The Church and Social Justice

Mercy

The church is not only commanded to tell others about Jesus, which is evangelism, the church is commanded to love the world through action, which is called mercy mission or social justice. To heal the heart of a broken city, God’s people would need to be equipped and understand that to love Jesus is to also love the world that Jesus came to save. No professional mission or missionary can touch the brokenness in that given culture but the church. God calls the church to love the culture and people in the place He has put them. When the church goes on mission, the kingdom of God is come to that place through the people of the church (Matt. 4:23). This means that not only must the people of God present the good news of Jesus, they must also show the love of Jesus through caring for the poor, providing help for the helpless, and freeing the captives (Luke 4:18-19). The church has two hands and the church must use both hands in its mission or the mission is incomplete. In the right hand the church has the good news of Jesus and the love of Jesus in the Gospel through words. In the left hand the church has the good news of Jesus and the love of Jesus in action. Both hands must go together because if one hand is only played the Gospel is incomplete. The church must use both words (evangelism) and actions (mercy mission) or else the Gospel has plenty of ground to be rejected on. So the church must love the others with their possessions and care for the poor in the culture (Lev. 19:9-18). The church must love the least of the people in the culture and care for others who cannot care for themselves (Matt. 25:31-46). The church must be a “good Samaritan” and look out and provide for the dying and hurting in the culture that God has placed the church (Luke 10:25-37). Lastly, the church must be a grace based generous community sent on mission to infiltrate the broken and spiritual dark culture and shine the light of Jesus through action (2 Cor. 8-9). The church must remember that faith is not only words but faith in action and love for Jesus in action (James 2).