Bible verses about "welfare" | Moffatt

¹ We who are strong ought to bear the burdens that the weak make for themselves and us. We are not to please ourselves. ² Each of us must please his neighbour, doing him good by building up his faith.

¹⁷ Never pay back evil for evil to anyone; aim to be above reproach in the eyes of all; ¹⁸ be at peace with all men, if possible, so far as that depends on you. ¹⁹ Never revenge yourselves, beloved, but let the Wrath of God have its way; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital — the Lord has said it. No, ²⁰ if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in this way you will make him feel a burning sense of shame. ²¹ Do not let evil get the better of you; get the better of evil by doing good.

⁸ we did not take free meals from anyone; no, toiling hard at our trade, we worked night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you.

² I pray you to give me the utter joy of knowing you are living in harmony, with the same feelings of love, with one heart and soul, ³ never acting for private ends or from vanity, but humbly considering each other the better man, ⁴ and each with an eye to the interests of others as well as to his own. ⁵ Treat one another with the same spirit as you experience in Christ Jesus. ⁶ Though he was divine by nature, he did not set store upon equality with God ⁷ but emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant; born in human guise ⁸ and appearing in human form, he humbly stooped in his obedience even to die, and to die upon the cross.

¹⁴ My brothers, what is the use of anyone declaring he has faith, if he has no deeds to show? Can his faith save him? ¹⁵ Suppose some brother or sister is ill-clad and short of daily food; ¹⁶ if any of you says to them, "Depart in peace! Get warm, get food," without supplying their bodily needs, what use is that? ¹⁷ So faith, unless it has deeds, is dead in itself. ¹⁸ Someone will object, 'And you claim to have faith!' Yes, and I claim to have deeds as well; you show me your faith without any deeds, and I will show you by my deeds what faith is! ¹⁹ You believe in one God? Well and good. So do the devils, and they shudder. ²⁰ But will you understand, you senseless fellow, that faith without deeds is dead? ²¹ When our father Abraham offered his son Isaac on the altar, was he not justified by what he did? ²² In his case, you see, faith co-operated with deeds, faith was completed by deeds, ²³ and the scripture was fulfilled: Abraham believed God, and this was counted to him as righteousness — he was called God's friend. ²⁴ You observe it is by what he does that a man is justified, not simply by what he believes.

⁶ Brothers, we charge you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to shun any brother who is loafing, instead of following the rule you got from us. ⁷ For you know quite well how to copy us; we did not loaf in your midst, ⁸ we did not take free meals from anyone; no, toiling hard at our trade, we worked night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you. ⁹ Not that we have no right to such support; it was simply to give you a pattern to copy. ¹⁰ We used to charge you even when we were with you, 'If a man will not work, he shall not eat.' ¹¹ But we are informed that some of your number are loafing, busybodies instead of busy. ¹² Now in the Lord Jesus Christ we charge and exhort such persons to keep quiet, to do their work and earn their own living.

³⁵ I showed you how this was the way to work hard and succour the needy, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, who said, 'To give is happier than to get.'"