What does God require of us in acts of mercy and social concern?
Discussion question for February 5, 2010.
Evangelical church members tend to be conservative in their politics and world view. From a Christian point of view, how do we navigate between acts of mercy, social concern, socialism, and communism? How can we fix a balance between being a helping hand and being a dependence-building handout?
Here’s my summary of our discussion.
Jesus taught the disciples that the poor would always be with us, during which time He was quoting the law from the Old Testament. There will always be an opportunity for anyone to show mercy and kindness to other human beings. God commands that we do so as a demonstration of His love for us, and our ability to love.
There seems to be risk in recent times that individuals are transferring the responsibility of caring for others away from themselves. Relying on the government of a country or a church (denomination) to provide social programs may be a way to get the job done, but only if the job is taking care of others. I believe job #1 to be showing love, even though the outcome will never be complete in this world (taking care of social problems).
Should we brand our generosity with the Gospel? Some people use an act of mercy as a method for spreading the good news. A contribution or gift then comes along with a message: this is being done in the name of the Lord. The message may be overt or subtle, but is it necessary? The principles of demonstrating love did not require this as part of the delivery method. However, there is good evidence from Jesus’ ministry that He was more concerned about reaching the root problem rather than the sinful consequences. So, He forgave a man’s sin as well as heal his paralysis.
We identified a cultural concept among ourselves as American Christians. We are interested in getting to the root of the problem and fixing it. We also believe that one person can make a difference. So we carry the expectation that if we (as one individual) are trying to fix the problem then there should be some hope that the real problem will be addressed. This could restrict our obedience to the call for mercy when we add the condition that we must believe it will do some “good”.
The Christian challenge is to be obedient to the impulse God places on our heart, and then to act. We must trust that the transformation of that person or people group is up to God, and our best efforts are insufficient of themselves to make lasting change. Trusting God to administer the overall plan leaves us free to play any small part that He chooses, perhaps even unwittingly.
God requires us to trust and obey.