Van Doren: the Samaritan didn’t assess nationality before helping. He saw a man lying in his own blood. That was sufficient. We have since developed elaborate frameworks for determining which categories of person merit assistance. #presbyterian #bible #neighbor #refugeeswelcome

Davidson: does the enslaver love his neighbor? He chains him, separates his family, steals his wages, then binds the soul too—with an effrontery hell should be ashamed of. We now find it impolite to question whether people love their neighbors. Who is your neighbor? #presbyterian #bible #holiness

Evans: every man for himself is earthly, sensual, devilish. Even natural humanity protests against it—no scripture required. We now have Christians arguing against the dictates of natural humanity. Evans had a category for that. #presbyterian #christian #libertarian

Stryker: the poor are in a closing trap—hear their shrieks. Don’t turn away because poverty offends your refinement. Don’t say they authored their own misfortunes. Even where true, it’s not a valid excuse for indifference. Much current ministry disagrees. #reformed #dutchreformed #apologetics

Swinnock: exploiting a seller’s desperation is grinding the faces of the poor. The rich man knows the tradesman must sell or starve, and prices accordingly. Isaiah called it oppression. Modern Christian teaching worries more about hurting feelings of robber barons. #Isaiah #bible #christian #poor

Sloane: slavery is an organic system of iniquity. Christ intends to demolish such things. His engine for doing so is the Church. A Church that declines to oppose systemic evil isn’t being neutral. It’s leaving the field to the Devil. #presbyterian #slavery #christ #biblebelievers #iniquity

Calvin on self-denial: the pious man’s only permitted self-interest is striving for others’ edification—kindness, almsgiving, long-suffering, seeking the neighbor’s good. One notices “edification of the church” gets invoked for activities Calvin wouldn’t recognise as self-denial.

Pilkington on Proverbs 11:26: hoarders get cursed, sellers get blessed. Not collectivism—private property stays intact. Cornering markets during famine simply attracts God’s plague and popular fury. Blaming the hungry for coveting is the modern substitute. #puritan #proverbs #bible

Luther on Philippians 4: even someone actively harming you deserves charitable interpretation. A martyr stripped of everything noted they couldn’t take Christ. Therefore: this injures not my faith—why not excuse it? Current spiritual leadership models something rather different. #lcms #lutheran

Burroughs: God’s controversy with Israel was absence of hesed—merciful love. His illustration: even wicked Herod melted his gold to feed the poor in famine. If that’s Herod’s standard, what is God’s controversy with unmerciful Christians in times of calamity? #bible #christian #puritan

Spurgeon: some businesses can’t run if employees tell the truth. Professing Christians keep the whole operation going anyway, lacking courage to say we want nothing to do with this. Pastoral warnings about workplace complicity remain rare. #christian #tencommandments

Hemmingsen: the rich man’s third fault was disdaining Lazarus—proof he had no faith. Where true faith exists, cruelty toward the poor cannot. You only walk past a starving person because you disdain them. Worth examining. #lutheran #lcms #biblestudy #faith #truefaith #neighbor

Charles Elliott’s definition of slavery: a person stripped of ownership of themselves—body, mind, all capacities—transferred to another’s proprietorship. He doesn’t embellish. The question is whether tolerance for that erasure has outlasted the institution. #christian #antislavery #sbts

Chrysostom: everyone finds begging disgraceful. But the rich beg too—just from those poorer than themselves. They dare not approach the wealthier. Instead they extract from the poor. His word for this isn’t “investment.” It’s tearing to pieces. How can you do less tearing? #christian #churchfathers

Albert Barnes on Acts 4: the early church grew because resurrection preaching produced radical generosity—no needy among them. Unity and liberality opened hearts. Today we’re told doctrine and compassion are separate tracks. Barnes didn’t get that memo. #presbyterian #biblestudy #generosity

Cyril to the rich man: you saw Lazarus—his ulcers, his hunger. The dogs showed more compassion than you did. Modern preachers love the doctrine of hell. Jesus’ two clearest teachings on it share one presenting sin: you walked past the suffering. #christian #lazarus #biblical #churchfathers

Balmford— #Presbyterian, 16thc —countered plague misinformation. His target: survivors prove it isn’t dangerous. He replied: some survive cannon fire; this doesn’t make cannons decorative. The church should address lethal stupidity. Apparently controversial. #christian #values #publichealth

