Reading through the Old Testament it’s hard not to notice the prophet’s fiery rhetoric over Israel’s covenent unfaithfulness. Amos and Micah were not alone in voicing God’s displeasure and rebuke for Israel’s infidelity which included neglect of justice for the poor and powerless. Though often hopeful and framed with God’s gracious mercy, OT prophecy ends with the Lord speaking through the prophet Malachi reminding us that he will judge all manner of iniquity and oppression, including depriving foreigners of justice (3:5).
This brought to mind a longstanding tension in Evangelicalism between proclamation and demonstration of the gospel with its social implications. I doubt the tension will ever be resolved on this side of heaven, and that’s okay. That’s life. On the one hand, it is paramount that the good news must be communicated so the hearer can understand. As Paul says, “And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14). On the other hand, Jesus says that when he returns, he will separate people based on their faith, as evidenced by one’s actions. Notably, social actions that aid the poor, the hungry, foreigners, and prisoners are explicitly mentioned (Matt 25:35).
Here’s a helpful distinction. Most of us do not consider it controversial to engage in acts of mercy or support others who do, whether individually or with a larger organization like Samaritan’s Purse, a local homeless shelter, or a pregnancy help center. But these good actions are mainly charitable in nature with direct social implications. The rub seems to come when we seek to engage in change that challenges established structures and institutions that, even unconsciously, perpetuate unfair treatment of the poor and marginalized (e.g. access to quality education and healthcare, criminal justice system). This suggests a fundamental imbalance within my evangelical tribe between proclamation and demonstration of the power of the gospel to make right wrongs on a larger scale. But isn’t the larger-scale social action merely an example of working on a cure and prevention of disease versus treating a symptom of an illness? Both are needed, but which is better in the long run? For example, feeding the hungry is good, but creating jobs for them is better. Or take building a wall to prevent illegal entry into the US, which is comparable to a bandaid for a complex illness that requires major surgery.
I recall a conversation with a friend who shared that a highly respected Evangelical leader had warned him about not getting involved with “social justice” activities. What? To be fair, I don’t believe he was suggesting we not care for the poor and vulnerable or not work to right societal wrongs. It was probably a reaction to woke social justice activism untethered to a coherent Biblical ethic of right and wrong, good and evil. This was the historic problem when mainline Protestant churches became liberal in the last century, moving away from core tenets of the historical Christian faith, like the death and resurrection of Jesus. The gospel was more about social uplift but disconnected from the supernatural redemption of the soul. It was mainly about political liberation and hardly at all about sin, repentance, and spiritual salvation.
But all justice is social justice because that is where we live our lives. To follow Jesus means we must try to align all things with God’s purposes in a fallen world. To restore a measure of shalom that was lost in the Fall. But not forever. Israel repeatedly failed to uphold this standard, which is the heart of the OT civil laws. And they were justly punished. The New Testament puts the same moral requirements on us who follow Jesus. The law of love towards people cannot be separated from unfair systems and structures that embody injustice, whose burden falls predominantly on vulnerable populations with little power to change things. When Jesus entered the scene, one of his first acts of public ministry was this remarkable declaration of his mission and purpose in Luke 4:18. He says he has come to fulfill prophecy written in Isaiah (61:1-2 & 58:6). “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed…”. This mission addresses the physical and spiritual dimensions of our lives.
The social implications of this are astonishing, especially for the poor, who represented a wide range of vulnerable people in the OT, like widows, orphans, foreigners, and other social outcasts. What is even more radical is that Luke then shows how Jesus begins to build his kingdom by including women, healed lepers, tax collectors, and all sorts of marginalized people. The good news was especially good news to them. As the lamb of God, he takes away the sin of the world and ushers in his upside-down kingdom, in which “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:52-53).
History is full of examples of Christians leading the fight to dismantle unfair and unjust systems that we now take for granted but, at the time, were controversial, from Wilberforce’s decades-long battle to outlaw slavery in Great Britain to Christians leading the struggle for women’s right to vote in the US. There was marching for voting rights and the removal of racist Jim Crow laws in the American South. These days, Martin Luther King Jr is commonly viewed by white Evangelicals as a courageous martyr who was devoted to civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race or color. His famous “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” is an eloquent Biblical response to white Southern pastors who opposed his methods of peaceful protests and civil disobedience. Billy Graham and MLK were said to be friends. Though Graham was also a public ally of King, he later regretted not joining him in the Selma voting rights marches. Most recently, the fruit of 50 years of social justice activism on behalf of the unborn, resulted in the repeal of grievous moral wrongs represented by Roe v. Wade.
A recent article in Christianity Today discussed social justice in the context of the 4th Lausanne Congress for World Evangelization held in South Korea. The first was fifty years ago, in 1974, when nearly 3,000 Christian leaders traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland, at the behest of American evangelist Billy Graham and British theologian John Stott. In the final version of the still-influential Lausanne Covenant signed by Evangelical leaders from 150 countries, the writers distinguished the work of proclaiming the gospel, centered on God’s message to mortals in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, from the task of social justice: “Here too we express penitence both for our neglect and for having sometimes regarded evangelism and social concern as mutually exclusive. Although reconciliation with man is not reconciliation with God, nor is social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation, nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty”.
One of the many issues today is the fair and proper treatment of immigrants. I acknowledge that this is a complex issue and there is more than one way to view it based on Biblical principles. On the one hand, it is proper to care about national security and the enforcement of just laws. On the other hand, our current system is broken and in need of significant reform. It is unfair and serves neither the interests of the United States nor the needs of men and women seeking asylum, refuge, and opportunities for a better life. I just spoke with a friend at another church who reported it took ten years to get the legal paperwork in proper order so that their Mexican pastor could be completely legal. I know of another case in which it took over four years to reunite a family when asylum was completely legal. Threatening to deport hard-working immigrants and refugees is not the answer. Fixing an antiquated, patchwork of immigration laws is the right and just thing to do.
Meanwhile, we won’t have anything resembling perfect social justice in this life. Still, we can continue to strive for better justice that lessens evil, promotes human flourishing, and works to restore the shalom of God until Jesus returns and makes all things new!