things, while another, who is weak, eats only vegetables.
The one who eats everything must not belittle the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted him.
Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
One person regards a certain day above the others, while someone else considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
. . .
Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown,
and said, “My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house.
They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”
. . .
To those selling doves He said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father’s house into a marketplace!”
His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for Your house will consume Me.”
And when the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build,
with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied,
be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.”
“Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.
God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
. . .
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy
and gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.
To this very hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.
We work hard with our own hands. When we are vilified, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;
when we are slandered, we answer gently. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.