Leonard Bacon: mercy isn’t occasional inspiration—it’s Sabbath infrastructure. Deacons and deaconesses on official errands to the poor, on the Lord’s Day itself. James 1:27 wasn’t decorative. Bacon took it structurally. #biblical #christian #makedisciples #sabbath

Calvin: comfort breeds a quiet arrogance. We begin to imagine ourselves exempt from common human wretchedness. That self-forgetting kills compassion—we stop noticing what our neighbors endure, let alone caring about it. #calvinism #christian #pulpitsky #reformedtheology

Samuel Crothers: both enslavers and Jesus are called “Master.” But consider what Jesus gave those who called him that. Slavery didn’t merely oppress bodies—it poisoned a sacred word, turning a term of divine tenderness into something people now flinch to say. #presbyterian #antislavery #jesus

Samuel Annesley: you have liberty with your money, but two boundaries limit it. Don’t hoard so obsessively you deny yourself reasonable comfort. And don’t withhold from the poor what is necessary to them. Both are failures. Spend on yourself fittingly; give to the poor necessarily. #puritans

Free Church minister A.B. Bruce wrote before 1900: no insurmountable distinctions of race, class, or sex — all are one in Christ (Gal 3:28). Two world wars followed. Did the words change anything? Perhaps that’s the point: Christ still values all. How do we act as if this were true?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Q: Who radicalized you? A: The Concordance #christian #HolyTrouble #values #bible #presbyterian

Cornelius Henry Edgar, Dutch #Reformed: yes, the gospel saves the enslaved. But no—full human development as God intends cannot flourish under bondage as under freedom. These are not equivalent conditions. Some current church leaders appear to have forgotten this distinction entirely. #christian

William Adams: some hoard endlessly—no plan to spend, no real desire for what wealth buys. Meanwhile others cry out for basic necessities with no relief. We celebrate the accumulators. We leave their worshippers unbothered. #anglican #riches #bible

Gerberding: society breeds the sins it then imprisons, obligating compassion rather than indifference. Too often, affirming the gravity of crime becomes cover for increasing prisoner suffering. “There but for the grace of God go I” is not a sentiment. It is an instruction.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ #lcms

Silas Durand: Job’s friends mocked his misery with theology. The Good Samaritan said nothing—he acted. False teachers pose as neighbors to the poor, but empty words only deepen the wound. People already know they need help. Lecture less. Do more. #baptist #bookofjjob #Christian

John Trapp: those truly ‘melting’ under God’s mercy naturally overflow in compassion—spiritual and practical. This means warning the unruly, comforting the confused, supporting the weak, and patient endurance with all. Grace received; grace extended. But a distraction today?? #anglican #saved

Scottish missionary David Sandeman, witnessing opium being forced into China under the British flag, wrote in shame: his nation defied God’s laws knowingly, poisoning both mind and body—and the coerced labor trade was equally wicked. #missions #Presbyterian #pulpitsky

Calvin on James: withholding wages from farm laborers is monstrous — and common. Many employers treat others as existing solely for their benefit. Notably, this is the same Calvin whose portrait adorns profiles of people disinclined to say anything of the sort.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ #calvinist #bible

Wardlaw on Prov. 11:26: Withholding grain to profit from hunger draws God’s curse; selling at a loss to feed the poor draws blessing. Neither seize the granary nor corner the market — serve the needy through ethical commerce.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ #congregationalist #markets

Missionary Henry Kingman catalogued the church’s legacy: hospitals, orphanages, anti-trafficking campaigns, labor reform, #refugee welcome. A proud inheritance. Look at each item now. The conservative church has retreated on every front. How do you call that faithfulness?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ #christian

Luther: God’s wrath bypasses the poor and despised — comfort for the humble, terror for the proud. The mistake is weaponizing the law only downward. Both the spiritually and economically rich need hard words. Faithfulness doesn’t footnote scripture to spare the powerful.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ #lcms

John Calvin, preaching on Deut. 15, said Israel’s rescue from harsh Egypt should teach mercy: remembering our own deliverance, we must hear the groans of the poor. Yet today the complaint itself is called “naughty.” Calvin’s question lingers—will we listen?

