As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“Acton is a headline sponsor of the event this year, and our Journal of Markets & Morality is also sponsoring the conference. The journal has published a number of items focused on Abraham Kuyper and neocalvinist social thought over the years.” - Acton
From DBSJ 21 (2016); posted with permission. Read the series.
Does this passage have any contemporary significance? It has direct significance on the matter of caring for widows today. But it has additional significance in offering principles for broader issues for the church’s social responsibilities.
Since Paul’s teaching does not seem linked solely to local culture and since it parallels the practice of the early church in Jerusalem (Acts 6), churches should take seriously the responsibility to care for true widows as described in this passage. Caring for widows will most likely be an increasing issue for churches.
“This idea is that we can achieve a perfect world through the government. While this idea has had many names—liberalism, progressivism, collectivism, communitarianism, socialism—Cleveland argues the real name for each of these movements is utopianism.”
“[W]hen we hear reports that between 14 and 16 percent of Americans are living in poverty, few people bother to ask, “Are they talking about consumption or income?”
“[W]hile the individual effects—women and girls being freed—are laudatory, the long term effect of implementing the policy on a large scale could be disastrous.”
“Despite a wealth of social science research showing that children do best when raised by their biological, married mother and father, PolitiFact rated this claim ‘false’ after Tony Perkins… stated it on Fox News Sunday.” CPost
“A coalition of 15 evangelical church-based denominations that represent more than 28,500 churches launched national efforts Tuesday to provide free to low-cost legal services to immigrants…”
“[T]he number of SNAP recipients has only declined by 2.7 percent and started increasing again in the months of April and June 2014.”
“The Bible doesn’t claim to favor any particular nation-based economic system … . But Scripture does seem to have a clear preference for the economic activities that underpin the free market.”
Discussion