Gospel and Social Justice

I’ve not blogged on this topic in quite some time, but the topic of gospel and social justice continue to be a preoccupation of mine, and particularly the definition of the gospel and its larger context of the Kingdom of God.

I was reading recently and came across some useful ideas from John Stott. Here’s the way Stott begins his book Decisive Issues Facing Christians Today (1990).

It is exceedingly strange that any followers of Jesus Christ should ever have needed to ask whether social involvement was their concern, and that controversy should have blown up over the relationship between evangelism and social responsibility. For it is evident that in his public ministry Jesus both “went about  . . . teaching . . . and preaching” (Matt 4:23; 9:35) and “went about doing good and healing” (Acts 10:38). In consequence, “evangelism and social concern have been intimately related to one another throughout the history of the Church . . . Christian people have often engaged in both activities quite unselfconsciously without feeling any need to define what they were doing and why”.

In addition, in this same chapter, he refers to the Lausanne document Evangelicalism and Social Responsibility: An Evangelical Commitment. This document is well worth reading. In summing up the relationship between evangelism and social-political involvement, Stott writes:

Social activity was said to be both a consequence of and a bridge to evangelism, and indeed the two were declared to be partners. Besides, they are united by the Gospel. “For the gospel is the root, of which evangelism and social responsibility are the fruits”.

Of the “partnership” between evangelism and social responsibility the Lausanne document states:

The are like the two blades of a pair of scissors or two wings of a bird. This partnership is clearly seen in the public ministry of Jesus, who not only preached the gospel but fed the hungry and healed the sick. In his ministry, kerygma (proclamation) and diakonia (service) went hand in hand. His words explained his works, and his works dramatized his words. Both were expressions of compassion for people, and both should be ours. Both issue from the lordship of Jesus, for he sends us out into the world to preach and to serve . . . Indeed so close is this link between proclaiming and serving, that they actually overlap . . . Thus, evangelism and social responsibility, while distinct from one another, are integrally related in our proclamation of and obedience to the gospel. The partnership is, in reality, a marriage.

Both these statements underscore the inextricable link between proclamation about the Kingdom (evangelism) and procurement of the Kingdom (social justice). Both of these activities define the mission of the church.

For earlier posts on the topic see “So what is the Kingdom of God?“ and my review of “What is the Mission of the Church?”