I keep coming back to this passage and different messages I have heard lately bring me back to It as well, thank you Reverend Youngblood.
Isaiah 1 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! 16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. 17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
And my mind goes straight to the following passage because learning to do right must start with what is most important to God.
Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
As I meditate on these two passages, I know that I am to have love in my heart for all. I know that I must seek justice and that mercy follows justice because God’s love is merciful and he stands by the needy.
Psalm 109 30 With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng of worshipers, I will praise him. 31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save their lives from those who would condemn them.
So, if I am not working for the needy, then I stand in opposition to God. If I place barriers between myself and others, then I stand in opposition to God because we are either Jew or Gentile and the New Covenant in Christ is for both. Not only is it for Jew and Gentile but it is each person’s free will to accept or reject. My acceptance means that I must take up my cross and follow Jesus. Now here is the thing about Jesus, he bowed down to God, not men who ruled, he gave himself over to the rulers only so that he could be the sacrifice. The petty kingdoms of men are not why he came, he came proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven.
What then is a true Disciple of Christ to do? Are we to establish governments of men or to do God’s work? Should we implement bastardized versions of Mosaic law or do God’s work? I wonder if maybe there is something, some passages perhaps that spelled out what Disciples of Christ are supposed to do, what God’s work entails?
Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Mark 16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
Luke 24:46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power, the Holy Spirit having come upon you. And you will be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and as far as the last place of the earth”.
So, God wants his Disciples to go out into the world and preach his gospel to all creation and yes nations are mentioned but since salvation is an individual relationship with God then I believe this means all people. Also, God wants his people to do what is right, pursue justice and mercy, to be God’s ambassadors on earth. Now, I am sure others can take the Bible and find justification for discrimination, immigration bans, walls or whatever else suits their hearts desires, but my prayer is that I am understanding God’s desires and that what I have expressed is right and true.