Scripture and starving people

[ThePuppyTurtle]

Matthew 6 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

I’ve been wondering recently, what about the fact that people DO starve to death?

I’m hoping for my doubt to be answered.

DFTBA.

 

[nordskoven]

Highlighted below is the classic biblical catch-phrase used to describe the indifferent. Hope that helps.

James 2:14-26

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Faith and Works

14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “ Go in peace, b****e warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is c]dead, being by itself.

 

[RPRPsych]

Again, a bit of context is necessary.

This passage is from the Sermon on the Mount, which is Our Lord’s instruction to His disciples.

What he is saying (and it’s a message for all times) is that being a disciple of Christ means placing Him, His Kingdom, and His laws above everything else. In other words, not being unduly preoccupied, attached, or obsessed with anything that could replace Him in our hearts.

For the early disciples, things as basic as food or clothing may have caused them to stumble. Many of them came from humble (what we’d today call “working class” or “blue collar” - not “poor” - backgrounds) and it would have been normal for them to worry about such things. To counter this, Jesus tells them that they must have their priorities straight: if they are rightly disposed towards God and His kingdom, they will not want.

Of course, in many other passages of the Old and New Testaments, we are called - as disciples of Christ - to be generous with the poor, and to come to their help. The difference crucial to understanding this passage is between vows to abandon the world to better seek God (which are still de rigeur for religious, such as priestly celibacy) and starvation for other reasons (“involuntary poverty”, if you will), which it is our duty to alleviate in proportion to our means.

Hope this helps!

 

[thenobes]

Matthew 6 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

I’ve been wondering recently, what about the fact that people DO starve to death?

I’m hoping for my doubt to be answered.

DFTBA.

Maybe you, yourself, are the instrument of God that should be feeding them. You are the fulfilment of Jesus’s assurance to them that if they trust God they need not worry about food.

peace
steve