SOCIAL JUSTICE IS DEFINED AS BEING...The fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice.
SOCIALIST IS DEFINED AS BEING... a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
Is either of these concepts based on God's word, biblically sound, and as Christian should we be involved with either social justice or socialism?
Acts 2:44,45: All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need!
Ephesians 4:28: Work, doing something useful with your hands, that they may have something to share with those in need!
Romans 12:13,20,21: Share with the Lord's people who are in need... If your enemy is hungry feed him; if he is thirsty give him something to drink.. do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good!
Luke 6:29,30,35: Jesus says, If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back... Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your **REWARD WILL BE GREAT** and you will be children of the Most High because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked!!
@Richard, Good Scripture reference, but to which concept do these Scripture passages apply to? ... thus, the question remains... as Christians is God exhorting and encouraging and commanding us to be involved with social justice or socialism?
Certainly the giving to the poor and needy by Christians is completely different from the Satanic socialism in Cuba or Venezuela or even Sweden or the global socialism preached by the UN.
Acts 2:44,45: All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need!
Ephesians 4:28: Work, doing something useful with your hands, that they may have something to share with those in need!
Romans 12:13,20,21: Share with the Lord's people who are in need... If your enemy is hungry feed him; if he is thirsty give him something to drink.. do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good!
Luke 6:29,30,35: Jesus says, If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back... Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your **REWARD WILL BE GREAT** and you will be children of the Most High because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked!!
I think the Church (Body of Christ) individually and many corporately have somewhat neglected its/their obligations God has set forth for us when it comes to social justice in our society, and God is going to hold us accountable for not fulfilling his commands and mandates.
There are many, but these Scripture passages come to mind as examples of what social justice is about and what it is not.... proactive and reactive, and the results of judgment for no action. Matthew 25:31-46: The Sheep and the Goats - �When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. �Then the King will say to those on his right, �Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.�
�Then the righteous will answer him, �Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?� �The King will reply, �Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.�
�Then he will say to those on his left, �Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.� �They also will answer, �Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?�
�He will reply, �Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.� �Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.�
Also in support of social justice I find that the people were on top of things as you also point out in your Scripture quotes. And the apostles as well were doing the work toward those in need as Jesus had taught them. James 1:27 says, �Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.�
Many people confuse social justice with socialism, but this is not what God intended as He has so declared throughout His word, that "the poor will be with us always", and we who "have" are to freely give to the "have not's"...
Its not the government's job to take care of the poor as in those countries you have stated, but the government DOES HAVE THE RESPONSIBILITY, to help see to it that people are taken care of by helping to provided needed resources and establish wellness in the land for ALL PEOPLE ... however, God has given the daily care of needy people in the hands of the Church.
James 1:27 says, �Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.�
Faith and Deeds James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, �Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,� but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, �You have faith; I have deeds.� Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that�and shudder.
There is no New Testament Scripture which shows that we should support political parties that claim that they help the poor. We should only support churches that help the poor or help the poor with our own good works or money. All liberal socialist political parties that claim they help the poor also have many Satanic laws like supporting Satanic Abortion Clinics or supporting gay Marriage.
Pope Francis {Who Satanists call **HOLY FATHER**} has made a Papal Decree stating that he alone has given power to Roman Catholic priests {Who Satanists call **FATHERS**} to forgive **ALL ABORTIONS** which would include Gruesome and Horrific Abortions an hour before conception!! Is this **MURDER**??
As usual, the Satanic Pope Francis and those who support Abortion clinics are absolutely contradicting God's Sacred Word!!:
Psalm 22:10: David said, "From my mother's **WOMB** you have been My God!"
Psalm 139:13: David said, "For you created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's **WOMB**!"
Isaiah 44:2: This is what the Lord says--He who made you, who formed you in the **WOMB**!
Isaiah 44:24: This is what the Lord says--your Redeemer, who formed you in the **WOMB**!
Jeremiah 1:5: The Lord said, "Before I formed you in the **WOMB** I knew you!"
I Corinthians 6:9-11: Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Churches that openly preach against Abortion and same sex marriages are severely penalized in all Socialist countries.
