Jared Wilson:
For those who would say we should care for the poor, but for the Christian poor, not necessarily the poor of the world, I offer but two objections:Read the rest.
a. What do we do with the parable of the Good Samaritan, in which the "bad guy," the outsider, is made the hero of the story? This parable is given in response to the question "Who is my neighbor?" Doesn't this story, even if it were all we had as a clue of who to care for, say something radical about our scope of concern?
b. The mission of Jesus Christ was to love you and I while we were most decidedly not Christians. We were poor in spirit, enemies of Christ and his kingdom, and he offered his body for us anyway. Is it even Christian, then, to say we will only care for those who are like us? For some reason it doesn't occur to us to question foreign missionaries who give of themselves, even to the point of death, for the lost and the pagan overseas. But stateside we give the unsaved scraps from the table.
Yes, the riches of Christ is all the satisfaction a sinner needs, and we must never obscure or dilute that good news, even with works that are good. If silver and gold have we none, "such as we have" is nonetheless eternally precious. But if we have the silver and gold, shouldn't we give that too? Some may think that to be so free is to obscure the real pearl of great price. But in a delicious biblical irony, loving generosity doesn't show we think money is important, but rather that we find money cheap in comparison to the treasure of Christ.
What I wrote in an earlier post applies here as well in terms of the connection between good works and good deeds. Unbelievers HAVE to see our good deeds (Matt. 5:16, 1 Peter 2:12)
Do we really want to say that the demonstration of the Gospel is not as important as is declaration? Yes, no one ever gets saved through good deeds, but we should not diminish the role of deeds in how our declaration is received. If our deeds are not to be emphasized then why not just stand on the street corner with a bullhorn?
5 comments:
I have one thing to say about the American Church, especially large, famous ones. Millions and millions of dollars are spent on CATHEDRALS to honor themselves. Jesus said do not honor yourselves, instead feed my sheep.
I think David Vandrunen's stuff, especially his new Living in God's Two Kingdoms (Crossway, 2010) makes a good case that the concern of the Church should be the poor within the its own members and the concern of individual Christians can and should include beyond the poor of the their community. It is part of the "what is the mission of the Church?" question. It is similar to what Kevin DeYoung has been saying quite a bit and, I think, will show up in his book with Greg Gilbert.
Whether you agree with VanDrunen and others or not, I think they bring up some helpful concerns that many "missional" (I say that positively) types seem to ignore.
I appreciate all the Scriptures listed in both posts...esp. thought of the Good Samaritan. That passage came to mind this week as I was writing over James 4:17...So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. All across the earth, God has placed in the hearts of unbelieving people to feel compassion for the poor baby starving in Africa. Angelina Jolie can feel the rightness of helping eradicate AIDS. For us to somehow declared we are out of this God placed compassion for fellow man is to disregard them as in His image. If for no other reason alone that the fact that they bear the image of my Father, I must do good...and I know it. Failure therefore is sin. Those men knew as every man would that the man needed help. That's all it takes to qualify me as the neighbor in the story.
But others:
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:10
See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
1 Thessalonians 5:15
Add the verses to help the sojourners...from who knows where...just passing through. Like these:
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:18-19
Then there's Jesus...heals 10 lepers, only one returns praise for it. Feeds 5,000 men + families and still after the end of His life, he's got about 500 followers. In fact, no matter how you look at it, the miracles He did, the help He provided couldn't have been just to His sheep.
Three times in Matthew (9:36, 14:14, 15:32) Jesus saw the crowds...not his disciples...the crowds and "had compassion". To say, I'm exempt from doing the same is to nullify the very word disciple.
Thanks for pressing us hard on this.
I have a hard time understanding the hard line of demarcation between what individuals are called to do and what institutions are called to do. Just where I am at right now.
I believe the original intent of our Lord for His church was that we be non-institutional. The Church is to be a living organism, the alive-in-this-world body of Christ. It was never supposed to be an institution. Jesus avoided all attempts to make Him king, to create an institutional reign. Rather He called us to walk as He walked- along a long and dusty road. On that road Christians are called to be leaders in serving one another, loving neighbors as ourselves, that is to work at a grassroots level. Institutional Christianity often shields us from encountering the world as we are supposed to; it gives us a place to hide from the world and still look good. Our Lord calls us to get our hands dirty when we touch the lepers and the beggars of the world. See 1John 3:17
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