What does God expect us to do? This makes it pretty clear!
When I read Scripture, I notice how the sentences often run long with anywhere from three to five clauses at times. Here, we have commands. There is no misunderstanding of what God wants!
Although God is speaking to the Israelites, he is also speaking to us. Here again is the main theme of justice.
I know that I have mentioned this before, but in my travels I have found those who have the least are the most generous. I have been very fortunate to visit both Haiti and Tanzania on mission trips.
The people in these countries, especially in Haiti, do not have a lot. The people need to hunt for drinkable water. There are areas where there is little or no electricity.
When we visited, people shared what they had. They cooked meals for us, killed their animals to supply us with meat for out meals, and were more than willing to help their neighbors who had less then themselves, even taking in the children who were left orphans.
I know that there are people who live in wealthier countries who reach out to others, but not on the scale that I witnessed in those two countries and not with the attitude that this kind of behavior was normal; they did not see it as extraordinary or themselves as heroes.
With all the things they did not have, they were happy. Life was a struggle, but the people were happy.
I also found that they had faith. Not always Christian faith, but they believed in God and felt that they were blessed by their God that they were able to help one another.
We have a lot to learn about loving our neighbor.
