Helping Widows

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

But if anyone doesn’t provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.

He who has pity on the poor lends to Yahweh; he will reward him.

If any man or woman who believes has widows, let them relieve them, and don’t let the assembly be burdened; that it might relieve those who are widows indeed.

Give to him who asks you, and don’t turn away him who desires to borrow from you.

and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then your light shall rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the noonday;

If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; — read the full passage →

He who has a generous eye will be blessed; for he shares his food with the poor.

Let no one be enrolled as a widow under sixty years old, having been the wife of one man,

The righteous care about justice for the poor. The wicked aren’t concerned about knowledge.

“‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness.

“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. — read the full passage →

Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, a complaint arose from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily service. — read the full passage →

They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t judge the right of the needy.

Open your mouth, judge righteously, and serve justice to the poor and needy.”

The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully.

Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”

He also said to the one who had invited him, “When you make a dinner or a supper, don’t call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors, or perhaps they might also return the favor, and pay you back. — read the full passage →

At the end of every three years you shall bring all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall store it within your gates. — read the full passage →

“‘If your brother has become poor, and his hand can’t support himself among you; then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like an alien and a temporary resident.

For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall.

Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Sell that which you have, and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn’t fail, where no thief approaches, neither moth destroys.

but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

He looked up, and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury. — read the full passage →

Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

I know that Yahweh will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the needy.

Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him. — read the full passage →

“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? — read the full passage →

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings. — read the full passage →