Social Justice and the Love of MoneySample

“Justice as Evangelism”

Christians should not just engage with other Christians. God calls us to be light to the world, not merely light to the light. As a result, we are going to engage other people with other worldviews. In fact, we have to engage people with other worldviews. Not only is this okay, but this is good.

I believe for social justice to work in a Christian context, we must be ready to share why we act, why we live justly. There are those who have grown so timid about their faith that they won’t engage in that conversation at all. This also is detrimental to the witness of Christ.

Doing good is beautiful, but let’s pray that doing good provokes, evokes, and fascinates people toward the gospel, prompting them to ask of you or me: Why are you? What are you about? What compels you to do what you do?

As Christians, we should be excited and ready to respond to such questions, in the hope that people may be drawn to Jesus. But let’s not go to the other extreme: We should not serve on the condition that recipients behave the way we deem right, or make our services contingent on someone’s theological and spiritual convictions. That is a distorted twenty-first-century version of colonialism.

* When have you been able to use actions of justice and grace to show the love of God to others? Have you ever missed the opportunity to share why you act out of love, leaving out the good news of God’s love?