Edmond de Pressensé says early Christianity did something radical: it hugged everybody. No “those people are barbarians,” no tribal eye-rolling—just one human family. God made all nations from one blood. Imagine that today: compassion without the asterisks! #Christian #evangelical

Jeremiah Eames Rankin, a #Congregationalist minister in DC, argued that the cross defines human brotherhood. If any neighbor suffers, Christianity forbids merely saying “be warm and filled.” The logic of the cross is to shoulder the burden yourself and try—actually try—to relieve it. #cross

Chrysostom sighs: we drip a thimble of kindness against an ocean of need. Some won’t even match the widow’s mite—yet plead for vast mercy from God’s endless store. We who showed none ask for all. How dare we dream of heaven’s pity, with hands so closed? #churchfathers #mercy #pulpitsky

John Calvin—grim Reformer with a ledger for the soul—warned that we hoard by imagining every future disaster. We tremble at losing the smallest coin while others starve. Oh, the arithmetic of fear! So tell me: will you cling to your purse, or learn the grace of giving? #calvinist #giving #christian

Benjamin Grosvenor observes—quite sensibly—that if you happen to be healthy, the sick become, inconveniently, your responsibility. Providence hints at it, friendship nudges you, pity supplies the emotion, and duty seals the matter. When people are helpless, compassion is not optional. #presbyterian

Edward Williams founded the London Missionary Society. Here he commends works of mercy. Those performed by the righteous will be applauded by Christ (Matthew 25:31-46). Deeds done to the least of these, are done to himself. So much is riding on this. Think we’d hear more from all Christian circles.

Parsons Cooke of Lynn, MA taught that when the poor plead with us, Christ Himself stands near. As Christ became poor for our sake, their need echoes His humiliation. The world’s cries should stir mercy in us, calling forth Christlike benevolence rather than a closed ear. #congregationalist

Andrew Thomson, Church of Scotland minister, said Christ’s words—“I was a stranger and ye took me in”—bind Christians to kindness toward #refugees. He praised Scotland for sheltering poor Italians and Spaniards, insisting mercy to strangers is not optional, but a plain Christian duty. #immigration

William Hague, #Baptist minister in Boston and New York, made a blunt point: a Christianity that blesses slavery will never abolish it. If enslavers can claim biblical approval, the system sits there quite comfortably. Real abolition begins by rejecting that counterfeit Christianity outright.

Jeremiah Burroughs, Puritan preacher, reading Hosea 4:1: when a land shows no mercy to the many in need, God has a controversy with it. True hesed is not mere loyalty—it moves us to compassion. When suffering surrounds us, will we respond with mercy? #Christian #usaid #mercy #Puritan

Robert MacCulloch, Church of Scotland minister, reading Isaiah 1:17: “plead for the widow.” Care for their welfare, help with their affairs, and stand against those who oppress them. Real mercy means practical help. How will you take their part? #reformed

Charles Spurgeon, London preacher, noted the strange scene: some with crooked doctrine show startling tenderness to the sick and poor. Oh—but Christ’s own followers should outshine them in mercy. So tell me, will we love more deeply, or merely argue more loudly? #christian #doctrine

William Attersoll, English #Puritan, reading Philemon: the lowly—strangers, prisoners, the naked—are scorned by the world, yet they are Christ’s own, the apple of his eye. If we cannot cherish such souls, bought at highest price, how shall we claim to cherish him? #christian #bible #ministry

Frank Field Ellinwood, #Presbyterian missions leader, warned that evangelization was hindered when powerful European nations seized weaker lands. The obstacle wasn’t God’s will, but uncharitable, imperial conduct by nominally Christian powers. How will you speak up for the weak?

Thomas Manton, English Puritan, taught that mercy must extend to all. Scripture calls even strangers—and enemies—our neighbors: one blood, one humanity, capable of the same glory we hope for. Therefore we must do them good as we would our own. How will you love your neighbor? #puritans #mercy

Archibald Alexander, #Presybterian, said the brutality of Roman games directly led to slave abuse. The apostle Paul reformed these with the filial spirt inevitable from the Gospel. Do we accept as our faith leaders, those who preach unfilial spirits? #christian #hampdensydney #brotherhood