Social Justice
“‘He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?’ declares the Lord.” (Jer. 22:15) These words were given to Shallum (also known as Jehoahaz), king of Judah by Jeremiah the prophet. Here the Lord is speaking about Shallum’s father, Josiah.
Josiah was one of the most righteous kings of Judah. It was during his reign that the Book of the Law was recovered and Judah renewed its covenant with the Lord. He reinstated the Passover. With these achievements one should take not that what God wanted Josiah’s son to remember him for was that, “He defended the cause of the poor and needy.”
Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets warned the descendants of Abraham that having mercy on the poor is one of the main attributes of righteousness. This is just one of many examples. Perhaps the two most well known found elsewhere are Hosea 6:6 (“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice”) and Micah 6:8 (He has showed you, O man, what is good....To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.)
This, however, was not just a theme of Old Testament prophets. It is also prevalent in the New Testament. James writes, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows...” (Jas. 1:27). Jesus Christ himself even says a great deal on the subject. One of the clearest (and most ignored) of such passages is the parable of the sheep and the goats.
Let me begin by recognizing that there are many interpretations of this passage. However, I feel the reason there are so many interpretations is that people secretly don’t want the passage to say what it actually says. The message is not difficult, at least as far as understanding what it says. It is, however, difficult in applying, especially in our materialistic society.
What the parable basically says is that the righteous who are allowed to enter the Kingdom of Heaven are those who help the poor and needy. Those who do not are not allowed to enter. The criteria listed are: providing food, drink, clothes, and shelter; looking after the sick, and visiting those in prison.
This parable comes after the parables of the virgins and the talents. The relatively undisputed meanings of both is that we need to be prepared for the Lord’s second coming. There is no indication in Matthew’s account that the subject has changed. The warning in the sheep and the goats is to be prepared for judgment day. We are to do this by caring for those in need. We know by Christ’s language that, at the very least, this is a message God takes very seriously.
It should be obvious that, as Christians, God requires us to have the social responsibility of looking after those in need. Unfortunately, this is a responsibility the church has all but ignored in recent years. Especially taking into account the incredible wealth of our culture, we should be doing more.
Over the past few months I’ve done a lot of thinking about why we have let our responsibility die. One hundred years ago the church in the United States led the fight in the so-called “war on poverty”. Since then the church has all but disappeared from the front lines.
One thing I have observed is the attitude that “it’s the government’s job.” Politically liberal Christians have stated that the government has the resources, and therefore the responsibility. They, therefore, will support the government in its endeavors. By doing so, however, they no longer play the active role in helping those in need.
Political conservatives, on the other hand, all too often, look at the government which they no longer approve of, and automatically reject every big-government policy. The attitude becomes “since the government is trying to help the poor, the poor must be bad and something to be ignored.”
These may not be the exact thoughts of liberals or conservatives, but they have become the over-all prevailing attitudes. Christians on all ends of the political spectrum need to re-align their thinking to match that of Christ Jesus. The simple fact is that we need to help those in need, and not through some middle-man, but directly.
Before you brush this essay off, thinking that it does not really apply to you, ask yourself this: “When is the last time I visited a prison to minister to the inmates?” For the majority of Christians, the answer is, “Never.”
The fact is that many prisoners are itching to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. They have hit rock-bottom and are intensely longing for a chance to turn to God. They need to have the love of Christ demonstrated to them. If you talk to prison wardens, most of them, no matter how far from Christ they themselves are, look forward to prison ministries visiting their facilities. The fact is that Jesus Christ changes lives. I have met several former criminals who “met Jesus” while in prison and have since turned their lives around. Yet, how can they turn their lives around if they do not hear the wonderful message that we have been keeping to ourselves?
The same is true of those in poverty. It isn’t government hand-outs that turn their lives around. It isn’t long soup kitchen lines in church basements. It is Jesus Christ. Go out. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Nurse the sick. Visit the prisoner. Do all these things, but do them with a message, the message that can truly help them in their need. Care for the physical without ignoring the spiritual, and do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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